Some Emily Wilson article favorites:
"Itās a family-friendly audiovisual spectacle, like an elaborate Fourth of July fireworks display ā and with about the same level of narrative and emotional depth."
"Damon's lummoxy odysseus"
"As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Nolan has read at least the first line of my translation ofĀ The OdysseyĀ into iambic pentameter. In at least one interview, he cited my version of the first line of the poem: āTell me about a complicated man.ā But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script."
"Any one of these moral contradictions could make for an interesting and generative theme in a movie, but Nolan lets the fragments of an incomplete set of big ideas spin around in the epic whirlpool, with no plank of solid, specific human experience to which we might cling."
"Damonās Odysseus remains miserable as he hikes doggedly towards the camera across yet another beautiful landscape."
"But the representation of Odysseus as a reluctant warlord makes a nonsense of the movieās imagined world. We are not shown that war or killing are bad, only that good men sometimes feel bad about it ā a very different point. Any serious depiction of violence, ancient or modern, must show the perspectives of the victims as well as the perpetrators, and the Homeric poems easily clear the bar ā but Nolan doesnāt."
"It has nothing convincing to say about time, memory, history, war, or about the relationship between one warriorās 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."
As they say at the awards shows, I was humbled to learn that Christopher Nolan has read at least the first line of my...
