When Christopher Nolan was promoting The Odyssey a few weeks ago, he shared a really funny story about his son humbling him. You see, Nolan closed himself off in his office to adapt the screenplay for The Odyssey, and his son came into the office and wondered where his father had put all of his Oscars (for Oppenheimer). Nolan told his son that he removed the Oscars from view because he didn’t want the pressure of writing a complicated script while eye-to-eye with all of that hardware. His son replied, “But you didn’t win for writing.” LMAO. You can be one of the greatest living directors and your kid is still going to kneecap you. I bring up this story because someone else had a complaint about Nolan’s writing: Emily Wilson, who did the 2017 translation of The Odyssey. Wilson wrote a scathing “review” of the film and one of the understatements of the year is that she loathed the screenplay. From the Guardian:
Emily Wilson, the classicist whose 2017 translation of Homer’s Odyssey was cited by Christopher Nolan in early publicity for his hugely successful adaptation of the poem, has roundly criticised the film, saying “it has nothing convincing to say” and that its “lacks psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth”.
In a scathing essay for the London Review of Books, Wilson writes: “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.”
Wilson adds: “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 neighbours. 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.”
Wilson also noted Nolan’s admiration for the opening line of her Odyssey translation: “Tell me about a complicated man” – but added: “I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script.”
Wilson, who is department chair and professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, also went on the attack in an interview with the Sunday Times, saying: “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.”
Nevertheless, Wilson acknowledged the impact the film is already having on cultural awareness of ancient Greek literature as well as cinema itself. Saying “the release of The Odyssey is still an event to celebrate,” she suggests: “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,” Wilson says, “is doing his best to get the general public reading again, and I am grateful.”
Fair or not? I think it’s fair. I would even go so far as to say that Nolan has never been a great screenwriter. His dialogue is often clunky, he uses amateurish tricks to introduce exposition and move the story along, and his female characters are always underdeveloped (if he even remembers that women exist in the first place). There’s a reason why his son’s burn came so easily – Nolan is a genius in many ways, but writing is not one of those ways. That being said, I actually think it was smart for Nolan to basically “dumb down” such complicated source material and make it digestible to a modern audience while still retaining the core story. Of course a literal classics professor and translator isn’t going to like that, but Wilson gives Nolan his flowers for reintroducing Greek mythology to a mainstream audience in 2026.
“There are no sex scenes and all the food looks horrible” – magnificent line.
lmao Emily Wilson went to TOWN on Nolan's The Odyssey https://t.co/ZYV2UERMR5 pic.twitter.com/Ic25VvzR4b
— Corey Atad (@CoreyAtad) July 27, 2026
Photos courtesy of Avalon Red, Cover Images.
-
- MANHATTAN, NEW YORK CITY, NEW YORK, USA – JULY 14: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan and Anne Hathaway wearing custom Prada with Bulgari jewels, styled by Erin Walsh arrive at the New York Premiere Of Universal Pictures’ ‘The Odyssey’ held at AMC Lincoln Square 13 on July 14, 2026 in Manhattan, New York City, New York, United States.,Image: 1116667695, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Pictured: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan, Anne Hathaway , Credit line: Image Press Agency/Image Press Agency/Avalon
-
- Christopher Nolan poses backstage with the Oscar® for Directing and Best Picture during the live ABC telecast of the 96th Oscars® at Dolby® Theatre at Ovation Hollywood on Sunday, March 10, 2024.,Image: 855771625, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no, Credit line: Avalon.red / Avalon
-
- Christopher Nolan attends the world premiere of “The Odyssey” at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square on July 06, 2026 in London, England.,Image: 1114880185, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Lounis Tiar/Avalon
-
- Christopher Nolan and Emma Thomas attending The Odyssey World Premiere at the Odeon Luxe in Leicester Square, London, United Kingdom,Image: 1115006704, License: Rights-managed, Restrictions: , Model Release: no , Credit line: Cat Morley/Avalon
