
sometimes i agree with you, however when a movie or show is based on a piece of literature or a prior show/movie that very clearly depicts a person of a certain race (no matter what that race is) it is frustrating to see people cast someone of a completely different race. it is ignoring the initial piece of art that it’s inspired by and will always gather criticism because if a character was designed a certain way - it was meant to stay that way
Im ok with every choice christopher nolan made because he made a phenomenal film. I don’t fucking care if the characters are black or white or trans or anything bro. Matt Damon was a perfect Odysseus. Travis Scott as the bard was awesome. Elliot Page had an amazing scene as the shade.
Still i literally could not care less what race anyone is played by. Thats how theater has worked for forever and its how movies work now. Unless the race of someone is actually important to their story it literally doesn’t matter and thats my entire point. Have you watched the odyssey yet? Or are you criticizing something you haven’t seen yet?
I mean the thing with black panther is that he was created to be a black character, named after the black panther movement. So its a little bit different. And a literal theme of the movie contrasting black people in america and how they are treated to the utopia that is wakanda so it is KINDA IMPORTANT THAT THEY ARE BLACK.
“Race should be respected” is literally the thought process that is why we have racism but ok. Culture should be respected but race itself only has meaning because we treat people differently as a society. Race is important in story of black panther has themes of racism. Race in the odyssey is basically as important as hair color because the story has NOTHING to do with race.
Setting ≠ Themes, the film is set in Greece, but it has no themes where race is important And if a samurai movie was played by a hispanic cast and it was a well made movie and they played the parts well. Yes i wouldn’t care because that is literally how theatre works. I didn’t care George Washington was black in Hamilton, i don’t care that Odysseus is Matt Damon.
Yeah but the backlash is mostly just powered by racism anyways. You don’t see the same level of outrage when Heathcliff, who is a POC in the novel and has to be as a core part of the story as to why he is discriminated against and can’t be with Cathy/classism, got represented by a white man in the Wuthering Heights movie.
I understand this, but the reason the news cares and it becomes so big is because of racism. The average joe not liking a change in character design is normal, but the consistent outrage whenever a character who’s race is irrelevant becomes a minority is just straight up racism. And some of the best adaptations always change things up. My favorite shakespeare plays have been ones that just reuse the script and completely rethink the setting and such.
I saw Much Ado About Nothing where instead of being set in the original time period its a modernized setting about a soccer team and I loved it. Great adaptations take creative liberties, and thats what christopher nolan is doing in this film. He turned Odysseus into a less flawed character, he turned Agamemnon into an aura farming silent badass, and he made HIS vision for the film he wanted to make that he BASED on The Odyssey. It was never going to be a 1:1 copy of the book.