The Odyssey translator criticises Christopher Nolan's film | indy100

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Christopher Nolan's The Odyssey is the film of the moment, but classicist Emily Wilson who translated Homer's ancient Greek poem in 2017 has criticised the film adaptation, saying it has "nothing convincing to say."

The two-time Academy Award winner had cited Wilson's translation during an interview with Empire, noting how he used the opening line of her translation (“Tell me about a complicated man”) to bring his version of the epic to the big screen.

However, it appears Wilson - an author and professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania - isn't a fan of Nolan's adaptation, as she said, “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”

Wilson gave a blistering review of the almost three-hour long film in her essay published by the London Review of Books.

“I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters. But ‘The Odyssey’ features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality … the film’s vision is too confused, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver what it half-promises in terms of big ideas – although it is very good at conveying big bangs and big giants,” she wrote.

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“Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ lacks many of the elements that make the poem great. It has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warrior’s glorious return and the lives of his family, adversaries, comrades, friends and neighbors. It lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth. Its narrative structure is gimmicky. The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.”

In another interview with The Times, Wilson was just as scathing with her verdict, “It didn’t land emotionally for me at all. Which I think is partly about the fact that, unlike Homer, it’s not very well written.”

“The characters don’t have the kind of depth the Homeric characters have. I felt, ‘Do I really care if this guy gets back to his wife?’ You haven’t given me any reason to.”

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However, Wilson did acknowledge in her essay how the film has brought new eyes and audiences to the classic.

“The release of ‘The Odyssey’ is still an event to celebrate,” Wilson said. “This epic is bringing audiences back to cinemas … translations of ‘Odyssey,’ including mine, are flying off the shelves … [and] perhaps the film will persuade a few college administrators not to cut their literature, language and history departments.”

“Nolan is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful,” she concluded.

How much has The Odyssey made at the box office?

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After two weekends in cinemas, The Odyssey has made an impressive $650 million globally at the box office - 362 million internationally and $289 million domestically in the US.

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