Review: Yes, we’re still arguing about Nolan’s The Odyssey

影评：是的，我们仍在争论诺兰的《奥德赛》

Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey has been a lightning rod for controversy ever since the first casting and design reveals, igniting afresh with each new trailer. The film has garnered plenty of well-deserved accolades (and earnings) since its release, and yet somehow the debates rage on between classicists and the general public alike—all this over an adaptation of an epic poem that’s been around since roughly the 8th century BCE.

克里斯托弗·诺兰（Christopher Nolan）的《奥德赛》自首次公布选角和设计方案以来，就一直处于争议的中心，每一支新预告片的发布都会让争论重新燃起。自上映以来，这部电影赢得了许多当之无愧的赞誉（以及票房收入），但古典学者与普通大众之间的争论却依然激烈——这一切仅仅是因为对一部自公元前8世纪左右就已存在的史诗进行了改编。

My take: the IMAX scale might be epic, but Nolan gives the story an intimate feel, weaving a captivating, nearly three-hour cinematic spell. While the magic slowly starts to dissipate once one leaves the theater, the powerful imagery will resonate for days. And the film gave me, personally, a fresh perspective on the central character of Odysseus. (Spoilers below.)

我的看法是：IMAX的规模或许宏大，但诺兰赋予了故事一种亲密感，编织出了一场长达近三小时、引人入胜的电影魔咒。虽然当你离开影院时，这种魔力会慢慢消散，但那些震撼的画面会在脑海中回荡数日。对我个人而言，这部电影让我对核心人物奥德修斯有了全新的认识。（下文含剧透。）

Most of us read some version of The Odyssey in high school, so we’re familiar with the story: Odysseus (Matt Damon), legendary Greek king of Ithaca, begins the long journey home after 10 years of fighting in the Trojan War. But the journey does not go smoothly, as Odysseus and his men encounter the cyclops Polyphemus (Bill Irwin), the Sirens, and an enchantress named Circe (Samantha Morton), among other obstacles. Meanwhile, his long-suffering wife, Penelope (Anne Hathaway), is warding off hundreds of suitors eager to usurp Odysseus’ throne back home. And the wandering king’s son and heir, Telemachus (Tom Holland), is convinced his father is still alive and sets off to find him.

我们大多数人在高中时都读过《奥德赛》的某个版本，所以对这个故事很熟悉：伊萨卡岛的传奇希腊国王奥德修斯（马特·达蒙饰）在参加了10年的特洛伊战争后，踏上了漫长的回家之路。但旅途并不顺利，奥德修斯和他的船员们遭遇了独眼巨人波吕斐摩斯（比尔·欧文饰）、海妖塞壬以及女巫喀耳刻（萨曼莎·莫顿饰）等重重阻碍。与此同时，他饱受煎熬的妻子佩涅洛佩（安妮·海瑟薇饰）正在抵御数百名觊觎奥德修斯王位的追求者。而这位流浪国王的儿子兼继承人特勒马科斯（汤姆·赫兰德饰）坚信父亲还活着，于是出发去寻找他。

Nolan sets the tone by opening with a bard (Travis Scott) beginning to tell the tale of the fall of Troy—at least the idealized heroic version that the bard’s audiences are hungry to hear. It’s not meant to reproduce ancient Greek oratory tradition, just to evoke some sense of it, and the device is surprisingly effective. The director has also preserved Homer’s nonlinear narrative structure, with tales nesting within tales. His depiction of Odysseus is that of a seemingly broken man slowly regaining his fractured memories of the Trojan war and its aftermath in bits and pieces, after spending years under the intoxicating effects of the lotus fruit with Calypso (Charlize Theron) on the island of Ogygia. What has he tried so hard to forget, and why? What difficult truth must he finally face before he can find his way home at last?

诺兰通过开场的一位吟游诗人（特拉维斯·斯科特饰）讲述特洛伊陷落的故事来定下基调——至少是吟游诗人的听众们渴望听到的那种理想化的英雄版本。这并非为了重现古希腊的演说传统，只是为了唤起某种氛围，而这种手法出奇地有效。导演还保留了荷马非线性的叙事结构，采用了“故事套故事”的嵌套手法。他笔下的奥德修斯是一个看似破碎的男人，在奥吉吉亚岛上与卡吕普索（查理兹·塞隆饰）一起沉溺于莲花果的迷幻作用多年后，正一点一点地找回关于特洛伊战争及其后果的破碎记忆。他如此努力想要忘记的是什么？为什么？在最终找到回家的路之前，他必须面对什么艰难的真相？

We only get the briefest of flashbacks at first, little more than fleeting impressions, because the Ithacan king can’t yet face his memories whole. As the film progresses, we gradually cycle through increasingly detailed memories of what transpired before Odysseus washed up alone on Calypso’s island—the sole survivor among all his men. It all builds up to a powerful moment of self-revelation with Penelope, where he finally admits that his long absence was driven in part by his stricken conscience at the horror his cleverness had unleashed on Troy.