-
- Cast attend the World Premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ at Odeon Luxe Leicester Square, London Featuring: Christopher Nolan, Emma Thomas Where: London, London, United Kingdom When: 06 Jul 2026 Credit: Steve Vas/Future Image/Cover Images **NOT FOR PUBLICATION IN GERMANY**
-
- Paris premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ at the Grand Rex theater Featuring: John Leguizamo, Charlize Theron, Lupita Nyong’o, Tom Holland, Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Zendaya, Emma Thomas and Christopher Nolan Where: Paris, France When: 08 Jul 2026 Credit: Sebastien Fremont/Starface Photo/Cover Images **UK AND USA RIGHTS ONLY**
-
- NY Premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ Featuring: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan, Anne Hathaway Where: New York, New York, United States When: 15 Jul 2026 Credit: Janet Mayer/INSTARimages.com
-
- Premiere of ‘The Odyssey’ at AMC Lincoln Square Featuring: Matt Damon, Christopher Nolan, Anne Hathaway Where: New York City, New York, United States When: 14 Jul 2026 Credit: Roger Wong/INSTARimages
Her father is AN Wilson and god does it ever show. If you want prissy, scathing, judgemental, uptight, arrogant, bitchy, grandiose superficiality void of empathy, or depth, see the Wilsons. I don’t know how she ended up in America. They probably think her attitude is a harmless British quirk, like an academic’s set of eccentricities. She didn’t write the Odyssey. Homer did. If you believe in the notion of an author, some people just believe it was an oral tradition, a legend that everyone who transcribes it has interpreted in a different way.
I love emily wilsons translations, particularly because of her introductions which go into depth about homer and the lack of evidence that he ever existed.
Her review is brilliantly thought out, imo, and she gives Nolan a lot of credit for the things he did well.
Critiques of writing are allowed! I feel like so many people take it as a blanket “this film sucks” instead of just an examination of one part of the movie. And a valid one, as Nolan is not the best writer AND cited her as an inspiration.
Things he did well like spark renewed interest in her book. I hope that hand sure tastes good.
I agree with her assessment of the film. It was a bunch of scenes from the Odyssey stapled together. And it was boring.
The sex and food line did take me out. Some points were made but some of her discussion of the actors of color in the film, well, maybe she should’ve let some poc talk about that bc it came across as very white British, let’s put it that way.
And the sex line made me think: Tell me you’ve never seen another Nolan film without telling me you’ve never seen another Nolan film
I don’t get why folks are out here acting as if she wrote the Odyssey. Ms. Wilson can have her opinion and Nolan’s works speaks for itself. I do find her tattoos distracting and her speaking in the dialect cringey.
To me, her criticism reads like it’s based on her love of Homer’s work, not some kind of ego-tripping about her own work. So yeah, I don’t get why people are acting like she thinks she wrote the Odyssey either.
I wonder how much of Wilson’s review is a mismatch of a scholar who had time to go deep on a 15,000 line poem and a scriptwriter and director who has to write a script for a three hour movie.
I don’t think Nolan would write a good sex scene so.I’m fine he didn’t try.
Yes, Nolan absolutely dumbed it down for a mainstream audience, many if not most of whom know little or nothing about Homer, The Iliad, The Odyssey or any of the ancient classics*. The point that his film has spurred interest in some of those works is on point. I totally agree that the food looked disgusting, and I too am grateful Nolan didn’t try to write any sex scenes. God. I felt the level of intimacy between Odysseus and Penelope before he left for Troy was perfect, and the attempted seduction between Antinous and Penelope effective. I’m happy enough with that.
*We’re just lucky they’ve survived in any form, honestly.
I agree. I didn’t have a problem with it. If I wanted academic and literal, I would have stayed home and read the poem (as translated, since it was an oral tradition).
100% agree. Nolan was making a commercial film—that’s a very different form of art than an epic poem written in iambic pentameter. They might be based on the same work but they’re not comparable at all.
just a pedantic fyi: The Odyssey was written in dactylic hexameter, not iambic pentameter.
