{"id":803886,"date":"2026-08-05T21:00:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:00:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803886\/"},"modified":"2026-08-05T21:00:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-05T21:00:09","slug":"the-odyssey-translator-emily-wilson-slams-nolan-again-emotionally-empty","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/803886\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Odyssey’ Translator Emily Wilson Slams Nolan Again: Emotionally Empty"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tEmily Wilson<\/a>, the author whose 2017 translation of \u201cThe Odyssey<\/a>\u201d was an influence for Christopher Nolan<\/a> during his own adaptation process, is doubling down in her critiques of the director\u2019s blockbuster epic. In an op-ed written for The Atlantic<\/a>, Wilson called out Nolan\u2019s \u201cOdyssey\u201d for being \u201cemotionally empty.\u201d She previously torched the movie <\/a>in a review published by the London Review of Books in which she called Nolan\u2019s screenplay \u201cabysmal\u201d and added: \u201cI would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.\u201d <\/p>\n

\n\tIn her op-ed for the Atlantic, Wilson explains how one of her big issues with Nolan\u2019s movie is its approach to \u201cZeus\u2019 law.\u201d The phrase is repeated numerous times by characters in the movie and is a variation of the Golden Rule: \u201cWe must host beggars and strangers kindly, to \u2018do as we would be done by,\u2019 and because they could be gods in disguise.\u201d Nolan\u2019s movie reckons with how Odysseus (Matt Damon) breaks Zeus\u2019 law by coming up with the plan for the Trojan Horse and executing it in an attempt to sack the city of Troy through a deception. But Wilson is not sold on Nolan\u2019s interpretation here.<\/p>\n

\n\tAs Wilson explains: \u201cThe horse is presented as the ultimate violation of the law of Zeus, because it entails wielding a weapon of mass destruction disguised as a gift\u2026 The horse is presented as breaking \u2018civilization\u2019 because it represents the moment when the good guy, Odysseus, echoes the behavior of the bad guy by being a deceitful, ungrateful guest. But the film does not explain what \u2018hospitality\u2019 has to do with a narrative situation in which the Greeks have been besieging Troy for 10 years already [which Nolan\u2019s movie does not depict]; the Trojans are not their hosts but their enemies in war. If the war is bad, it is nonsensical to suggest that the most important turning point is the use of the horse rather than Agamemnon\u2019s choice to invade Troy in the first place and Odysseus\u2019s choice to yield to the empire\u2019s demands. The visually impressive spectacle of the horse on a stunning stretch of pristine beach contributes to the narrative muddle: The Greeks have supposedly been encamped there for the past decade, yet it shows no sign of human habitation.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAccording to Wilson, Nolan\u2019s \u201cOdyssey\u201d is \u201cnot interested in the social or psychological questions of how people deceive and are deceived.\u201d She takes issue with the dissonance between the director\u2019s script and his direction. The screenplay \u201cgrandly insists on the importance of human kindness, while the camera shows us an entirely different set of values,\u201d she argues, explaining that Nolan\u2019s direction is mostly concerned with the \u201cmechanical challenge of moving objects through space,\u201d be it the Trojan Horse or ships or more.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cWhat matters cinematically are the logistics: the rolling of the horse uphill and the claustrophobic, waterlogged interior. Once the ambush of the Trojans begins, the camera lingers repeatedly not on the human actors but on the enflamed, toppling buildings and the great gates of the city, whose slow-moving mechanism is observed at great length,\u201d Wilson writes. \u201cThe script tells us loudly that people matter, but the camera shows us that what matters is the mechanical challenge of moving objects through space.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNolan\u2019s\u00a0Odyssey\u00a0is itself a kind of Trojan horse,\u201d she continued. \u201cThe script grandly insists on the importance of human kindness, while the camera shows us an entirely different set of values. In these times of hatred and misinformation, we need more than the \u2018apparent magic\u2019 of deceptive images. We need art that is truthful about the costs and the necessity of compassion, and that recognizes that a sense of spiritual superiority may not protect us from lies. These lessons are legible in Homer and Virgil, but are elided by Nolan\u2019s visually stunning, emotionally empty film.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tWilson, who is also a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, originally criticized <\/a>Nolan\u2019s adaptation for lacking \u201cpsychological, emotional, political and ethical depth.\u201d The author said the movie has \u201cnothing convincing to say.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cNolan\u2019s \u2018Odyssey\u2019 lacks many of the elements that make the poem great,\u201d Wilson wrote originally. \u201cIt has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warrior\u2019s 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tAudiences have not shared Wilson\u2019s dissatisfaction, as the movie received an \u201cA\u201d CinemaScore during its opening weekend and has turned into one of the year\u2019s biggest blockbusters at the box office. The film has earned a staggering $405 million domestically and $922 million worldwide through three weeks of release. <\/p>\n

\n\tWilson\u2019s criticisms were also derided by author Joyce Carol Oates, who slammed her on X <\/a>for attacking Nolan\u2019s movie.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cRather than disagreeing with interpretations of Homer in a collegial manner, this person, who has benefited enormously from Nolan\u2019s film, speaks in the crude language of MAGA folks attacking someone with ideas that differ from hers,\u201d Carol wrote. \u201cOne would expect a translator, of all people, beholden to a text, in service to a text, to be just a wee bit more thoughtful & respectful of others who are acting in good faith just as (she would claim) she is.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\tRead Wilson\u2019s full op-ed written for The Atlantic here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Emily Wilson, the author whose 2017 translation of \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d was an influence for Christopher Nolan during his…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":789238,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[15279,310631,88,12720],"class_list":["post-803886","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-christopher-nolan","tag-emily-wilson","tag-entertainment","tag-the-odyssey"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803886","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803886"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803886\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/789238"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803886"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803886"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803886"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}