Culture war over Chris Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ completely misguided, says rock star scholar Daniel Mendelsohn
Culture war over Chris Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ completely misguided, says rock star scholar Daniel Mendelsohn
A fierce online backlash against Christopher Nolan's highly anticipated film adaptation of Homer's Greek epic "The Odyssey" has erupted, with prominent conservative voices like Matt Walsh and Elon Musk leading the charge against what they deem "woke" casting decisions. However, Daniel Mendelsohn, a renowned Princeton and Bard professor, has little time for the staged culture wars.
"There's nothing to be accurate to," Mendelsohn said, pointing out that classic scholars know that both the Iliad and the Odyssey are a mishmash of different kinds of armor – clothing, speech, and different eras in the evolution of Greek culture. Over the past few weeks, a mostly right-wing led online backlash has metastasized into a campaign to drown the movie in bad reviews, with figures like Matt Walsh and Elon Musk taking Nolan to task for his casting decisions.
The criticism has centered around the casting of Lupita Nyong'o as Helen of Troy and the decision to have characters speak in a more contemporary, modern dialogue. Musk claimed that Nolan was "pissing on Homer's grave." However, Mendelsohn notes that none of these people look anything like the actual kinds of characters that Homer imagined. "Matt Damon doesn't look a whole lot like an Eastern Mediterranean guy," he said, noting that all adaptations of Greek classics fit with the times they are adapted to. He takes particular umbrage at the outrage of Nyong'o's casting, pointing out that Helen of Troy has a small cameo in the story. "It's not the hill you want to die on."
Much of the criticism lobbed at Nolan argues that his version of "The Odyssey" is historically inaccurate, as if a Greek mythological poem that features multiple gods, one-eyed monsters, and actual witches is rooted in any kind of historical fact. "We go to operas where Black sopranos play 16th century English queens, we go to all Black productions of MacBeth," Mendelsohn said. "It's not like you're making a movie about Abraham Lincoln and casting a Chinese actor." In Mendelsohn's eyes, the most important aspect of any adaptation of "The Odyssey" is that it fits with Homer's spirit, rather than any specific casting choices.
When asked to review Nolan's follow-up to "Oppenheimer," Mendelsohn called it a mixed bag. "There are some things that he does incredibly well that are truly overwhelming. There are some things I take issue with," he said. The "Odyssey" is primed for a massive opening, with the latest tracking forecasts predicting it could go as high as $120 million. Mendelsohn expects the movie to lead to an uptick in classic Greek literature, similar to how Ridley Scott's 2000 epic "Gladiator" boosted interest in ancient Roman history. "This is going to send so many young people, and not so young people, to read the original."
Source: NYPOST
