Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey” finally hit cinemas on Friday, and its first reactions have ranged from glowing praise to fierce criticism online.
The film, which had already sparked the ire of some fans over its casting choices, was tipped to drive the MAGA faithful “completely insane.”
Nolan had already dismissed the pre-release backlash in an interview, calling such conversations “irrelevant” and saying he had learned not to be bothered by them after his experience with “Batman.”
Christopher Nolan’s highly anticipated adaptation of Homer’s Greek epic “The Odyssey” landed in cinemas on Friday, July 17. However, the initial reactions have not been entirely rosy, with some viewers taking issue with what they believe are alterations to the plot, as well as the ship and armor designs.
The $250 million epic was always likely to dive headlong into cultural and political crosswinds, mainly because of its casting. However, some viewers also highlighted several alleged “historical inaccuracies.”
Some Greeks even accused the filmmaker and Hollywood of being the “real racists and enemies of the West,” pointing to the film opening “by showing an African rapper [Travis Scott] with rasta in the role of a Greek poet.”
“We Greeks are forced to watch our Greek history and culture being disgraced and mocked across the entire world. What is Nolan’s real role in doing something like this, rather than casting a Greek person who speaks Greek? What’s the purpose of casting someone with rasta in the Greek world?” an X user wrote.
Nolan’s Casting Of Lupita Nyong’o Fueled Heated Debate
Nolan’s decision to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra remained a major point of contention among critics who focused on Helen’s description as the most beautiful woman in Greek mythology and “the face that launched a thousand ships.”
As one critic put it, “Black Helen is a flagrant assault on European beauty—and every white person instinctively knows this.”
Others slammed the movie as a “humiliation ritual,” while some argued that the use of American English and modern dialogue weakened the ancient setting.
Major Critics Celebrate Nolan’s Bold Adaptation
Meanwhile, Nolan received considerable praise for other elements of the film, with viewers applauding its “beautiful cinematography” and the “superb” performances from Matt Damon, Anne Hathaway, Robert Pattinson, and their co-stars.
Fans also praised Elliot Page’s appearance as Sinon, saying his character “serves as a brutal lesson for Odysseus, and it is one he carries throughout the remainder of the movie.”
The Guardian’s Peter Bradshaw gave the film a perfect rating, describing it as a production “with thrilling ambition, boldness, seriousness, generosity and flair. There are some broad-brush moments in the dialogue, yes, but even these are applied with a muscular flourish.”
New York Times critic Manohla Dargis highlighted Nolan’s passion for cinema, calling it “one of the most Nolan of Nolan spectacles in its thematic concerns, formal playfulness, kinetic thrills and unabashed showmanship.”
Christopher Nolan’s Epic Expected To Rattle The Right
The film was tipped to drive the right “completely insane,” particularly because of its changes to several ancient themes, according to Vanity Fair.
For months, conservatives such as Elon Musk lambasted the project on social media, with the founder of SpaceX claiming Nolan had “desecrated the Odyssey so that he would be eligible for an Academy Award.”
The right was also said to be in a “transphobic tizzy” over Page’s casting as Sinon, the Greek soldier responsible for convincing the Trojans to bring the giant wooden horse inside their city.
Other talking points focused on comparisons between the Spartans’ fear that unspecified “people from the sea” were invading their country and destroying their way of life and the real-world “conspiratorial anxieties” voiced by figures such as Musk.
Criticism that the film was not “historically accurate” was also dismissed as “ridiculous,” given that it tells a story involving “gods and monsters, and gorgeous women who hatched out of eggs.”
Christopher Nolan Dismisses Backlash As ‘Irrelevant’
Meanwhile, Nolan has since fired back at Musk and other critics over their pre-release attacks, calling them “irrelevant.”
“Comes with the territory,” he said, per The Telegraph. “But look, these conversations that happen before people see the film — they’re always irrelevant, because no one having them knows what the film actually is yet.”
Nolan also acknowledged that adapting such a famous epic in the current cultural climate was bound to draw strong reactions, but said he had learned not to let the criticism bother him.
“Remember, I spent ten years of my life dealing with Batman. When I came on ‘Begins,’ writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and a lot of freighted thoughts were out there about what he represents,” he explained.
“And what I learned over my time on that trilogy is you can’t worry about any of that at all. What you have to do is honor the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can,” he added.
