A modern American accent is not a no-brainer for The Odyssey

Christopher Nolan chose to have the cast of The Odyssey use a modern American accent. He wanted “language that has emotional not intellectual meaning to people,” and so modern English is easier for audiences to connect to. I usually try not to say anything negative about a movie before I’ve seen it. But nah, I’m breaking that rule today. I didn’t have a huge problem with the casting1, but the dialogue even just in the trailer threw me wayyyy out of thinking this is The Odyssey. The accent doesn’t fit. The characters sound like they’re from Kansas, and it’s ridiculous. A modern American accent is only “easier” for native American speakers. The Odyssey is releasing internationally. So this reasoning doesn’t make sense when the goal is to help audiences. The movie industry has to stop treating audiences like they’re dumb. These assumptions lead to poor decisions. If Nolan thought the prose would be too difficult for people to understand, he could have modernized the language but still…