Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey opens July 17, and its cast has spent the weeks before release turning promotional interviews into a sustained defense of the film’s politics rather than its story.
While I am overall pleased that a backlash to this affront exists, I am somewhat saddened that it isn't larger.
This should be the end-all-be-all of culture war slugfests. Not Star Wars, not Snow White, not Dr. Who, not any of dozens, hundreds of other properties I could mention.
Those properties are what's actually irrelevant. Star Wars isn't a hill of beans compared to the 3,000+ year history of The Illiad and The Odyssey and their influence on Western Civilization.
The Odyssey as the more influential of the two works, by a nose, is the single most important cultural work ever created by man outside of the Bible (which, to be fair, was Divinely inspired).
The Odyssey is sacred. It is foundational to Western Society. There should have been rioting in the streets and mass burnings of this pathetic feminist "translation."
That's how we should respond to this level of cultural vandalism. But I guess if I'm not going to vigilante any of these fools for mass societal deconstruction, it's hypocritical to expect others to do it for me.
The silent customers that simply walk away are the most concerning to any industry. Thats APATHY. The vocal customers that shout and scream are the HARDCORE minority. Hollywood needs to be more concerned about the silent majority.
Well, but remember, to most people who live and die by pop culture, Christopher Nolan is far more significant than Homer. For those people to abandon him in the numbers it looks like they will -- making this only a minor profit, if that -- is, subjectively, akin to a public shunning in the town square. People are already turning on Nolan for his other subpar efforts; Ledger's Joker can only get him so far. This will pull him down off his pedestal, no matter what happens.
It's rather sad, but you're not wrong. I imagine 95-99 out of 100 people would better know the plot to a Batman movie or could sooner name Nolan than Homer when asked direct questions.
That's cultural rot setting in. But I also think it's being done intentionally, at least insofar as the general dumbing down of the populace.
The youtuber Overlord DVD just did an interesting video where he said some things similar to my points, including a very interesting rumor that both Nolan and the Odyssey were chosen specifically to create this woke monsterpiece. It seems that yes, Hollywood is trying to destroy our cultural heritage and all of this is deliberate.
If that is the case, I am proud of my fellow Western citizens for pushing back against it.
Nobody will remember this movie in 20 years. Homer's work will outlive it. Hell, Homer's work will outlive the US. This Lysenkoist interpretation of a foundational Western myth will someday be ridiculed by the scant pedantic historians who can be bothered to remember that it ever existed.
Lysenkoism was a pseudoscientific movement in the Soviet Union, led by Trofim Lysenko, that rejected Mendelian genetics in favor of Lamarckian ideas, claiming acquired traits are heritable. Supported by the Communist Party and Stalin, it promoted the belief that environmental influences could directly and rapidly change organisms, leading to disastrous agricultural policies, purges of geneticists, and a major setback for Soviet biology.
Thanks, friend. Learned a new word today. Thanks also for the perspective. Your long view of the matter provides some hope during a bleak period of time.
I realize that sounds overdramatic, but I genuinely believe that we are in a rock fight to the death over the spiritual and cultural future of Western Civilization. I can't help but feel that we are in the late stage of Empire as the Romans, the Greeks, and yes, the British, experienced before us.
The barbarians are inside our gates and precious few citizens can be arsed to do anything.
I hope that your view is closer to the truth than mine.
If Western society could bounce back from the Bronze Age collapse (insofar as Mycenaean palace culture can be construed as "western"), then it will survive this too. Ironically, the people who are tearing our culture and historical heritage down can only do so using the framework that we and our ancestors built for them. In a nutshell, they're too toxic to be completely successful at their goal of destroying our history. They're going to do a lot of damage, but once they run out of cultural substrate, they'll starve for lack of hosts.
I 100% support every word you said but saddened even some of the more respected film-over analyzing YouTubers out here keep singing praises for this shit. Thomas Flight bashed me in the comments under his Odyssey video.
It's a cultural cold war (some would argue it's a hot war), and they have BILLIONS to spend.
I don't know of the youtuber you mentioned, but it's safe to assume anyone praising this is not doing so objectively. (There is enough information on this movie to make an informed and objective opinion at this point, even before release thanks largely to pattern recognition and deductive reasoning.) They are either paid shills betraying their own heritage, or idealogically captured useful idiots doing so for free.
I despise, but understand the first group, the second group has nothing but my contempt.
If Homer’s Odyssey was so terribly flawed, why did Nowlan even bother with it in the first place? Why not do his own quasi-mythological original story and leave The Odyssey to all of us hopelessly unenlightened troglodytes?
We all know the answer, of course. The real point is to take ancient, tried and true works of art and culture, break them, then remake them in the image of the Left’s post-modern pantheon of deities.
There are multiple passages that report how Nowlan and various actors found previous translations wanting and for the need to modernize or recontextualize them. If you can’t comprehend that, there’s nothing I can do to help you.
Troy had its flaws, but was overall a fun film that never betrayed the source material or insulted the audience. Doing the Odyssey as a proper sequel to Troy should have been money in the bank.