@og bella – yes, Wilson’s translation is iambic pentameter, because that’s familiar to English speakers.
Yeah, I saw a comment that she’s comparing a 700 page work (or however many) and comparing it to a 165 page screenplay. Obviously its not going to be exact. Obviously things are going to be cut or edited or….adapted….to make it work for a movie. Any adaptation has things that are changed and things that stay the same, things are cut, etc. I almost feel like she’s too close to it to be able to see the movie objectively?
Plus Nolan saying at some point he read her translation seems to make it personal for her.
The Odyssey was written from a few centuries of oral tradition and it was an interpretation of the original poem. Studies and researchers have kind of decided on a version which is also an interpretation. I see nothing wrong or matter to critic on how an interpretation of the poem is done as ms. Wilson herself defend an interpretation. No original manuscript written by the great authors of Ancient Greece (such as Homer, Plato, or Sophocles) has survived. Partial texts exist on Egyptian papyrus and transcripts were done in the Middle-Age.
I think Nolan handles sex and violence very well, insofar as he doesn’t get graphic images out of it — it’s clearly there but it’s not used to titillate the audience. So you can take your kids to this film in good conscience and be assured they will take away the bigger picture lessons and morals and not be hopelessly distracted by prurient imagery. He’s a grown up. But the sex scenes (let’s say the two adults in bed scenes) between Odysseus and Penelope, before he leaves for Troy, and Calypso, on the island where he dallies seven years, could not be anything but observations of physical intimacy. And the food — fwiw — isn’t supposed to be appetising. Circe’s meal is for pigs, quite literally. The grub served to the suitors is — as one character observes — whatever is left, after they’ve raided the larder for two decades and emptied the wine cellar.
Oh my goodness I am so over the overwrought handwringing about this movie. You aren’t required to see it. And if you’re worried that people are going to learn the ” wrong” things about it from watching the sparks notes movie version of a 15,000 line poem, you are barking up the wrong tree.
It’s like people can’t just enjoy stuff for what it is anymore. Everything written is not going to be Pulitzer worthy, every movie is not going to be Oscar worthy, and every adaptation is not going to be a faithful rendering line by line of the source material.
Thank you! I hate how everyone has to have a take, like don’t see the movie. I think it is fair to say he made a mistake removing xyz with the understanding he’d have too.
Also Nolan has been honest he did make it in modern language so people would be interested and follow the main message of the story.
But if you don’t like that don’t see it. Not that hard. I think people just like to be mad.
People definitely do just like to be mad. But I’m also like, the movie is huge and successful and that’s going to invite discussion. And the bigger it is means that more people are seeing it and not every single person will love it. Not every critic is going to love it. But it’s more a testament to the success of the movie when everyone does have a take. It’s not an irrelevant piece of art.
Thank you!
Well she is welcome to try to sit down and write a screenplay that can be delivered on time and on budget. I hope this blows back on her a bit – you can be critical without being this level of bitchy.
There is a stench of sour grapes, “why didn’t he hire me and give me a cut of the profits” feel to this critique.
I have read at least 5 translations of The Odyssey including Ms Wilson’s. Hers was good, but not as satisfying as others. Her reading of it may be more accurate. I don’t read classical Greek. Nolan’s is ANOTHER telling of it. Yes, lots was left out. (Odysseus told the Cyclops his name was no man. Just before he left he told the Cyclops that he was Odysseus, conqueror of Troy.) His hubris was his downfall. If Nolan was to include all that was in the books the movie would be 10 hours long. I liked his interpretation of Odysseus as a PSTD victim. I didn’t get the way he said that Odysseus didn’t want to go home. But, it fit with his storyline. I loved the movie.
