Joyce Carol Oates has escalated the off-screen drama surrounding Christopher Nolan's blockbuster adaptation of The Odyssey by publicly criticising classicist Emily Wilson for her scathing review of the film. Writing on X, Oates took issue with both the style and rhetoric of Wilson's essay published earlier this week in the London Review of Books.
Oates defends Nolan against Wilson's critique
Wilson, who published a landmark translation of Homer's epic in 2017, wrote that Nolan's film lacked 'psychological, emotional, political and ethical depth' and had 'nothing convincing to say.' Oates responded by accusing Wilson of speaking 'in the crude language of Maga folks attacking someone with ideas that differ from hers.' She added, 'One would expect a translator, of all people, beholden to a text, in service to a text, to be just a wee bit more thoughtful and respectful of others who are acting in good faith just as (she would claim) she is.'
Oates' own criticism of the film
Oates' comments come after she herself implied criticism of Nolan's film last week, comparing it unfavourably to a 1997 Hallmark Channel adaptation by Andrei Konchalovsky. She tweeted that the TV movie offered a 'much more interesting interpretation than Nolan' of the sexual dynamic between Circe and Odysseus, praised its portrayal of Odysseus as 'so manly, so fully human,' and described its Hades interlude as 'mesmerising.' She suggested Nolan may not have seen that version.
Wilson's detailed objections
Wilson's review was particularly anticipated because Nolan had praised her translation in an interview with Empire, using her opening line—'Tell me about a complicated man'—as a key reference for his characterisation of Odysseus. However, Wilson found Nolan's rendition one-dimensional. She wrote, 'I had hoped that Nolan's affinity with these Homeric themes might push him to new creative heights, but The Odyssey features his usual combination of grandiosity and superficiality.' She added, 'The writing is abysmal. None of the characters has a convincing motivation for their actions or words. There are no sex scenes, and all the food looks horrible.'
Box office and sales impact
Despite the controversy, Nolan's film has been widely applauded by critics and has performed strongly at the box office. Costing around $250 million to make and about $100 million to promote, The Odyssey has taken $683 million globally, approaching the $975 million earned by Nolan's previous film, Oppenheimer, which swept the 2023 Oscars with seven awards. Sales of Wilson's translation and other editions of Homer's works have surged, with UK bookseller T G Jones reporting a 1,560% rise in searches for the Iliad this month. However, no royalties from the film go to any writer other than Nolan himself.
Context and reactions
The Guardian has contacted Wilson for comment. In publicity for the film, Universal has stressed that Nolan was linked to an adaptation long before Wilson's translation was published and disputed claims he was 'inspired' by it. Oates' intervention adds another layer to the debate over artistic interpretation and academic critique in the age of blockbuster cinema.
