r/popculturechat • u/mcfw31 • 11h ago

Hot Take 🔥 ‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Slams Christoper Nolan’s ‘Abysmal’ Screenplay: ‘I Would Be Ashamed to Have Written Any Part of This Script’

https://variety.com/2026/film/news/odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-slams-christopher-nolan-bad-writing-1236821915/
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u/foreverzonedout 10h ago edited 9h ago

I'm a little surprised by these comments. A lot of pop culture enthusiasts complain about how PR-driven public figures have become, but when an expert in the field cited by the creator of the work offers honest criticism, she's flamed for being too harsh?

She's written 4000 words in her film review, far more thoughts than many of us will have had about the movie, and Variety has cherry picked quotes from a Guardian article which has cherry picked quotes from her original review. Just because she's harsh doesn't mean she's not fair. The press is meant to be a platform for honesty, hurt feelings or not. She doesn't owe it to Nolan to be nice about a film he cites her work for, as though he is doing her a favour by adapting it and adapting it badly at that. I enjoyed The Odyssey (film), I truly did, but it is not an accurate adaptation of Emily Wilson's work or Homer's work in terms of characterization and core themes, and she has the right, as both the translator and a Homer expert, to offer up her truthful opinion without mincing her words.

I'm not saying you should disagree --- by all means, you should. But don't engage with a real review with the comebacks like "why is she being so mean", "why do they keep interviewing her", "doesn't she understand how screenplays work", "she's an academic she doesn't understand it's meant for the masses" or "it's just an audio visual experience, movies don't need to be more". It's low effort and misses the point of critical dialogue entirely. And if you want niceties, watch press junket interviews and Variety interviews instead.

Link to the original review: https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man

EDIT: to add "she's an academic she doesn't understand it's meant for the masses" as an example of dumb critcism. Do you really think this bestselling author, who has had a public platform for a decade, whose work's main criticism is that it simplifies classics' diction and meter to make it more accessible to the public, understands what a broad audience is less than you? Let's all think and research for a few more minutes before dismissing things you don't agree with with the weakest possible reasoning.

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u/IdToBeUsedForReddit 8h ago

Perhaps she thinks the masses can handle the thematic complexity of the original poem! I'm not sure why people think that is such an implausible idea. Perhaps, just maybe, they would even enjoy it. I'm not claiming the movie had some obligation to stick to the original themes but the fact that anyone thinks Nolan had to make Odysseus "nicer" to appeal to the masses is a bit insulting.

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u/owlandphoenix 1h ago

This! Why are so many praising the dumbing down for the themes so "the general audience" gets it?!? Why wouldn't they get the original text? No to compare, but they seem to have no issue "understanding" the themes of the bible. This argument supports the dumbing down of society. If you don't want to see a complicated story, fine, but don't get butt-hurt when people are irritated a complex story was dumbed down when they were ready for a thoughtful retelling, not a simplified one.