Yeees, it’s all coming back to me. Iambic pentameter is a stress on every fifth syllable or something. Yeah, all Greek to me.
You're just mad that you've never been part of a 5+ hour wedding in the middle of a 3+ hour long misery pornfest Walken is really really good in it though
Oh, I know. I chafed under the same, severe, Greek instruction. I’ve just softened my perception of it with age. Despite the uniquely Hellenic trauma.
I really liked The Return. It’s filtered through Sophoclean tragedy like a staging of Antigone or something like that. Almost the complete opposite of Nolan IMAX bombast.
Actually translation matters. I remember devouring Homer several times as a teenager. Later I wondered how I did it, until I found my old translation again and then the joy in the material …
I read and enjoyed Fagles translation about thirty years ago, and a couple of months ago I listened to Rouse's translation read by Anthony Heald on Audible. It's a great story that still appeals today, a man trying to return home to his family, relying on his wits and determination to overcome great odds. The Iliad, by comparison, is tougher on modern sensibilities.
I wonder if Nolan will have fantasy elements or translate them into realism ie. Ogre is just a big one eyed eye (once again, already done in O Brother Where Art Thou)
^I wish I could "like" that at least 1,000 times ^and this one also! I'm partial to the Richard Lattimore translations of the Iliad and Odyssey because those were the first that I read. One of my favorite school memories is of a classics professor who began the first day of class of a course on Homer and Virgil by just walking to the podium without a word of introduction, opening his Greek copy of the Iliad, and reading the first page aloud. The class was a study of the texts in English (using the Lattimore translations), but I will never forget the absolute magic of the way he began that semester! I like a lot of Nolan's work, so I'm eager to see what he will do with this adaptation!
Just saw it. You were right. Excellent. And surprisingly emotional. Though I wouldn't describe Nolan's style as bombastic (if anything, his critics tend to accuse him of being too understated), I don't really need to see his Odyssey after seeing this. Filled that Homer-shaped hole in my movie-watching heart. For now, at least.
I think that the over reliance upon bombastic scores can be an issue though. There are times in Oppenheimer where the score overwhelms the subject matter, and it feels as though he doesn’t trust the audience to keep their attention. It’s one thing for Batman to have a big loud score, but it doesn’t translate as well into a historical subject matter. I’m not sure how it’ll translate into a mythic story like The Odyssey but no doubt it’ll at least work better than it did in his last film.