Of course no screenplay is going to equal Homer. Most interesting to me was the comment that the film is very much “middle brow” and that one of the defining features of middle brow is that it has to be understood by the audience the first time they hear/read/experience it. We don’t really have a lot of middle brow art anymore, intelligent works intended for a mass audience. Just like in the 50s, probably the high point for the American middlebrow, there were so many critics trashing the film of Hitchcock, Ford, et al. They were not taken seriously by serious people. Fascinating to watch that bubble up again.
Also, for an academic takedown, that really wasn’t so mean. Just letting the normies have a taste of it. It really felt like an entitled dude taking down a woman’s work on slightly unfair grounds. People should sit with that.
My main worry is that too many people are afraid to admit they like anything that’s been slammed too hard. Also, that a scholar of Ancient Greek can hate on a movie that hard and it can still be a very good film.
She’s not the only classics scholar to have said this – pretty much all of them agree in some way or another and none of them have said Nolan doesn’t have the right to tell the story how he wants. The thing is that Nolan has cherry-picked the story to deliver his personal message, ignored critical scenes, changed the characters’ personalities and added an ending which has no basis on anything.
I think it’s interesting that people are piling onto Wilson when she’s been lauded for her translation, it’s pace, accessible language and pro-feminist slant, especially since Nolan has said he was inspired by her translation.
She can have whatever opinion she wants, but the review is unfair. Nolan isn’t an academic — he’s making a movie that’s fun to watch in IMAX. He’s not writing with the same concerns she would have, nor should he be — that would make for a terrible film.
She’s not really talking about academics – she’s saying that the screenplay itself doesn’t make sense, most of the characters aren’t engaging and dramatic points fell flat. For me, Nolan’s Odysseus was flattened out and made much less fun to watch.
She also repeated the criticism that he dumb downed the female characters – something Nolan is well known for. Its been a long time since I read the poem but there are many strong female characters.
Making this into 1 movie was always going to be a challenge – telling the whole story could easily be either an 8 episode TV series or multiple movies.
She is free to criticize the script, and others are free to disagree with her take on it. I liked the movie, found the characters and storytelling interesting, and it certainly didn’t feel flat or not fun (this is coming from someone very familiar with different translations of the work). Adapting the Odyssey into a three hour movie without cutting swaths of it just isn’t going to happen, and I thought Nolan’s take on it was very engaging and an entertaining movie experience.
I read the original essay. She 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥 him.
Stories are meant to be told and retold in whatever medium the storyteller uses with whatever their POV. Oral tradition, prose, poetry with meter, fancy elite language versus vernacular, movies with visuals and sound, paintings — they’re all different media with their aspects. Wilson’s using her medium of written text to judge a movie is way mismatched. And basically we’re talking about a road trip story here.
Her passage of all the Black characters being the best Black friend was downright racist. I know she wanted to say magical negro. But that would have been a bridge too far. Hamish isn’t even Black. And the only loyal best friend Odyssey had was his servant. But, I guess she didn’t notice John is Latino. Typical white British woman.
And that was where she lost me. Bc what in the what.
Thank you! What she wrote was downright shameful. When her adaptation of The Odyssey came out, she was attacked by a lot of right wingers who denounced her version as woke. Yet oddly, she is starting to sound like the “free thinkers” who object to this type of casting under of keeping true to the story or even the “if you think about it, diverse casting is really racist because of X” just to avoid accusations of racism. I feel like some people defending her here didn’t really read it thoroughly because she embarrassed herself with that section alone.
He is getting millions of people in to see it many of who likely had no idea of the original source material. That is always a plus because as even Ms. Sour Pants admits, some of them will seek out the source afterward. And most grown-up people are very accustomed to having film adaptions being different to the book or poem source material because film is a very different medium and has to be made to appeal to the largest number possible in order to get made. And usually the complaints include the “dumbing down” of the material to suit the wider audience as well as altering aesthetics of clothing, hairstyles food etc to make it digestible for a modern audience, which I admit to hating in many cases. But I have given up complaining about it because why bother. No one is forcing me to go see endless Jane Austen remakes i.e and I don’t, and no one is being forced to see the Odyssey.
