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The foreign drama surrounding Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster Odyssey kicked into gear overnight, according to a news reporter. Joyce Carol Oates tried to protect the filmmaker from attacks by academic Emily Wilson.
Writing on X, Oates took issue with the style and words of Wilson published earlier this week in the London Review of Books, in which the scholar, who published a critical translation of Homer’s poem in 2017, wrote that Nolan’s film lacked “ideological, emotional, political and moral depth” and “didn’t say anything”
Oates says: “Instead of confronting the interpretation of Homer in a coherent way, this character, who has benefited greatly from Nolan’s film, speaks sarcastically as if the Maga people are attacking someone with a different opinion than his own.”
“One would expect the translator, of all people, to look to the scriptures, in the service of the scriptures, to be more considerate and respectful of others who are acting as honestly as (he would claim).”
Oates’ comments come after criticism of the film last week, in which he compared it to the 1997 Hallmark Channel version and found it wanting. Author tweeted that the TV movie made by Andrei Konchalovsky boasted “a more interesting interpretation than Nolan” of the sexual scene between Circe and Odysseus.
He too thanks his image of Odysseus (“Thus a man, thus a complete man”), his Hades interlude (“mesmerising”) and his corresponding size (“which perhaps Nolan did not see”).
Nolan’s film has been widely praised by critics, perhaps explaining why Wilson’s criticism surprised many. “I hoped that Nolan’s association with Homeric themes would lead him to create new things, and allow him to create believable characters,” he wrote.
“But The Odyssey the film has its usual combination of exuberance and exuberance…
He also said: “The documents are very worrying.
The classicist’s verdict was perhaps eagerly anticipated, as the interpretation was praised by Nolan in an interview with Empire. The director told the magazine that he used the opening line – “Tell me about a difficult man” – as a key element in creating the character played by Odysseus.
When Wilson found Nolan’s version of the character as a one-shot it may have caused the team to balk at the film. In announcing the film, Universal insisted that Nolan had been involved with the adaptation long before Wilson’s version was published, and denied claims that he was “inspired” by it.
Sales of Wilson’s translations, and those of others, have soared in the past month, with UK bookseller TGJones reporting a 1,560% rise in research for the Iliad this month.
However, no payment for the film would have been made to any writer other than Nolan himself. Odyssey, which cost about $250m to make and about $100m to develop, has so far taken $683m at the global box office, hot on the heels of Nolan’s previous film, Oppenheimer, which made $975m.
This film, which was behind the atomic bomb, swept the 2023 Oscars, winning seven awards. His follow-up is expected to take place next March.
The Guardian has contacted Wilson for comment.
