Establishment Hollywood reacts to criticism of Chris Nolan's Odyssey

Talking tough, but at the same time seeing the colossal failures of Snow White, The Rings of Power, and latter-day Star Wars movies in the rearview mirror, the industry is doing damage control the best it can. We’re referring, of course, to the growing negative reaction to the upcoming Odyssey feature, scheduled for release July 17th. An earlier piece described some of the problems with the film, as revealed in trailers.

Variety’s senior film reporter Marlow Stern leads the charge with his article, entitled “‘The Odyssey’: Why Elon Musk and His Troll Army’s Attacks Aren’t Just Silly but Wildly Inaccurate.” Stern begins the piece by mentioning those very same properties (listed in the first paragraph of this essay), as if they were worthy of being defended at all. Talk about your “suicidal empathy.”

Stern reminds us that the characters of the Odyssey are mythological, you see—presumably giving Nolan a free pass to portray them any way he likes. He then invokes the Straw Man of a comparison to Troy (2004), based on the other Homeric epic, the Iliad. Stern’s thesis here is that since Troy wasn’t that great and took many liberties with the source material—even if it did maintain fidelity to ethnicity—you have no right to complain about Nolan’s vision.

Stern then delves into considerable detail regarding the Oscar rules, to make the (frankly weak) case that Nolan did not need ethnic casting to satisfy the criteria. Surprisingly, he includes Nolan’s earlier film, Oppenheimer, as an argument against Nolan’s bending to the rules, somehow forgetting that they were not in effect at the time that film was released.

How sad it is that THE MESSAGE must now pervade entertainment media to this extent. I’m old enough to remember the days of Todd McCarthy and Bosley Crowther, who, you know, actually wrote about the films, and were not afraid to question the director’s choices. Crowther, who lived through the era of the real Bonnie and Clyde, rightly questioned why a slapstick approach should be taken to portray that pair of bloodthirsty criminals. But, that was then…

We now turn to the commentary of Greek citizen, Tom Hanks.

What’s happening right now with the Odyssey is absolutely unacceptable and it’s disrespectful and racist-like, coming from the critics toward both Lupita Nyong'o and what Christopher Nolan is trying to establish here. I would absolutely argue that what Lupita is doing here with this role completely outperforms what Diane Kruger did with her role as Helen of Troy back in 2004.

I just feel that the racists and misogynists out there really need to shut up and knock it off and keep everything to themselves. This is Christopher Nolan’s film and his vision after all. It’s not about making fans of the mythology happy or anything like that. It’s about his vision and his vision that should be respected. Period. The end. And this is the problem that filmmakers face today.

So, I don’t want to hear anything anymore about what people call as a race swap. It’s all made-up nonsense coming from the right-wing agenda. I know the truth hurts right now for the MAGA folks out there, but Greek citizens are welcoming this movie with open arms.

Now, this is truly pathetic, and gaslighting at its worst. The Internet is chock full of items describing Greek outrage at the upcoming movie. (And here.) Somehow “nice guy” Hanks also sees the need to attack Diane Kruger’s performance, assuring us that Nyongo’o will be better, when arguably, he has not seen the new film.

None other than J.R.R. Tolkien himself, when commenting on a 1958 treatment of Lord of the Rings, said, “The canons of narrative in any medium cannot be wholly different; and the failure of poor films is often precisely in exaggeration, and in the intrusion of unwarranted matter owing to not perceiving where the core of the original lies.” In other words, Respect the source material.

Or, as said by legendary movie mogul Sam Goldwyn, “If you want to send a message, use Western Union.”