Homer's Play in danger
Christopher Nolan the renowned British director has a film version of Homer’s epic the “Odyssey” being released in theatres today. Nolan and Universal Pictures spent $250 million to bring what universities once considered one of the great books to life. Normally I would post this article on the movies group page, but the rule there is that politics cannot be part of the discussion and unfortunately woke politics has reared its ugly head in the form of Lupita Nyong. She is one of the players Nolan selected for the film, and she has already made comments such as there are not enough female characters in the Odyssey.
Nyong has admitted that she never read the Odyssey, which raises the question: How can you go to an elite college and get a master's degree from Yale and never read the Odyssey?
Homer wrote his classic somewhere around 700 BC. It was the second of his two epics, the first being the Iliad. The Odyssey traces the 20-year journey of Odysseus to get back home from Troy. I am no expert on the Odyssey, but my personal opinion is that its central theme is about home and nostalgia. Nyong's takeaway from the script, and it can only be the script since she never read the Odyssey, is that there are not enough women and/or they are not portrayed powerfuly enough.
Ironically part of the story is about Penelope, the wife of Odysseus, who has been waiting for him in Ithaca (home) for those twenty years and finds herself dealing with potential suitors who are interested in acquiring the kingdom. She finds ways to hold them all off as she awaits the return of her husband. In the meantime, Odysseus has to get by two supernatural females: Circe (a sorceress) and Calypso who delays him on her Island for 7 years. The Goddess Athena also plays a role in the story in that it is she who made it possible for Odysseus to get home.
Therefore, does any rational human being still think that Homer neglected women?
There is also another issue raised about the casting. Nyong is cast as Helen of Troy. Some may argue that Helen of Troy was white and Nolan casting a black woman for the role is counter to the story. I say that having the race of the actor match the character only matters if the race of the character is essential. For example, Rita Moreno should have played Maria in West Side Story. It may be the case with Helen of Troy as well. That one I leave to others.
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Class dismissed.
What is the danger Homer's "play" is in ?
The danger lies within the fact that for a majority of people who have never read the Odyssey, the film being released today will be the Odyssey for them.
I will reserve judgement until I see the movie.
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Removed for context
That is the case with every movie taken from a book.
The difference is the purpose.
6 Adaptations of the 'Odyssey,' Ranked By Rotten Tomatoes
Please note that in the 1997 version with Armand Assante as Ulysess and Vanessa Williams as Calypso.
I particularly enjoyed The Return (2024) where Ulysses finally returns home to clean house.
Not until you change the title of this misguided "article".
Homer was a Poet.
Iliad and Odessey are epic poems.
Not plays or books.
Now, you are dismissed.
So this is the shiny object twits are crying over now?
Seems to be. To paraphrase Quentin Tarantino: If you don't like the choices I made make your own movie.
As we've seen, many find it easier to cry and complain. Even if it is about petty nonsense like this.
Unless it is a documentary IMO the author/director can take whatever artistic license he wants. When I see a movie based on a book I often google the accuracy of the movie and decide if I want to read the book. But the movies(or TV shows) rarely follow the book too closely.
In that case, there is a 99.99% chance that I read the book and liked it. There are very few movies that follow along with the book. The movie "The Gunslinger" based on Stephen King's Gunslinger series was nowhere close to the book(s) in any way.
Probably even more egregious was what was done to King's "the Shinning." I think deviating from the book for entertainment value is one thing, woke deviations are another.
Example A is what Disney did to the Wizard of Oz with "Wicked."
what did disney do?
Did you see Wicked?
I saw The Shining before reading the book and was disappointed.
Disney has turned into a fkng joke with all their idiotic changes. To me Wicked told the story from a different perspective. Although it really is un-needed like all the prequel movies nobody ask for.
Me too.
When I went through the book I wondered what happened to the characters
Apparently, it is, though that's a pretty harsh assessment for one of your fellow conservatives. But yes, this seed is just more whining and crying about what some people who make fictional entertainment put in the shows they pay for and produce. These petty twits get their brain all twisted over the skin color of a fictional mermaid or get their panties in a bunch over women getting a larger role or more screen time than the white males that some conservatives clearly must have the hots for since they whine so much about them not being showcased more.
Achilles wasnt white either, except on film
Only losers concern themselves with the race of movie characters.
While I agree for the audience I wonder how many directors choose actors based on whatever the new rules are to be eligible for academy awards that were implemented a few years ago.
Homer describes Helen of Troy as "FAIR."
What should the moral boundaries of "artistic freedom" be?
This is the classic for Greece.
