Matt Damon and the Cast of ‘The Odyssey’ Should Not Be Reprimanded for Using American Accents

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  via @Movies / @FilmUpdates

• Hollywood’s American Accent Problem in Historical Epics

  There is a valid argument to be made about unrealistic accents in film. In the early days of Hollywood, every actor spoke in a classic 20th-century mid-Atlantic accent, which combined British and American speech, regardless of where the story took place. For instance, Charlton Heston and Elizabeth Taylor utilized this polished way of speaking in The Ten Commandments and Cleopatra, despite the fact that their respective stories took place in completely different centuries and regions. 

  
  The mid-Atlantic accent became common practice, allowing Hollywood films to cover vast terrain with movie stars who weren’t exactly right for their roles. Eventually, however, this practice became outdated as the wave of naturalistic filmmaking took over in the 1970s. Still, every so often, a period film manages to get away with an inaccurate accent performed with a committed and heightened sensibility. Russell Crowe pulled this off in Gladiator. Not only is his vaguely British accent a strange fit for ancient Rome, but the character of Maximus would not exactly be speaking English either.

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  via CoreyAtad

• The key to getting away with historical inaccuracies regarding language and speech in film is commitment. If the performers are all on the same page, an improper accent might not jump out. Furthermore, if all other elements of the film, from the story beats to the visuals, are engaging enough, the audience might not notice or even care.

• The Bizarre Critiques of The Odyssey

  It’s hard to know where to draw the line when it comes to misplaced accents in film and television, but some folks seem to have already denounced Matt Damon and the cast of The Odyssey. Based on this most recent trailer, the actors appear to be speaking with a standard American accent. However, unlike what Russell Crowe pulled off in the original Gladiator, the speech does not seem particularly heightened. 

  Matt Damon sounds like his Boston-bred self. Robert Pattinson and Tom Holland seem to be sporting their go-to American accents. Only Anne Hathaway sounds slightly Shakespearean, which might not be the expected choice either, but it does feel closer to what old Hollywood actors would have done. Fans were quick to make a series of pointed critiques about these inaccuracies. Some cinephiles mocked a moment in the trailer in which Robert Pattinson uses the word “daddy,” which also felt like a strange choice for an adaptation of an ancient Greek myth. 

  
   

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  via FilmUpdates

• Despite the fact that many of these points have merit, much of the criticism feels unnecessary for a variety of reasons. To start, the film remains unseen. There have only been trailers, and yet some folks have seemingly already decided on the entire movie. Before fans dismiss what they think they’re about to see and hear, they should give Christopher Nolan and his actors the benefit of the doubt and wait until the full feature is released.

  Furthermore, if we’re going to criticize what Nolan and his actors decided to do here, then we’re going to have to reassess our opinions on some of our favorite period films as well. If we cannot buy the believability of The Odyssey or take it seriously because of inaccurate accents, then we’d have to say the same about The Ten Commandments, Braveheart, Gladiator, and many more. 

  Finally, the critiques about “historical” inaccuracies in Nolan’s adaptation are unintentionally hilarious because much of the alleged history of the Trojan War and its aftermath is unknown. Once again, The Odyssey is a myth. Meaning, not factual. There are Greek gods and one-eyed monsters, and yet Matt Damon’s American accent is somehow making the film unrealistic? These flawed critiques echo how some fierce fans of the Game of Thrones franchise claimed that the portrayals of violence toward female characters were accurate and necessary depictions of the time. What time? The time when dragons reigned the earth?

  
   

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  via Darren_Mooney

• Consider what would happen if Christopher Nolan and his cast chose to use some form of an ancient Greek accent. Would that have been better or would we have ended up in a House of Gucci situation? That ensemble committed to a variety of different accents that felt more inaccurate than the actors’ natural ways of speaking. Sure, Odysseus would technically not be speaking in English or with an American accent, and definitely not a Boston accent, but he also wouldn’t be speaking in modern Greek either. 

   

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  via Jacobin

• At the end of the day, we cannot pick and choose when to use the historical inaccuracy argument. It’s one thing if a film was attempting to rewrite history (ahem, Michael), but what Christopher Nolan is doing in comparison is ultimately harmless. He is adapting an ancient myth that was never meant to be historically accurate, with a cast of movie stars who might not be Greek, but their characters were never even real to begin with. The outrage, therefore, is nonsensical and is only keeping audiences from enjoying what could be a fun, escapist moviegoing event.

   

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