i ramble in tags sorry

I posted this originally on Letterboxd, but I want to share with all my mutuals as well

Spoiler Alert!!!!!

is it a good movie? neither yes nor no. it depends on the person.

if you're in it for a good experience and a beautiful movie, then you will enjoy it a lot.

if you're in it for historical/cultural accuracy and faithfulness to the original book, then you will NOT enjoy it.

i think we should stop expecting any adaptation to be 100 percent accurate at all times. you are free to criticise the movie for a myriad of reasons and it should be criticised. it's a giant movie from a famous director, there are high expectations that he has to reach.

I actually do not give an actual fuck about (most of) the perceived inaccuracies and adaptive flourishes of Nolan's Odyssey and I think that some of you need to understand that stories can be good even if they are changed to fit a different thematic structure. I simply do not care about perceived mischaracterizations of one of history's oldest blorbos: Idgaf that it didn't include the Nobody detail when Odysseus' connection to the gods is tenuous and his sponsor god/the personification of his guilt wears the face of an innocent murdered as a result of his violations. His defining character traits are established much differently, and in my opinion, serve the medium far better. I think that some of you need to stop the rehash and enjoy a piece of art that claims inspiration, not accuracy.

That being said…

There was certainly a few things that I had qualms with, some serious concerns and some smaller things I was personally just not crazy about

But the main thing

This movie wasn’t about Odysseus

It was a very good movie about a man having a very long journey home, but that man wasn’t Odysseus

At no point in the whole three hour run time did I think “wow he’s clever”. The movie said he was clever but it never proved it. Every choice he made seemed built on spite, sorrow, or even just pure stupidity

I'm so mad because students in Italy have been studying on Rosa Calzecchi Onesti's translation for decades!! Her translation is so well regarded it keeps being used in academia to this day and it's from the 60s!!! There have been dozens of other translations since then but we keep using that one !!!

(and also many other women published their translations both before and after her)

I might translate this article later today. This one was the most complete one, even in Italian news it's not talked about that much.

From the article:

“The practice of taking jewellery and other artefacts, especially those associated with the royal courts of great empires of the past, the Mughals, the Safavids, and others, and then allowing actors and celebrities to adorn them sends a clear message: not only will we not return what we took from you, because we consider ourselves more worthy custodians, but we also continue to occupy the symbolic position of monarchs and rulers over the lands from which these artefacts were removed”

- Zirrar Ali, London-based author and expert on Islamic history, art, and architecture

“…These pieces are likely looted from Iran and they are gracing the ears of an American actress from a country that just bombed Iran…also I think the irony of wearing historical jewellery to a movie that is an absolute train wreck of anachronistic language, armour, gender roles, pants, is a funny choice.”

- Dr. Z the Archaeologist

Another article about the violation of international law in using another of the film’s locations.

I think it’s very important for everyone to consider the translation Nolan was basing the movie off of and also go in remembering literally no adapt of a book is perfect, like ever. We’ve seen it with Hunger Games, Maze Runner, Divergent, Harry Potter, even game adaptations aren’t perfect. However, not a single one of those movies weren’t enjoyable. As far as I know, the translation Nolan based the movie off of was Emily Watsons translation which does change a few things a good bit as she changed Odysseus’ personality to a much more regretful man than he really was to make the book more “anti-war.”

Things that I liked:

While the actors that got the roles weren’t Greek, I do think they were good picks for each character. I genuinely think Anne Hathaway played Penelope amazingly and we got to see the anger that she also felt during the 20 years of her husband being gone.

Lupita was a beautiful Helen. Jon was a great Menelaus (pretty sure he even got his iconic “let me tell you something” in there lol). Tom was a great Telemachus. Zendaya, Charlize and Samantha played Athena, Calypso, and Circe beautifully.

The monsters and characters for the most part were all wonderfully done and it amazes me that he was able to do what he did without cgi and only sfx. It made everything look much more really and I genuinely loved that.

I actually really liked the route he took with the gods only showing their presence through events and not actually showing their physical presence. I think it showed how much the gods influence, watched over, and punish the Greeks without ever needing to come down genuinely show themselves. This does exclude Athena kind of, as she shows herself as a hallucination to Odysseus but taking the form of a woman Odysseus allowed to die during the battle of Troy. Which I also found really interesting.

The flow was great, nothing felt forced or pushed in just to satisfy the audience and I think that would have gone differently if some of the stuff from the book that was cut was included instead.

While I know the language and way the speak isn’t accurate, I did like that they went with a more modern approach. Because let’s face it, there’s a lot of people that would have been able to understand what they were saying if they planned to do a more poetic and formal way of speaking to match the books and that would have limited the audience greatly. Not saying we should completely cater to illiteracy and stupidity, but for this film I do think it was a necessary change that they still handled well.

I liked the soundtrack a lot, it wasn’t incredible and like “HOLY SHIT”, but it definitely fit the moods and the movie. My personal favorite was Zeus’s Law.

The underworld scene. I just loved everything about it honestly.

I thought Elliot Page played his role really well for the few minutes he was in the movie. Genuinely don’t get the hate.

Things I’m in the middle on:

The Horse. The prop of the infamous trojan horse for this film was beautiful, however I do think it was out of place. The horses face was carved beautifully, all the wood fits together perfect, it’s smooth, sanded, and even stained. It just does make sense to me how they would build something so perfectly made during a war in ancient times. Personally, I think the Trojan Horse in the 2004 Troy movie, was a bit more of an accurate representation of what the horse may have looked like. But at the end of the day, it is film and you really want to draw people’s attention in and make it awesome which is why I understand the decision.

The armor. I’m not gonna get into historical accuracy as like I said before this is film and you want to try to make it cool while also functional. I think they did well making the helmets accurate for the Spartans. The Trojans are a different story as I personally think they made the helmets very.. blocky? They just weren’t shaped properly and the colors were a bit of an odd choice.

Agamemnon. Really cool helmet but literally just aura farmed the whole time, wasnt very important til they got to the underworld and even then he spoke for like 2 minutes then just went back to aura farming.

The lack of color in their clothing. idk why but for some reason it was interpreted that the people of Greece really just wore rags at that time unless you were some kind of royalty lol.

Odysseus’s character. Like I said before, his character changes a bit due to the translation used as reference. But in the movie, Odysseus is portrayed as a much more regretful man than how he was portrayed in more accurately translated versions. He’s not very prideful, his iconic intelligence isn’t shown nearly as much, etc.

Things that were missing / I didn’t like:

There’s no lotus eaters, “nobody” moment, reveal of Odysseus name to Polyphemus, trickery with the wine, olive tree bed, Athena helping Telemachus.