Fair: adjective - 5. literary + old-fashioned : pleasing to the eye or mind especially because of fresh, charming, or flawless quality
FAIR Definition & Meaning - Merriam-Webster
There are no moral boundaries for some dumb fuck white trash who whine about their culture being erased all because they're so fucking obsessed with its supposed loss and stupid to realize nothing has actually changed. And there will still be movies made for white trash so they're not getting left out. They'll still have their Hallmark movies with about as much diversity in them as a dash of cinnamon on top of their vanilla latte whipped cream.
How would Homer have known seeing as he wrote his magnus opus some 500 years after the events 'occured'. Let us also not foget that Helen was the offspring of a Swan and possibly of a white swan which is questionable seeing that Zeus was responsible for innumerable black swan events. Fortunately the 'woke' Euripides arrives on the scene with his mighty calamus to reset much of the 'record'.
Homer wrote the story and described her as fair.
Can you give us evidence that the woman whom Homer called fair and the most beautiful woman in the world was from Kenya.
No, however, Homer's writings were not shy of using poetic license to placate Spartan hubris. As a symbol it matters not from where Helen came.
I'm fairly sure she didn't come from the subcontinent of Africa.
It's too bad that Nolan didn't have the guts to resist the pressure from the left.
your line of inquiry is ridiculous
How can you be sure of that? The Mediterranean was the center of the universe in regards to this tale.
Do you realize the story is fiction? And there is nothing about Helen, as a character, that requires she have any particular look beyond being attractive in some way. And finally, she is barely in the Odyssey. The whole thing is about the trip home. The Iliad is about the war. You’re getting worked up over nothing.
In antiquity, when women were described as "fair", such as "fair lady" or "fair maiden", do you think they were being described as "white" lady or "white" maiden?
Does the proverb "faint heart never won fair lady" mean "faint of heart never won a white lady"?
Does the movie title "My Fair Lady" translate as "My White Lady"?
Can you give us evidence that the woman whom Homer called fair and the most beautiful was actually "from" anywhere?
Sheesh.
Provide a certified copy of her birth certificate if you're so sure.
Prove that the egg didn't actually hatch in the subcontinent of Africa. Also, prove that Zeus didn't take the form of a black swan instead of a white swan when he seduced Leda.
It's too bad that the radical right have to view everything through the lens of their distorted political ideology.
I think it does to those who browse the bedding department for outfits.
You were the first to focus in on it.
I wonder what those "losers" would do if MLK was portrayed by a white actor.
It is one of the points of your article. Stop trying to gaslight. It doesnt work for you.
MLK was a real person whose life's story is inseparable from his race, whereas here we have the real "losers" whining about what race a fictional character is played by in a story that has zero to do with race.
And as I said in my article, race is only important when it is essential to the character.
You did, however, prove my point. When it is a white person put into such a role, you quickly get upset and suddenly see what the problem is.
? Where did I get upset?
Oh, I've known what the problem is and it isn't filmmakers using actors of many different cultures, looks, skin colors, ages, hairstyles, makeup, clothes, those are all up to those telling their fictional tales.
The problem is tired old ignorant white, often male, dip shits who slime social media with their racist snark every time an actor that doesn't fit their pre-conceived fictional image in their empty heads is used by a filmmaker to tell a story. If the whiny bigots want to make a live action movie of a fictional cartoon from 30 years ago with an albino mermaid, let them buy the rights and front the production costs and put out their movie for their fellow shit heads.
The problem in this case is that the woke forbid a movie with a white European masculine hero in 2026.
Which is why...
Even the movie the moronic old white bigots are whining about has a "European masculine hero". Fucking whiny babies making shit up and screaming about wokeness.
Who are the moronic old white bigots?
Be specific
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How is Helen of Troy's race essential to her character in the film?
Do you believe that Matt Damon isn't white, or isn't masculine, or neither one?
Cool.. so a white woman can play Harriet Tubman?
The obsession some of you people have with this sort of thing is perplexing. White people played non whites in the movies for a couple generations. Any complaints about it werent listened to then. Either go see the movie or dont, no one cares.
Lol. " you people" are who made this an issue. You can't have it both ways.
Did you flush all those complaints about "whitewashing" and straight actors playing gay parts down the memory hole?
t, no one cares.
You obviously do, hence your posting.
Sure she can. I'm not sure who would be producing that show making the choice to cast a white woman, but it would be their choice. Of course, the kind of folk who would be demanding it be played by a white woman would be the last people to want to see a movie about how slaves escaped their ancestors, but that's the producers and casting directors' choice, I guess.
