Ben Shapiro posted an 18-minute review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey on his YouTube channel on Saturday, calling the Greek epic a “masterpiece” despite conservative outrage over the film’s cast and historical accuracy.
“Nolan is one of a kind. He’s arguably the best director working today. He’s created one iconic film after another,” said Shapiro. He also had a lot of praise for star Matt Damon, adding, “I think he’s great in almost everything. He just kind of disappears into the role in a way that you don’t see in a lot of other movies. He’s great as Odysseus.”
He similarly praised the rest of the supporting cast, saying, “Robert Pattinson as Antinous is a great antagonist. Vulgar and disgusting. Tom Holland is great as Telemachus and the cast is great. Anne Hathaway as Penelope does a great job.”
Shapiro also hit back at those who were unhappy with Lupita Nyong’o’s portrayal of Helen of Troy.
“So I know a lot of people thought, ‘Oh my God, Lupita Nyong’o should look like Diane Kruger.'” I don’t know. Diane Kruger doesn’t look very Greek. She’s German,” Shapiro said. “Lupita Nyong’o is a beautiful woman. But here’s the thing. In fact, in the script, Nolan goes out of his way to explain that the war didn’t actually start because Helen was gorgeous.”
However, political commentators objected to Elliot Page’s casting as Sinon. He called Page’s role “an absolute puzzler,” noting that she’s “about 5-foot-2, 105 pounds, dripping wet, and has a female voice. It just doesn’t work.”
Despite anger from right-wing voices such as Elon Musk, Mr Nolan recently told the Telegraph he was not concerned about the noise. He explained that online backlash is “part of making a blockbuster”.
“Remember, I’ve spent 10 years of my life working on Batman,” Nolan explained. “When I worked on Begins, the writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for about 65 years, and there were a lot of complex ideas out there about what he represented. And what I learned working on that trilogy is that you don’t have to worry about that at all. What you have to do is honor the original text by interpreting it in the most powerful way that you personally can.”
