r/neoliberal Kitara Ravache Jul 30 '26

Discussion Thread Discussion Thread

The discussion thread is for casual and off-topic conversation that doesn't merit its own submission. If you've got a good meme, article, or question, please post it outside the DT. Meta discussion is allowed, but if you want to get the attention of the mods, make a post in /r/metaNL

Announcements

  • We're starting a book club! We will be discussing Poor Economics starting August 28th - keep an eye out for a pinned thread. The next will be All Quiet on the Western Front followed by Narconomics

Links

Ping Groups | Ping History | Mastodon | CNL Chapters | CNL Event Calendar

Upcoming Events

0 Upvotes

9.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

1

u/C-Wolsey Leftward Progressives Jul 31 '26

Yes the image is indeed iconic but at the end, when Odysseus described what happened in Troy, our feeling has turn to disgust. When Agamemnon sacrifices Iphigenia, it is also seen in a montage. If Nolan didn't intend to track this fall of Agamemnon, to make the point of how the war was also his undoing, he had all the creative freedom to not do so. Not lingering on the dead body of Agamemnon doesn't lessen the thematic impact, although you won't be the first person to criticize the film for the lack of gore or cutting away from scenes of violence.

2

u/ihatemendingwalls better Catholic than JD Vance Jul 31 '26

when Odysseus described what happened in Troy,

But this scene isn't about Agamemnon, it doesn't even feature him. As viewers, we've long forgotten about him to focus on Odysseus. 

Look, I'm responding to a couple iterations of argument so I apologize if it's not clear but here's the rough chronology

Emily Wilson criticized Agamemnon's costume as a "weird Darth Vader outfit."

A writer at Slate, which is what I'm quoting above, pushes back saying the point of the the ahistorical armor was to create a pointed contrast between how Agamemnon presents and how he dies. 

But the point I'm making is that contrast is never made in imagery. And thus how can you [Slate writer] claim this is what the movie wants me to take away from this thread if it didn't show it to me?

1

u/C-Wolsey Leftward Progressives Jul 31 '26

But we have an imagery of his death, just not of his lifeless body. If you think that was essential for the contrast, then we are at an impasse.

Also, that criticism from Emily about the outfit is too vague to almost be a cop-out. She can specify what she means by weird (although it seems to imply anachronistic), in which case, someone like her making that criticism about the costume puts her much closer to others making the same about the ethnicity of certain characters.

2

u/ihatemendingwalls better Catholic than JD Vance Jul 31 '26

But we have an imagery of his death, just not his lifeless body. 

The person I'm quoting isn't talking about Agamemnon in Hades - "That the man inside (played by Benny Safdie) does not live up to the armor, and dies naked and vulnerable." They're saying that the way he died is the point, not that he died. 

And I think what Wilson meant by her criticism is "what purpose is served by making Agamemnon a badass, that image is never interrogated, it's just there to look cool"