Ben Shapiro has broken with parts of his own political camp over Christopher Nolan’s “The Odyssey,” calling the $250 million epic a masterpiece just days after fellow conservative commentators tore into its casting choices.
The Daily Wire host posted an 18-minute video review on Saturday, rating the film between 8.5 and 9 out of 10 and declaring Nolan “the best director working today.” He praised Matt Damon’s performance as Odysseus, saying the actor disappears into the role in a way he rarely does elsewhere, and singled out the fall of Troy as visually unforgettable. Shapiro placed the film in a strong tier of Nolan’s catalog, even while acknowledging it strays from the Robert Fagles translation many readers know best.
The review lands as a direct rebuttal to backlash that built for weeks before the film’s Friday release. Daily Wire colleague Matt Walsh criticized the decision to cast Lupita Nyong’o as Helen of Troy, arguing no audience would accept her as the most beautiful woman in the world and suggesting Nolan avoided casting a white actress out of fear of criticism, a view Elon Musk echoed publicly.
Shapiro rejected that complaint outright, noting the script itself moves away from framing the Trojan War as a conflict sparked by Helen’s beauty. He was less forgiving of Elliot Page’s casting as the warrior Sinon, calling the choice “an absolute puzzler” and questioning whether Page’s physical presence matched the role.
Shapiro closed his review with a broader message to fellow conservatives, arguing that dismissing an entire film over a single casting decision undermines conservative influence in cultural debates. He also framed the film’s moral architecture as aligned with conservative themes of reciprocity and accountability, pointing to Nolan’s invented concept of a divine law obligating characters to treat strangers well since they might be gods in disguise.
Nolan has largely brushed off the criticism. Speaking before the film’s release, he said online backlash simply comes with directing a blockbuster and noted that many critics had weighed in before seeing the movie. The commentary arrives alongside a commercially triumphant opening for “The Odyssey,” which pulled in $264 million globally over its first weekend, the biggest worldwide launch of Nolan’s career.