起初，我们只能看到极其短暂的闪回，不过是转瞬即逝的印象，因为这位伊萨卡国王还无法完整地面对自己的记忆。随着电影的推进，我们逐渐循环看到越来越详细的记忆，揭示了奥德修斯在独自漂流到卡吕普索岛之前所发生的一切——他是所有船员中唯一的幸存者。这一切最终汇聚成与佩涅洛佩之间一次强有力的自我揭示时刻，他终于承认，他长期的缺席部分是因为他的良心受到谴责，因为他的聪明才智给特洛伊带来了恐怖的灾难。

This approach gives the audience a sense of what Odysseus is experiencing, but it also led to complaints that Nolan had wasted his talented cast of major Hollywood stars. Theron’s Calypso gets just a few minutes of screen time. Ditto Lupita Nyong’o in her dual role as Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra; Jon Bernthal’s Menelaus; and Benny Safdie’s Agamemnon, among others. It’s true that Nolan presumes his audience is familiar with Homer’s epic poem and hence many of these characters primarily exist in the margins of Odysseus’ memories. But minutes of screen time are not necessarily indicative of the relative importance of any given role to Nolan’s vision.

这种处理方式让观众感受到了奥德修斯的内心体验，但也招致了批评，认为诺兰浪费了由好莱坞大牌明星组成的才华横溢的演员阵容。塞隆饰演的卡吕普索只有几分钟的戏份。露皮塔·尼永奥饰演的特洛伊海伦和克吕泰涅斯特拉的双重角色、乔·博恩瑟饰演的墨涅拉俄斯以及本尼·萨弗迪饰演的阿伽门农等人也是如此。诚然，诺兰预设观众熟悉荷马的史诗，因此许多角色主要存在于奥德修斯记忆的边缘。但出场时间的长短并不一定代表某个角色在诺兰的构想中相对重要性。

For instance, Zendaya’s Athena only appears to Odysseus in brief dream-like sequences, but those moments are critical. As he regains his memories, her mood shifts from calm neutrality to sadness, disappointment, disapproval, and ultimately to horrified grief as the invading Greek army chops off the head of her statue in a Trojan temple—along with the head of a young Trojan woman with Athena’s face. Athena represents the personal reckoning Odysseus is so loath to face.

例如，赞达亚饰演的雅典娜只在短暂的梦境片段中出现在奥德修斯面前，但这些时刻至关重要。随着他找回记忆，雅典娜的情绪从平静的中立转变为悲伤、失望、不赞同，最终在入侵的希腊军队砍下特洛伊神庙中她的雕像头部——以及一张长着雅典娜面孔的年轻特洛伊女子的头颅时——转变为惊恐的悲痛。雅典娜代表了奥德修斯极力想要逃避的个人清算。

Similarly, Elliot Page is only in a couple of small scenes as Sinon, a character who doesn’t even appear in Homer’s Odyssey; his story can be found in Virgil’s Aeneid. He’s the soldier left behind with the Trojan horse, whose lies convince the Trojan army to bring this “gift” to honor Athena into the walled city. Nolan has retooled the character into an innocent victim, unaware of Odysseus’ scheme, who nonetheless gives his life for it. His accusatory shadow shows up when Odysseus and his men travel to the underworld to consult with the blind prophet Tiresias (James Remar)—yet another example of the human toll exacted for violating “Zeus’s law” of hospitality in order to end the siege and win the war. Nobody makes more of their limited screentime than Samantha Morton as the sorceress Circe.

同样，艾略特·佩吉饰演的西农只有几个小场景，这个角色甚至没有出现在荷马的《奥德赛》中；他的故事可以在维吉尔的《埃涅阿斯纪》中找到。他是那个被留在特洛伊木马旁的士兵，他的谎言说服了特洛伊军队将这份“献给雅典娜的礼物”带入城内。诺兰将这个角色重塑为一个无辜的受害者，他并不知晓奥德修斯的阴谋，却为此献出了生命。当奥德修斯和他的船员前往冥界咨询盲先知提瑞西阿斯（詹姆斯·瑞马尔饰）时，西农那充满指责的影子出现了——这是为了结束围城并赢得战争而违反“宙斯好客法则”所付出的人力代价的又一个例子。没有人比饰演女巫喀耳刻的萨曼莎·莫顿更能利用她有限的银幕时间了。