Christopher Nolan Film Savaged by Ultimate ‘Odyssey’ Expert Emily Wilson
Renowned classicist and translator Emily Wilson recently released a scathing review of the new Christopher Nolan film based on Homer’s The Odyssey. Despite Nolan citing Wilson’s translation as a primary inspiration for his work, Wilson expressed deep dissatisfaction with the final product in The London Review of Books. She described the film as a loud, chaotic display that lacks any sense of human scale or emotional weight.
Wilson specifically criticized the script, labeling the writing as abysmal and the narrative structure as gimmicky. She noted that while Nolan drew from her work to characterize Odysseus as a wily strategist, the film failed to capture the depth of the original poem regarding war, history, or the complexities of human relationships. She remarked that the characters lack convincing motivations and that the production values fail to ground the story in reality.
Nolan previously told the press that he drew direct inspiration from the opening line of Wilson’s translation, but Wilson appeared skeptical that the director engaged with the text beyond that initial sentence. She humorously suggested that she wished she had earplugs while watching the film, contrasting her view with the movie’s massive commercial success at the box office.
Despite her harsh critique of the filmmaking, Wilson admitted some gratitude for the project. She noted that the film has caused a surge in sales for her translation of The Odyssey and other versions of the classic text. She hopes this renewed public interest might encourage academic institutions to preserve their literature and history departments, even if the film itself falls short of the source material’s literary merit.
Currently, the film has grossed over $652 million worldwide just two weekends after its release. While Wilson remains critical of the execution, the intersection of big-budget cinema and ancient literature continues to spark conversation across the film industry and academia alike.