{"id":11098,"date":"2026-07-20T02:42:27","date_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:42:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11098"},"modified":"2026-07-20T02:42:27","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T21:42:27","slug":"ben-shapiro-calls-the-odyssey-a-masterpiece-despite-outrage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/?p=11098","title":{"rendered":"Ben Shapiro Calls &#8216;The Odyssey&#8217; a &#8216;Masterpiece&#8217; Despite Outrage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><script>\r\n  atOptions = {\r\n    'key' : '644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6',\r\n    'format' : 'iframe',\r\n    'height' : 90,\r\n    'width' : 728,\r\n    'params' : {}\r\n  };\r\n<\/script>\r\n<script src=\"https:\/\/www.highperformanceformat.com\/644b717812d811d6a1c1fc5b6ccd6fa6\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/ben-shapiro\/\" id=\"auto-tag_ben-shapiro\" data-tag=\"ben-shapiro\">Ben Shapiro<\/a> posted <a rel=\"noreferrer noopener nofollow\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=MQrF748gmRg\">an 18-minute review<\/a> of <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/christopher-nolan\/\" id=\"auto-tag_christopher-nolan\" data-tag=\"christopher-nolan\">Christopher Nolan<\/a>\u2019s \u201c<a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/t\/the-odyssey\/\" id=\"auto-tag_the-odyssey\" data-tag=\"the-odyssey\">The Odyssey<\/a>\u201d to his YouTube channel on Saturday, in which he called the Greek epic a \u201cmasterpiece\u201d despite the conservative outrage about the film\u2019s cast and historical accuracy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cNolan is unparalleled. He\u2019s the best director working today, without a doubt. He just creates iconic movie after iconic movie,\u201d Shapiro said. He also had lots of praise for star Matt Damon, adding, \u201cI think he\u2019s great in nearly everything. He sort of disappears into the part in a way that he doesn\u2019t in a lot of other movies. He\u2019s great as Odysseus.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tHe likewise gushed about several other members of the supporting cast: \u201cRobert Pattinson as Antinous is an excellent antagonist. He\u2019s sleazy and gross. Tom Holland as Telemachus is excellent, well cast. Anne Hathaway does a great job as Penelope.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tShapiro also fired back at those who complained about Lupita Nyong\u2019o playing Helen of Troy.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cSo, I know a lot of people were like, \u2018Oh my god, Lupita Nyong\u2019o is supposed to look like Diane Kruger.\u2019 I don\u2019t know. Diane Krueger doesn\u2019t look very Greek. She\u2019s German,\u201d Shapiro said. \u201cLupita Nyong\u2019o is a beautiful woman. But here\u2019s the thing, actually, in the script, Nolan goes out of his way to explain that the war wasn\u2019t really launched over Helen being gorgeous.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tThe political commentator did, however, take issue with Elliot Page\u2019s casting as Sinon. He called Page\u2019s role an \u201cabsolute puzzler\u201d before pointing out that he is \u201cabout 5\u20192 and 105 pounds soaking wet and has the voice of a woman. It doesn\u2019t work.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\tDespite outrage from right-wing voices<a rel=\"noreferrer noopener\" target=\"_blank\" href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/elon-musk-the-odyssey-lupita-nyongo-helen-of-troy-1236747385\/\"> like Elon Musk<\/a>, Nolan recently told The Telegraph that he\u2019s unbothered by the noise. He explained that online backlash \u201ccomes with the territory\u201d when making a blockbuster.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-margin-lr-auto  lrv-a-font-body-m   \">\n\t\u201cRemember, I spent 10 years of my life dealing with Batman,\u201d <a href=\"https:\/\/variety.com\/2026\/film\/news\/christopher-nolan-odyssey-backlash-elon-musk-irrelevant-1236806375\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Nolan explained<\/a>. \u201cWhen I came on \u2018Begins,\u2019 writers and artists had been working on this beloved character for almost 65 years, and a lot of freighted thoughts were out there about what he represents. And what I learnt over my time on that trilogy is you can\u2019t worry about any of that at all. What you have to do is honor the original text by interpreting it in the strongest way you personally can.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<script async=\"async\" data-cfasync=\"false\" src=\"https:\/\/pl30214220.effectivecpmnetwork.com\/9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\/invoke.js\"><\/script>\r\n<div id=\"container-9ab3d4df8a7e1a6171e16ddbf732cc19\"><\/div>\r\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Ben Shapiro posted an 18-minute review of Christopher Nolan\u2019s \u201cThe Odyssey\u201d to his YouTube channel on Saturday, in which he called the Greek epic a \u201cmasterpiece\u201d despite the conservative outrage about the film\u2019s cast and historical accuracy. \u201cNolan is unparalleled. He\u2019s the best director working today, without a doubt. He just creates iconic movie after&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":11099,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/variety.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/MixCollage-19-Jul-2026-02-00-PM-5685.jpg?crop=19px%2C22px%2C1163px%2C654px&resize=1000%2C563","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11098","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-pics-news"],"brizy_media":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=11098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/11099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=11098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=11098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/usnews-14267fa.ingress-comporellon.ewp.live\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=11098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}