Most casting directors are trying to cast actors' people will want to see and pay for tickets to see. So why, might some poorly educated dipshits ask, would producers and casting directors cast diverse actors in roles that might have traditionally been played by white actors? Because they're looking for a WIDER audience, not a whiter audience. Of course, some braindead bigots lose what little they have of their minds when that fact slaps them in their stupid fucking faces, but why should we care what some backwards useless white supremacists think about movies anyway?
I'd listen to what a rational critic might have to say, a Siskel & Ebert reviewer, but I couldn't care less what rightwing conservative reviewers say. Well, that's not entirely true I guess, if I hear rightwing conservatives bashing a film that usually piques my interest to go see it so I guess it has the exact opposite effect of what the bigoted morons were hoping for.
From what I can tell the choices made in the Odyssey were the right ones and the sad little whiny wieners didn't have much effect.
Why not - Burt Lancaster played Jim Thorpe and got rave reviews.
Or Burt in "Apache".
I am going to see the movie on IMAX with Laser(whatever that is) on Monday. Based on reviews I think the only problem I will have is that I paid 20 dollars a ticket.
A laser is a device that emits a highly focused, concentrated beam of light through optical amplification.
Spoken by someone who seems to have no idea on ancient history, much less has spent much time actually reading his works. During the time of Homer, women had almost no legal, political or economic rights. The society was deeply patriarchal where men held all the power and women were viewed as the property of their fathers or husbands. Had she actually read Homer's stories, she would have seen that his stories show that women held great influence behind the scenes. Queens like Penelope in the Odyssey ran their households while their husbands were away.
As of this morning I found this:
There is nothing to fear. It is a very educational film.
Read the poem. I will assume you have a copy at home?
The Odyssey is a work of fiction, set in the Mediterranean. Considering the travel, trade, migration, and general intermingling of people, even in the ancient world, any character could theoretically look like just about anything.
I can’t think of a character in the story whose race is an essential part of their character.
This production was cast in the West, using available big name actors. So they could look like anyone, but probably very few, if any, are actually Greek. If the movie were produced in Bollywood, all the actors would probably be Indian.
You have to be really insecure to give a shit about this.
anne hathaway doesnt look too greek to me
It's all Greek to me.
But seriously, it could have been Kerry Washington playing Queen Penelope and it shouldn't make any difference. Movies are art and entertainment, they're not real. But clearly some thin-skinned bigots are constantly, involuntarily triggered by fantasy, fiction and art which just proves they have shit for brains.
... the never ending quest to be offended by trivial bullshit.
I find this article another whine looking for a problem...
I saw the movie on Saturday afternoon. Helen is in the movie less for less than five minutes over a few scenes as the captive bride of Menelaus. She barely has any dialog.
If there is any danger for Homer - it's that people don't read anymore, not in who plays his characters.
EDIT: It doesn't matter anyway.
Nolan out Nolaned himself this time, broke new records.
Rotten Tomatoes score of 97. Outstanding.
It's the story, stupid. George Bush, lol.
I think the interesting thing about this movie is they claim Judeo Christians ethics don’t form the basis of our society and yet don’t blink an eye when they rewrite odyesssus to make him an acceptable hero in 2026,
The hanging of Penelope’s maids, is taken out.., Odysseus throwing hectors infant son from the walls of Troy, gone.. they make Odysseus regret war rather than reveling in it. There’s no hint the odyssey that he felt any regret for his actions at Troy.,, but that doesn’t work in our society.
So I saw the movie on IMAX. A few thoughts:
It was a great movie from start to finish
Casting choices were good, everyone did an excellent job with a couple standouts
I have no clue about the accuracy but I really don't care. Most movies that are not total fiction are based on something unless unless they are documentaries. It is up to the director/writer how much they base it on the source material, not me or anyone else.
It was good enough to make me want to read the books, starting with the Iliad. To me there is no higher praise.
Normally I don't see movies a second time but my son in law got us imax 70 mm tickets in three weeks so I will seeing it again.
Remember Zeus's law.
Let me know what you think. I remember having a different copy of the Iliad and Odessy for High School and it was a mixed feeling, but a relief to finish.
i only have a copy of the Odessy now 334 pages and the binder is intact, I glanced at the last few pages and put the book back on the shelf.
It was one of the greatest stories ever told by an Ionic poet who may or may not have been real from Ionia, a Greek outpost in the Persian empire, now Turkiye.
Whether it was one author or several who managed to combine all of the great Greek legends into one story, it's still one hell of a good story.
Good Luck
Thanks. There seem to be so many translations out there .I'm gonna have to do a little research before I decide which one to read.