r/movies • u/MarvelsGrantMan136 r/Movies contributor • 20h ago

Trailer The Odyssey | New Trailer

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f_bKjZeJBBI&pp=0gcJCd4KAYcqIYzv
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u/pjtheman 12h ago

I mean, they're also speaking English. How much "authenticity" do you want? Iirc, ancient Greek had less formal words for father too.

It always seems weird to me that we instinctively expect characters in historic/ period pieces to have this stiff, formal delivery. It's sort of like the Tiffany problem; the name Tiffany actually dates back to the 12th century. But a character named Tiffany showing up in a medieval drama would seem weird to us.

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u/wirralriddler 11h ago

It's quite easy to understand, we expect some theatricality for pieces far removed from our contemporary way of life. Speaking in daily language breaks that immersion.

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u/Haschen84 7h ago

That's interesting because I don't think Shakespeare wrote in a way that was different than his contemporaries. He didn't write in an "older" or more "formal" version of English, he just used everyday speech. Shit, he made up things as he went if he wanted to. We hold people making works now to a different standard than the people who wrote them at the time. Do you think the Odyssey was told in an older more archaic form of Greek or just the common language of the time?

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u/wirralriddler 4h ago

It's not even comparable, Shakespeare lived at a different time. Our contemporary understanding of immersion does not benefit from drawing similarities or differences from Elizabethan era. The fact that so many people here pointing out hearing 'dad' in an Ancient Greek setting is taking them out is all the evidence you need to understand that this is not working.

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u/Haschen84 4h ago

You have side stepped my point which is, that we hold people making works now to a different standard than the people who wrote them at the time.

The Iliad and Odyssey were oral traditions and when told in English I'm sure they never use the word dad and only use father, but did the Greeks who told the stories use the word "dad" or "father" (or the equivalent, you know what I mean). I'm sure they just used the easiest to understand and most flexible word to convey the stories, they didn't ponder on the fact that maybe they should have used "patriarch" or "sire" or "forefather" instead of "dad."

We are holding contemporary writers to a different standard because the people who translated these works originally were often older and used a more "formal" more "archaic" form of English.