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Feminist translator: Nolans Odyssey is boring, insipid, and subverts the moral
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Date: July 27th, 2026 3:26 PM Author: ,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,...,,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,, https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v48/n14/emily-wilson/an-uncomplicated-man (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5886702&forum_id=2#50027439) |
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Date: July 27th, 2026 3:30 PM Author: ,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,...,,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,, Even she sees that the movie is a hamfisted lib allegory about xenophobia and Brexit, and points out the tranny is the film's "moral center":
The most obvious new spin that Nolan brings to the source material is a subplot based on a story from the Aeneid, describing the way the Trojans were tricked into taking the Trojan Horse (an invention of ‘cruel Ulysses’) into the city, thanks to the machinations of a Greek double agent called Sinon (his name means ‘harmful’). In contrast to the relatively positive representation of cunning intelligence in Homer’s Odyssey, Virgil makes Ulysses cruel and predatory; Sinon is his deceitful accomplice.
In Nolan’s movie, Sinon is played by Elliot Page, and far from being a bad guy he’s the film’s moral centre. He is recruited to the Trojan War as a plucky youngster, thanks to the evil machinations of a teenage draft-dodger, Antinous (played in adulthood by a charismatically slimy Robert Pattinson). The main emotional arc of the film concerns Odysseus’ belated realisation that he is complicit in Sinon’s exploitation because he failed to tell him the truth about the Trojan Horse plot. Once he recovers his memory, Odysseus is racked by guilt. The film doesn’t address the moral dilemmas raised by its own narrative invention, such as why it matters so much whether Batman told the whole truth to valiant Robin, given that he would be killed instantly either way – or why the sinless Sinon wants in on the scheme, if the sack of Troy was as bad as the movie wants to suggest. Odysseus’ lie to Sinon doesn’t start the Trojan War, and the Trojans would presumably have taken the horse into the city anyway – as they do in Homer’s Odyssey. This muddled subplot is foisted on the film in order to make Nolan’s relentlessly didactic point about the contemporary Anglophone world: that the lies and xenophobia of the war on terror and Brexit began a cultural decline that is now destroying the values ‘we’ hold most dear. |
Date: July 27th, 2026 3:27 PM Author: ,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,...,,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,, But unlike Matt Damon, the wax-free Odysseus who is tied to the mast as he is conveyed past the Sirens (naked ladies reclining on some uncomfortable-looking rocks), I gazed at the shipwrecks and bloodbaths without any agony of emotion. My eyes stayed dry, even for Argos the dog – whose adorableness as a puppy is predictably amped up to suit our animal-loving times. If only the human characters had been treated with such serious attention. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5886702&forum_id=2#50027442) |
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Date: July 27th, 2026 3:29 PM Author: ,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,...,,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,, I was humbled to learn that Nolan has read at least the first line of my translation of The Odyssey into iambic pentameter. In at least one interview, he cited my version of the first line of the poem: ‘Tell me about a complicated man.’ But I would be ashamed to have written any part of this script. Sadly, Damon’s Odysseus isn’t complicated or wily or artful. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5886702&forum_id=2#50027444) |
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Date: July 27th, 2026 3:34 PM Author: ,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,.,...,,.,.,.,.,.,.,..,.,, In the film, xenia is filtered through contemporary American ideas about the importance of philanthropic charity: wealthy people should be gracious towards the poor and hungry in their midst (without necessarily doing anything to mitigate their poverty). Many of the film’s implicit values directly contradict those of Homer’s poem. Deception, warmongering, extramarital sex, cruelty to animals, abusing women and yearning for honour – all perfectly fine in the world of Homer – are, in this version, very bad. This is not in itself a problem, but it is a problem if the film’s own values and vision don’t hang together, and if the characters’ motivations don’t make sense on their own terms. (http://www.autoadmit.com/thread.php?thread_id=5886702&forum_id=2#50027459) |