Classics professor condemns ‘The Odyssey’: “It has nothing convincing to say”

A leading classics professor has slated Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, arguing it lacks “psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth”. READ MORE: ‘The Odyssey’ review: cinema may have peaked with Christopher Nolan’s blockbuster epic Emily Wilson, a professor of classical studies at the University of Pennsylvania, published an acclaimed English translation of Homer’s epic poem in 2017 that Nolan has cited as an influence on his adaptation, particularly its opening line: “Tell me about a complicated man.” However, in a scathing new review for the London Review Of Books, Wilson said the filmmaker had failed to capture the complexity of Homer’s characters and ideas. “I had hoped that Nolan’s affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, and enable him to conjure more believable characters,” she wrote. “But The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.” She continued: “The film’s vision is too confused, its characters too underdeveloped, to deliver what it half-promises in terms of big ideas – although it is very good at conveying big bangs and big giants.” Wilson went on to argue that the film had failed to meanin...