Translator Emily Wilson on Nolan and the movie
As in his previous films, Nolan is interested in the discontinuities of space and time, in magic, tricks, craft, technology, rivalry, substitution, masks, miscommunication, what we remember and what we choose to forget. Yet again, survival is portrayed as a kind of triumph. Yet again, there are long, claustrophobic scenes of drowning and near-drowning, and technically impressive episodes in which buildings are engulfed in flames and vehicles explode. Yet again, we watch a male character’s desperate quest to recover and/or avenge a female love object. 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. Without a tub of wax for my ears – which Himesh Patel’s ever anxious Eurylochus, Odysseus’s doomed right-hand man, uses to sail safely past the Sirens – I was exposed to the full din of thumping sticks, staffs, swords and clashing armour, thunderbolts, crashing waves, grunts, screams, toppling palaces and burning temples. But unlike Matt Damon, the wax-free Odysseus who is tied to the mast as he is conveyed past the Sirens (naked ladies reclining on some uncomfortable-looking rocks), I gazed at the shipwrecks and bloodbaths without any agony of emotion. My eyes stayed dry, even for Argos the dog – whose adorableness as a puppy is predictably amped up to suit our animal-loving times. If only the human characters had been treated with such serious attention. ... There are more female characters than in most Nolan movies, thanks to the source material. But none of them has much to say, in contrast to the characterisations in the poem. Homer’s Calypso has a wonderfully outraged, operatic speech about divine double standards: male gods can kidnap and rape any mortal woman they desire, but when a goddess tries it, Zeus and his cronies scupper her chances. It’s a clever and comical distortion of the mythological ‘facts’: the poem’s listeners know that it is primarily Athena (a female deity) who is taking Calypso’s mortal victim away from her (Hermes, whom she’s complaining to, is merely the messenger) – and Eos, goddess of the dawn, as we’ve been reminded only a few lines earlier, has not been prohibited by the divine patriarchy from holding on to Tithonus. Charlize Theron’s Calypso looks gorgeous, but she is never angry, never funny, not skilled in rhetoric, and never consumed by lust for her scraggly mortal victim. She’s an unpaid therapist, soothing the soul of the bedraggled, PTSD-ridden Odysseus with drugs, and graciously listening to his disjointed tale of woe. https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man
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Message Thread | This response ↓
 Apologies if there’s a thread I missed, but I fucking loved The Odyssey (sp). - nash July 20, 2026, 13:48:30
- Very good movie, enjoyed it * - TarheelIllini 6 hours ago
- TIL that Odysseus died like a combination of King Laius and Steve Irwin - Sammich July 29, 2026, 9:32:50
- Translator Emily Wilson on Nolan and the movie - Potomac July 28, 2026, 12:15:06
- Have tickets for IMAX next Friday at 10. Earliest show I could get that wasn't in the front 3 rows* - ECEIllinois July 28, 2026, 0:47:44
- Maybe the loudest movie I’ve ever seen * - MC July 27, 2026, 23:53:16
- Saw it in 4D in DC. Bad ass. Gonna hit up 70mm back in AZ* - uofi1998 July 25, 2026, 16:58:22
- Emily Wilson on being "the woman who translated Odyssey" - Potomac July 25, 2026, 14:38:27
- Had to postpone my viewing today* - TarheelIllini July 23, 2026, 10:46:37
- I’ll put this here - what is the movie theater etiquette for the row circled here - OB25 July 23, 2026, 10:25:58
- Musk says he’ll make an AI version of the Odyssey by the end of the year - biclops July 22, 2026, 18:46:14
- Good. Nobody wants to see an unauthentic cyclops* - bbonb July 23, 2026, 11:34:56
- Imagine having a trillion dollars and focusing on this - illini July 23, 2026, 10:08:54
- Hilarious that some people think he's a genius. * - doubledown July 23, 2026, 7:47:17
- oOo - KingTalkyTiki July 22, 2026, 20:56:36
- Making the Odyssey "historically accurate" is NOT FUCKING HISTORICALLY ACCURATE. - Sammich July 22, 2026, 20:48:49
- ………….ok?* - VIV July 22, 2026, 19:14:58
- Rosie O'Donnell should seek a preemptive injunction. - complainant July 22, 2026, 18:57:29
- This might be an even stupider manufactured outrage than Obama’s tan suit.* - DT July 22, 2026, 18:51:11
- Seeing it tomorrow morning, looking forward to it!!!!* - TarheelIllini July 22, 2026, 10:50:57
- Google maps. I chuckled…. - LeatherneckIllini July 22, 2026, 10:39:25
- Probably being paid to like it* - gvibes July 21, 2026, 0:37:01
- Yep. Incredible. Can’t wait to watch it again.* - voiceofreason July 20, 2026, 22:33:23
- fantastic, but geez was it LOUD! Now get off my lawn* - Phytynlini July 20, 2026, 22:02:22
- That was awesome. From when he leaves (sp) - illini July 20, 2026, 19:53:09
- The weekend & evening shows at my local IMAX basically have only front row seats available - biclops July 20, 2026, 16:37:02
- Apparently people are wearing toga's to the movie. * - osklister July 20, 2026, 15:30:10
- cringe* - VIV July 20, 2026, 15:30:47
- how's the violence level for an 11 y/o? - Gene Parmesan July 20, 2026, 15:00:16
- (sp) - VIV July 20, 2026, 15:08:35
- I don't think I can sit in a theater that long* - Sammich July 20, 2026, 14:46:12
- Strongly considering catching it in 4dx...deciding between that and IMAX.* - ISeeDeadHawkeyes July 20, 2026, 14:16:02
- Will probably catch it Friday ( im off work) or Saturday * - DanSaint July 20, 2026, 14:10:02
- Fucking* - Stu July 20, 2026, 14:03:38
- also loved it (sp) - VIV July 20, 2026, 14:02:34
- So good. Still thinking about it three days later, will probably see it again - Blazer July 20, 2026, 13:59:37
- Same. Glad I went and saw it in iMax. * - Tuscy July 20, 2026, 13:58:17
- Did you do imax for it? Trying to decide if it’s worth the extra drive* - CoronaTheirAss July 20, 2026, 13:57:07
- Agreed. It was great* - bjl63 July 20, 2026, 13:55:16
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on July 28, 2026, 12:15:06, in reply to "Apologies if there’s a thread I missed, but I fucking loved The Odyssey (sp)."
- osklister July 23, 2026, 11:00:53