FL_Ag1998 said:AggieEP said:
Nolan is the greatest director of his generation. It's fair to speculate on his casting choices, but he has earned the right to cast who he thinks is best for individual roles.
Is it possible he cast Lupita as an attempt to redefine what we consider beauty? Yes it is possible, and popular culture has always been a tool used alternately to either reaffirm or challenge the status quo. It's an interesting question to ponder. I personally don't think it will make a material difference to my enjoyment of the movie unless when I see it she is unable to convincingly play the role.
To move this conversation between the two of us into a discussion about the actual film...
There has been enough interviews with the actresses and early reviews to confirm that one of the ways Nolan has reshaped the story to tell his version is to make the female character's roles and voices more prominant, redefine their motivations, and (I believe, though I could be wrong on this) flat out tell the story through their POV at times. In addition, some of the actresses assert that the original version (or at least the standard translations) either limited the female roles or portrayed women in unflattering male-dominated ways. They insist that Nolan's version modernizes the female characters and perspectives in the story by empowering them to be a more dominant force in the story. That matches Nolan's own words - that he wanted an emotional and diverse version that reflects how he views our modern world.
I think that's why he cast Nyong'o. I don't think he was trying to check any quota boxes for DEI or an Oscar. I think that's a response only if looking at the issue superficially. I think he chose her because 1) she's a good actress, but more importantly 2) a black actress in this role is the ultimate way for him to express his vision of reshaping The Odyssey to his perspective of the modern world.
Are there racists in the world? Of course, always will be, and they will target every skin color....black, white, brown, whatever. But most people being labeled racist in this controversy are actually criticizing Nolan taking ownership of the character motivations and intent of this classic story in order to reshape it (reshaperather than just retell) to fit what he thinks it should be. (And sure, to a lesser degree people are saying he could have at least picked someone more universally viewed as beautiful. I've said that myself).
Artists have been retelling and reinterpreting classic stories for centuries. On rare ocassions when they've decided to actually reshape a classic story's underlying message that's when controversy pops up. And it has in the past, just like it is right now. Its just an especially big deal now, with this movie, because 1) its ****ing Christopher Nolan, a premiere director who has the vision and clout to give us a prime authentic version yet he chose to go the opposite way, and 2) politics and race have been forced into entertainment, absolutely forced into entertainment, and this is the inevitable and intended result.
Me personally? I just wanted a cinematic retelling of The Odyssey that's as authentic as the worlds Eggers' recreates for his movies, and I'm irritated that I'm getting a ba***rdized version instead.
I actually agree with this post, and don't have anything to really object to in it outside of the final sentence indicating he's *******ized the story. If my memory serves me correctly, Homer's epic poem was passed down orally for years, so I'm not sure in this specific case if we can really say that Nolan is straying from Homer's authentic story, because we don't really know in exact detail what Homer's vision was. He's straying from the agreed upon version that emerged decades after that may or may not be accurate.
For some added context, I'm a researcher who specializes in popular culture, although mostly in Egyptian popular culture. And one of the things that's pretty apparent in any "retelling" of a classic story is that it will contain fingerprints from the time it is made. I won't say it's impossible to tell an ancient story without the influence of the present, but it's pretty difficult. There is an interesting (to me at least) book called "The Political Unconscious" and while I don't agree with everything in it (he is a bit heavy on theory), the main idea is that the act of narrative storytelling can never exist separate from political context. So again, based on that theory, it's actually impossible for Nolan to make a movie that doesn't in some way reflect the current political situation, even if he tried to.