I wish it had been done 20 years ago when films like that were still being made.
The situation we have here is like if Peter Jackson only got to do 1.5 LOTR movies and 20 years later, the Rings of Power buttholes came along to "finish" the story.
I hope this bombs worse than Moana 2 live action and Supergirl. Most of those who care about Western Civilization will likely boycott this picture, but there don't seem to be enough of those these days.
Instead, what will happen is for many Gen Z, Gen A, and the new kids in Gen Beta who only get their information from videos, will see this as THE definitive version and never bother reading the book.
Thus begins the corruption of the language, history, and importance of a work as precious as The Odyssey
First Snow White, then Supergirl, and now the Odyssey - a little known/unknown actress on the verge of potential superstardom tanks her own career AND UNGRATEFULLY SCREWS THE STUDIO THAT ENTRUSTED HER WITH SELLING THE MOVIE TO AUDIENCES (because that is the ONLY reason actors are paid...to make money for their bosses...it's not the actors who are investing millions) by permanently alienating former-POTENTIAL-but-now-NEVER-CUSTOMERS by insulting them: "absolute vile losers."
Whomever played Snow White, and whomever played Supergirl, and now the actresses who were miscast as Helen of Troy and a guy...will never be offered such good roles again, if any. Would YOU hire someone who essentially tells your potential customers "eff you - now give me money"? Of course not.
The person who should never work again is Christopher Nolan. He's the architect behind this woke monsterpiece. Helen's actress is just cashing a paycheck.
if some Hollywierdo gave middle-aged, uncoordinated, white me a couple million dollars to play Jackie Robinson, I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. (Of course, I'd be far more gracious to the incredulous public.)
To be fair, the actress playing Helen has done some serious work and even got Oscar recognition for "12 years a Slave".
She's not unknown and maybe even has skills beyond just being "Black_woman_01." But these days being "Black_Woman_01" is usually enough to guarantee a career.
But she's obnxious like all hollywood whores, sorry, like all of diddy's bitches, oops I mean like all Actresses these days. So ungrateful, spiteful, resentful bitter c u n t s.
I can’t double down on not watching it 😆
While I am overall pleased that a backlash to this affront exists, I am somewhat saddened that it isn't larger.
This should be the end-all-be-all of culture war slugfests. Not Star Wars, not Snow White, not Dr. Who, not any of dozens, hundreds of other properties I could mention.
Those properties are what's actually irrelevant. Star Wars isn't a hill of beans compared to the 3,000+ year history of The Illiad and The Odyssey and their influence on Western Civilization.
The Odyssey as the more influential of the two works, by a nose, is the single most important cultural work ever created by man outside of the Bible (which, to be fair, was Divinely inspired).
The Odyssey is sacred. It is foundational to Western Society. There should have been rioting in the streets and mass burnings of this pathetic feminist "translation."
That's how we should respond to this level of cultural vandalism. But I guess if I'm not going to vigilante any of these fools for mass societal deconstruction, it's hypocritical to expect others to do it for me.
Oh look, a squirrel!
The silent customers that simply walk away are the most concerning to any industry. Thats APATHY. The vocal customers that shout and scream are the HARDCORE minority. Hollywood needs to be more concerned about the silent majority.
Let's hope the silent majority shun this movie. We'll find out this weekend if Homer or some radical feminist whacko are more influential right now.
Well, but remember, to most people who live and die by pop culture, Christopher Nolan is far more significant than Homer. For those people to abandon him in the numbers it looks like they will -- making this only a minor profit, if that -- is, subjectively, akin to a public shunning in the town square. People are already turning on Nolan for his other subpar efforts; Ledger's Joker can only get him so far. This will pull him down off his pedestal, no matter what happens.
It's rather sad, but you're not wrong. I imagine 95-99 out of 100 people would better know the plot to a Batman movie or could sooner name Nolan than Homer when asked direct questions.
That's cultural rot setting in. But I also think it's being done intentionally, at least insofar as the general dumbing down of the populace.
The youtuber Overlord DVD just did an interesting video where he said some things similar to my points, including a very interesting rumor that both Nolan and the Odyssey were chosen specifically to create this woke monsterpiece. It seems that yes, Hollywood is trying to destroy our cultural heritage and all of this is deliberate.
If that is the case, I am proud of my fellow Western citizens for pushing back against it.
He’s more significant than most other younger directors. He’s not SK, but he is close enough.
Nobody will remember this movie in 20 years. Homer's work will outlive it. Hell, Homer's work will outlive the US. This Lysenkoist interpretation of a foundational Western myth will someday be ridiculed by the scant pedantic historians who can be bothered to remember that it ever existed.
FROM THE WEB:
Lysenkoism was a pseudoscientific movement in the Soviet Union, led by Trofim Lysenko, that rejected Mendelian genetics in favor of Lamarckian ideas, claiming acquired traits are heritable. Supported by the Communist Party and Stalin, it promoted the belief that environmental influences could directly and rapidly change organisms, leading to disastrous agricultural policies, purges of geneticists, and a major setback for Soviet biology.