My favorite odyssey movie was O Brother, Where Art Thou. The Cohen brothers had reportedly never read it, just went on vibes. Her critique of the characters not wanting anything, or having real motivations, was the most damming one to me. That makes it sound extremely unsatisfying from a story perspective.
I love that movie. It remains one of my all time favorites. My father, who was born during the Depression and raised in the South, loved it too. We would quote the lines all the time. My kids know the soundtrack because I used to sing it to them before bed.
Not even George Clooney turning into a POS can ruin it for me.
Same! My boys loved the soundtrack and we had fun trying to find all the Odyssey connections.
I mean, she has done a well-regarded translation of the source material and is a Classics expert. So she’s entitled to her take on it. I kind of enjoy reading crotchety reviews. I’ll go see the movie anyway and form my own opinion, but it’s fun to see other perspectives, including scathing and snarky ones.
“The food looks terrible.” LMAO.
She certainly has the right to offer her opinion, particularly as Nolan said he was inspired by her translation. But her translation was for a different audience.
Some people who see the movie will seek out her translation, but most will not. Maybe that’s what she’s mad about?
She comes from a long line of writers and academics. She may see herself as a cool professor — with tattoos and all! — but she still lives in rarefied air.
I don’t know Wilson, but I know several classicists and they’re not living in rarified air. They’re just people who study a particular subject, but that doesn’t mean they don’t go to the movies or like popular culture. I don’t even like her translation all that much, but her name has been attached to this movie by Nolan – it’s been a form of unpaid marketing to bring academic gravitas to the film.
I think all academics, especially those at Ivies, are living in rarefied air.
It is like when Austen adaptations get critiqued based on the original text. Now I cannot stand the knightly version of P and P because it is using Bronte imagery on Austen text. It doesn’t mean it is a bad film but it is not a good adaptation of Austen text.
Commenting on whether or not it is a good adaptation of Homer’s text is the only place Wilson can comment, but she goes further and ignores how film is different. (I guess she didn’t take those courses about how text and film are different).
I agree about the character development. It is a movie for our time that speaks to current audiences. It was beautifully cast though Tom Holland was weak. I liked it.
I am so over hearing about the Odyssey. It’s a movie. See it or don’t. But I don’t need another think-piece about why Helen of Troy shouldn’t be black or why a Hollywood movie didn’t include this specific scene from this specific translation, etc. etc.
We watched Troy last night because some members of our household are seeing The Odyssey today, were unfamiliar with the story (they’re Asian) and wanted some background. I laughed out loud during the scene where they trash Apollo’s temple because the statues along the outer walls are clearly Nubian and Egyptian styles and this is the film all the “Helen can’t be black because there were no contact with Africa” people hold up as what Nolan should have done
There are always different requirements for the adaptation of a text to film. While the movie should be criticized on elements of the film, which includes the writing, someone who spent years working on translating Greek text to English probably doesn’t have the skills to make that critique because they would be unable to detach themselves from the details behind the text, much of which has to be altered to the different medium of film.
Also the British just love attacking anyone who is successful because it’s what they do.
I don’t know about that. Classics scholars go to the movies, too. She doesn’t need a PhD in filmmaking to say the food looked terrible and the characters had no chemistry. And, aside from her general right to criticize a movie, Nolan has been using her name with regard to this film. He’s been using her name, not as a random everyday audience member, but as the scholar whose work inspired him. I don’t see a problem with her saying, “hey, wait a minute.”
She is a professor in classics not in film. She has no expertise in the methods of making film or a screen play. Now I’m not saying that Nolan is the best writer, but she is a layperson in filmmaking but is using her expertise in the text to comment on the film, which is different and parlaying that expertise in the text as expertise in making film is deceptive.
I don’t understand this. Since when does someone have to go to film school in order to criticize a film? People swear by Rotten Tomatoes – did all those critics go to film school? How many here explaining the different between text and film are film school grads? It’s pretty obvious, isn’t it? Yet, Wilson is supposed to be so rarified that she doesn’t know the difference? And why wouldn’t personal expertise be a valid reason for not liking a film?
