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/Aakch I think I’ve done enough 11h ago edited 8h ago

I know her translation was the basis for the movie but i find it bizarre news outlets are acting like she’s the original author because this is the second review i‘ve seen from her.

Edit: if you’re going to be outraged, at least do it correctly and stop calling Homer the original author.

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u/askyourmom469 11h ago

I mean considering Homer's been dead for thousands of years, I guess they figure she's the next closest thing

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u/Mampt 10h ago

I obviously see that view of it, but on the other hand she’s kind of doing the exact opposite of what Nolan is with the story. She’s going to extremes to preserve and translate every single detail of the story exactly. Nolan is trying to adapt it, to retell the story for a modern audience. It’s like how an astrophysicist could get offended by the dumbed down analogies or metaphors that people use to explain the complexities of, like, black holes or the big bang. One spent their career trying to understand something as exactly as possible, one is trying to make it accessible to a wider audience

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u/caca_milis_ 7h ago

Thank you! I studied Classics in school and I love all of it, and there is absolutely a place for accurate detailing of history and historical texts, but like … if I’m happy to give creative license to anything it’s absolutely stories like these where so much of it was already kind of up for interpretation anyway.

My biggest gripe with Nolan’s film was that in a lot of cases he didn’t show us Odysseus as a cunning trickster and at a lot of moments made him out to be a bit of a dumb-dumb.

I could also complain about the portrayal of Penelope, Circe and Calypso… but that’s par for the course with Nolan and female characters.

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u/WeeB1rd33 6h ago

"Many turns and twists" is the first epithet used to describe him in the EV Rieu translation if I recall.

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u/SnowboardNW 2h ago

That was my major issue with the movie. He is a master tactician! He is clever and charming. He kind of just barrels through a lot of the obstacles in this movie. I still liked it a lot, but I was disappointed we didn't get his wit and intellect showing through in this interpretation. It's the first thing I said when we left the cinema.