Thanks, friend. Learned a new word today. Thanks also for the perspective. Your long view of the matter provides some hope during a bleak period of time.
I realize that sounds overdramatic, but I genuinely believe that we are in a rock fight to the death over the spiritual and cultural future of Western Civilization. I can't help but feel that we are in the late stage of Empire as the Romans, the Greeks, and yes, the British, experienced before us.
The barbarians are inside our gates and precious few citizens can be arsed to do anything.
I hope that your view is closer to the truth than mine.
If Western society could bounce back from the Bronze Age collapse (insofar as Mycenaean palace culture can be construed as "western"), then it will survive this too. Ironically, the people who are tearing our culture and historical heritage down can only do so using the framework that we and our ancestors built for them. In a nutshell, they're too toxic to be completely successful at their goal of destroying our history. They're going to do a lot of damage, but once they run out of cultural substrate, they'll starve for lack of hosts.
I 100% support every word you said but saddened even some of the more respected film-over analyzing YouTubers out here keep singing praises for this shit. Thomas Flight bashed me in the comments under his Odyssey video.
It's a cultural cold war (some would argue it's a hot war), and they have BILLIONS to spend.
I don't know of the youtuber you mentioned, but it's safe to assume anyone praising this is not doing so objectively. (There is enough information on this movie to make an informed and objective opinion at this point, even before release thanks largely to pattern recognition and deductive reasoning.) They are either paid shills betraying their own heritage, or idealogically captured useful idiots doing so for free.
I despise, but understand the first group, the second group has nothing but my contempt.
If Homer’s Odyssey was so terribly flawed, why did Nowlan even bother with it in the first place? Why not do his own quasi-mythological original story and leave The Odyssey to all of us hopelessly unenlightened troglodytes?
We all know the answer, of course. The real point is to take ancient, tried and true works of art and culture, break them, then remake them in the image of the Left’s post-modern pantheon of deities.
Does Nolan say anything about the Odyssey being fundementaly flawed?
Read Jon’s article. It’s all there.
Funny, because what you say is not in the article…….
There are multiple passages that report how Nowlan and various actors found previous translations wanting and for the need to modernize or recontextualize them. If you can’t comprehend that, there’s nothing I can do to help you.
I love when the director doing an interview promoting the film says critical discourse about the film is “irrelevant”.
By comparison, TROY, which starred Brad Pitt as Achilles, is looking very good now.
Troy had its flaws, but was overall a fun film that never betrayed the source material or insulted the audience. Doing the Odyssey as a proper sequel to Troy should have been money in the bank.
I wish it had been done 20 years ago when films like that were still being made.
The situation we have here is like if Peter Jackson only got to do 1.5 LOTR movies and 20 years later, the Rings of Power buttholes came along to "finish" the story.
I hope this bombs worse than Moana 2 live action and Supergirl. Most of those who care about Western Civilization will likely boycott this picture, but there don't seem to be enough of those these days.
Instead, what will happen is for many Gen Z, Gen A, and the new kids in Gen Beta who only get their information from videos, will see this as THE definitive version and never bother reading the book.
Thus begins the corruption of the language, history, and importance of a work as precious as The Odyssey
Christopher Nolan lived, long enough to see himself become the villain.
In this summer of failures, not even The Odyssey is immune.
First Snow White, then Supergirl, and now the Odyssey - a little known/unknown actress on the verge of potential superstardom tanks her own career AND UNGRATEFULLY SCREWS THE STUDIO THAT ENTRUSTED HER WITH SELLING THE MOVIE TO AUDIENCES (because that is the ONLY reason actors are paid...to make money for their bosses...it's not the actors who are investing millions) by permanently alienating former-POTENTIAL-but-now-NEVER-CUSTOMERS by insulting them: "absolute vile losers."
Whomever played Snow White, and whomever played Supergirl, and now the actresses who were miscast as Helen of Troy and a guy...will never be offered such good roles again, if any. Would YOU hire someone who essentially tells your potential customers "eff you - now give me money"? Of course not.
The person who should never work again is Christopher Nolan. He's the architect behind this woke monsterpiece. Helen's actress is just cashing a paycheck.
if some Hollywierdo gave middle-aged, uncoordinated, white me a couple million dollars to play Jackie Robinson, I'd take that deal in a heartbeat. (Of course, I'd be far more gracious to the incredulous public.)
To be fair, the actress playing Helen has done some serious work and even got Oscar recognition for "12 years a Slave".
She's not unknown and maybe even has skills beyond just being "Black_woman_01." But these days being "Black_Woman_01" is usually enough to guarantee a career.
I didn't know that. And I'll certainly agree she is quite beautiful, too. But she is miscast as Helen of Troy.
But she's obnxious like all hollywood whores, sorry, like all of diddy's bitches, oops I mean like all Actresses these days. So ungrateful, spiteful, resentful bitter c u n t s.
Why do you refer to Page as “he”..?
Good catch.
Ellen
This industry is doomed