Emily Wilson sees promise and missing pieces in Nolan’s Odyssey
The classicist praised renewed interest in Homer’s epic but told the Associated Press the film skips themes she sees as central.
By Georgia Hale · Staff Writer
2 min read
Emily Wilson, whose 2017 translation of The Odyssey helped shape Christopher Nolan’s new film, has a mixed verdict on the director’s trip through Homer.
Speaking to the Associated Press, the British-American classicist said she was glad the movie had sent more people back to the ancient poem. She also said she felt Nolan tried to squeeze in too much of the epic while leaving out themes she considers vital to it.
Nolan has cited Wilson’s translation as one of the works that influenced his film, according to Empire. One touchstone was her rendering of Homer’s famous opening, “Tell me about a complicated man.”
The film, which runs just under three hours, takes on material from a poem of roughly 12,000 lines. It tracks the broad sweep of the story’s 20-year timeline, including the Trojan Horse, Penelope’s suitors, Odysseus and his crew meeting the Cyclops Polyphemus, the sirens, Scylla and the nymph Calypso.
Matt Damon plays Odysseus, with Anne Hathaway as Penelope, Bill Irwin as the Cyclops and Charlize Theron as Calypso, according to Mashable’s account of the film. The movie also leaves a number of myths outside the frame.
Wilson’s Odyssey put women in sharper focus
Wilson’s version of Homer became widely discussed for the way it reconsidered women in the poem, including Penelope and Circe. The New Yorker has written about her translation in that context, focusing on how it deals with the women of The Odyssey.
Mashable critic Belen Edwards wrote in a review that Nolan gives more attention to the women of the story than some of his earlier work gave to female characters. Edwards said the film stresses their complexity and allows them anger rather than leaving them on the margins.
Wilson’s comments to the Associated Press land in the middle of a long tradition of remaking Homer for new audiences. The Odyssey has been interpreted across literature, visual art, cinema, games and other forms for centuries, and Nolan’s version is the latest high-profile attempt to bring Odysseus home again.
Her reaction was neither a dismissal nor a full embrace. As relayed by the Associated Press, Wilson welcomed the movie’s ability to revive public attention around the poem, while arguing that the drive to cover so much plot came at a cost.
The Odyssey is now in cinemas.
This story draws on original reporting from Mashable.