It’s so weird, like this woman is being slammed for not liking the film made by the big manly man. She can’t have an opinion without a raft of additional credentials?
People are treating her review with more seriousness than they would because of her translation of the text.
It does not make her an expert in film so her review, which makes a lot of personal attacks, is given far more heft than it should.
A professional film critic would never have submitted this review because it comes off as blog thoughts. She doesn’t understand the language of film any more than a random movie viewer. But her status as an academic is being used otherwise.
To explain it better, it is like a physicist giving an opinion on chemistry. It is not the same in terms of base of knowledge.
There was a tv mini-series about thirty years ago adapting The Odyssey to television. I might check it out and see how it goes. I’m not a Classics scholar so I have never read the poem in its entirety so I won’t have the informed opinion that Emily Wilson does but it should be interesting.
It’s been a long time since I watched it, but I remember it being very good. The cast was excellent and the effects were well done for their time. I need to dig out the DVD and watch it again so I can compare.
Nolan wrote to a global audience. The writer protests too much. The film was told using various mechanisms, it was never going to be a flat piece of literature and I need people who think otherwise to be serious.
Considering how many people are going to see the movie and how much it’s making, nobody seems to care about this guys opinion.
I’ve been trying to support Emily Wilson for years. I have both her translations in both hardback and audio book forms, I’ve recommended them to friends, and I followed this movie BECAUSE Nolan said he was using her translations. But damn, she really knows how to burn goodwill doesn’t she? Idk what part I missed but sex isn’t a huge part of the story- it’s certainly not integral to it- so I don’t mind that it’s gone. And various plot points getting left out MAKE SENSE from a film perspective. For ex, everyone is talking about how the cyclops scene left out the “nobody” joke… but when we got there, I was glad the entire sequence was changed because I’d hated slogging through it when I was reading the poem. I personally did not have any trouble understanding character motivations, and I think the adaptation had an interesting perspective on PTSD and consequences. Idk. Seems kinda like she’s trying to play off the manufactured outrage from pre-release, and I just wonder why. It’s like the LOTR movies vs books. There’s always going to be people that are mad that Tom Bombadill got left out, but just as many think the movies improved on the boring parts. They’re different mediums, with different concerns.
Yep. That’s the thing about adaptations, you are adapting it. Meaning that you’re taking it from one medium and mode of storytelling, to fit how you want to tell the story. It’s rare ( The Godfather, Shawshank Redemption) that the movie improves the original source material. And that’s true regardless of the source material whether it’s not being a faithful recreation of a Homeric classic, or Marvel movie leaving out tons of comic lore to make a movie pace better. Not have to have heaps of time explain in background.
I always view the source material and the adaptation as completely different works. And often encourage people that have enjoyed the adaptation to seek out the source material, but it’s no guarantee that you’re going to like it. Christopher Nolan’s job was to make a movie that people would enjoy, and since it’s made about 400 million dollars in 2 weeks enough people are enjoying it, so he did his job.
She has every right to criticize it as a classics professor, but if your criticism is based on this movie wasn’t a one-to-one translation for this very long and intense poem, I don’t think you’re going to be happy with any adaptation.
Movie versions are almost never as good as their books…not enough time to put in all the little details that make a story so satisfying. I won’t be seeing this movie because of the scene with the dog, but I am really glad the movie put these works back into public consciousness again. I read both The Odyssey and The Iliad as a teen but had no real appreciation for them. I just reread them thanks to the movie hype and I’m so glad I did!
It was utterly, abjectly boring, everything spoken in a monotone except primal screaming during some parts. The body horror was nauseating. None of it connected, for me. And I love Greek mythology.
Is it a good film? I’ll be seeing it shortly and decide. Nothing else is very relevant. Nolan’s a filmmaker not an academic. Is Gladiator an accurate depiction of Roman history? Don’t care. It’s a very good film.