Grifters' nonsense and unfair grievances about Nolan's Odyssey
Unpacking some of the sh*t I've seen online from (mostly) grifters about The Odyssey.
1. "Elliot Page is trans and therefore shouldn't be Achilles."
There is no confirmation that Page is playing Achilles (or Achilles' ghost rather). It is more likely he's playing Elpenor (and his ghost), who was one of Odysseus' youngest companions. Homer describes Elpenor as the youngest and not physically very strong - would be more fitting considering Page's physical appearance. In the translation by Robert Fagles, Elpenor is described as: "the youngest in our company, not much of a fighter or steady in wit."
Personally I'm expecting the ghost of Achilles to be played by a surprise casting, which Nolan has been known to do. But since all of this is unconfirmed, it's a pointless grievance. Also, the whole "they are making Ancient Greek gay" argument is really dumb. Ancient Greeks were hardly strangers to same-sex desire or emotional intimacy between men.
2. "The armor is not historically accurate."
This is likely a conscious decision in terms of the visuals that Nolan and the costume designer prefer to show on screen. And it seems they've has chosen a general "Ancient Greek" setting to set this in. When the story was told and heard most, not when the Trojan War actually took place. (By the way, Homer's account of the Trojan War is also not historically accurate.)
3. "Travis Scott shouldn't be in the movie."
Mediterranean diversity is hardly implausible. There were Africans in Greece "back then" and have been depicted in their art as well, some of them could've been bards as Scott is in the trailer. Completely plausible. Though I do agree that casting a well known rapper (non-actor) can be a bit immersion-breaking. But hey, Harry Styles and David Bowie worked fine. And Scott is playing a sort of rapper/poet anyway.
4. "The Ancient Greeks didn't talk like that."
Yeah, I'm sure they never used terms like "dad" and everybody was super archaic and sounded like British royalty.
Some characters talk and sound like soldiers would (simplistic lingo "Let's go home!"), or like an asshole (Pattinson's Antinous demeaning Telemachus by saying "pining for a daddy you don't even know, like some sniveling bastard") and a young son genuinely afraid for his dad ("Where is my dad?"). Older, wiser men like Eumaus speak noticably differently: "Darkness, Zeus' law smashed into pieces, a kingdom without a king since my master died." (from the first teaser)
Maybe Nolan is trying to inject more humanity into this story, so the dialogue is more simplistic and more in tune with how people actually talk to each other? Not like actors onstage at the West End.
5. "There are no actors playing Gods." / "Nolan is tuning down the fantasy."
Zendaya is playing Athena (a goddess). Charlize Theron is Calypso (a nymph, minor deity). Samantha Morton is Circe (also a nymph/goddess). And we are getting Polyphemus, the Laestrygonians, Scylla, Charybdis, the Sirens. Also, the Gods constantly disguised themselves as humans in this story. And forces of nature. We're probably not getting a giant Ben Affleck shirtless and splashing about in the Aegean sea with a trident. Dodged a bullet there.
6. "Lupita Nyong'o is Helen of Troy. This is wrong because she is black and ugly."
Nyong'o is playing both Helen of Troy and her sister Clytemnestra. In Jordan Peele's "Us" she also played a dual role and killed it, so I'm guessing the main reason for Nolan casting her is because she is a good actress who can pull off roles like that.
Helen of Troy is indeed described as "fair", i.e. not working the field etc, and Ancient Greeks would've probably imagined Helen as "mediterranean-looking". So this is a noticably different take on the character, which might also be the point of the casting perhaps. Helen's presence is immediately noticable as different, standing out. But I will give that it's not out of the question that casting is at least a little bit purposefully controversial.
As for her being "ugly", that's just ridiculous.
7. "Everything looks so bland and muted."
This is the most ridiculous complaint. Have you not seen the first teaser? The prologue? The trailers? Yes, the color grading is not like Super Mario, but it's Nolan's most vivid looking film yet.
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There are obviously also fair criticisms and concerns regarding many aspects of Nolan's big-budget Hollywood-style adaptation as well, but we won't know until the movie's out and I do feel a lot of these are just really dumb takes and premature speculations that deserve to be refuted.
I'm hoping Nolan will stick to his vision and not repeat the same mistake that happened in 2012 with The Dark Knight Rises, when people we're complaining about Bane's voice so much that the final cut had his voice redubbed and 3x louder than every other character.
Looking forward to the movie!
EDIT: Corrected a misgendering.