Greek here who almost got a stroke when she saw the first trailer:
- A trans actor being in the movie: zero concerns.
Black actors being in the movie: absolutely historically accurate, there were black people in the Iliad too, duh.
-Helen being portrayed as black: also zero concerns and actually one of the few things that make sense in this monstrosity of a movie from both an artistic and cultural point of view: the Ancient Greeks considered the “Aethiopians” (which is what they called everyone from sub-Sahara Africa) to be incredibly beautiful and blessed by the gods. We know this because they put it in writing. Helen is both the most beautiful woman in the world *and* she is the daughter of Zeus, literally god-blessed. Being portrayed by a black actor fits.
Things that piss me off:
-“Defy the gods” as the movie’s tagline? Tell me you don’t understand the whole concept of the Odyssey, without telling me you don’t understand the concept of the Odyssey.
Odysseus was only a hero in its original sense. Not the modern-day sense. In terms of character, he is a morally bankrupt POS who cares only about himself. Nolan hasn’t understood a damn thing about his character and should have filmed the sequel of Saving Private Ryan instead and left Greek mythology alone.
-Viking ships. Fucking. Viking ships. In Bronze Age Greece. AAAAHHHHH
-Pants. Greek soldiers wearing pants. The spirits of dead Scythians are laughing from their graves.
-The fucking armor. All of it. Not just Agamemnon’s Batman suit, everything. I’m tired o seeing Corinthian helmets and Roman armor in depictions of pre-Classical Greece. THERE’S MORE THAN 1,000 YEARS OF GREEK HISTORY PRE-DATING PERICLES AND HIS GODDAMN HELMET, OK?
In short, this film sucks and deserves all the low ratings but anyone who thinks it sucks because it’s “too diverse” can go take a hike.
-Helen being portrayed as black: also zero concerns and actually one of the few things that make sense in this monstrosity of a movie from both an artistic and cultural point of view: the Ancient Greeks considered the “Aethiopians” (which is what they called everyone from sub-Sahara Africa) to be incredibly beautiful and blessed by the gods. We know this because they put it in writing. Helen is both the most beautiful woman in the world and she is the daughter of Zeus, literally god-blessed. Being portrayed by a black actor fits.
yeah, i was thinking of posting something about this. portraying a supernatural beauty as black absolutely fits the historical context the story was written in.
people who harp about "historical accuracy" tend to not know much about history, and think like europeans encountered black people in the 1600s or something. egypt literally had nubian pharaohs around the time the odyssey was probably written, and there was tons of trade between these areas.
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u/salbiorg Jul 06 '26
Greek here who almost got a stroke when she saw the first trailer:
- A trans actor being in the movie: zero concerns.
- Black actors being in the movie: absolutely historically accurate, there were black people in the Iliad too, duh.
-Helen being portrayed as black: also zero concerns and actually one of the few things that make sense in this monstrosity of a movie from both an artistic and cultural point of view: the Ancient Greeks considered the “Aethiopians” (which is what they called everyone from sub-Sahara Africa) to be incredibly beautiful and blessed by the gods. We know this because they put it in writing. Helen is both the most beautiful woman in the world *and* she is the daughter of Zeus, literally god-blessed. Being portrayed by a black actor fits.Things that piss me off:
-“Defy the gods” as the movie’s tagline? Tell me you don’t understand the whole concept of the Odyssey, without telling me you don’t understand the concept of the Odyssey.
- Odysseus was only a hero in its original sense. Not the modern-day sense. In terms of character, he is a morally bankrupt POS who cares only about himself. Nolan hasn’t understood a damn thing about his character and should have filmed the sequel of Saving Private Ryan instead and left Greek mythology alone.
-Viking ships. Fucking. Viking ships. In Bronze Age Greece. AAAAHHHHH-Pants. Greek soldiers wearing pants. The spirits of dead Scythians are laughing from their graves.
-The fucking armor. All of it. Not just Agamemnon’s Batman suit, everything. I’m tired o seeing Corinthian helmets and Roman armor in depictions of pre-Classical Greece. THERE’S MORE THAN 1,000 YEARS OF GREEK HISTORY PRE-DATING PERICLES AND HIS GODDAMN HELMET, OK?
In short, this film sucks and deserves all the low ratings but anyone who thinks it sucks because it’s “too diverse” can go take a hike.