Ben Shapiro called Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey a “masterpiece” — even while admitting he hadn’t seen it yet and calling one of its casting choices “incredibly stupid.”
Story Snapshot
- Shapiro told right-wing critics they are “dead wrong” to dismiss The Odyssey, declaring it a masterpiece before seeing the film himself.
- Conservative commentator Michael Knowles reviewed the film and found real problems — including story changes from Homer and casting that he called deliberate DEI messaging.
- Shapiro separately called Elliot Page’s casting “incredibly stupid” and “a dumb kind of woke acknowledgement,” directly contradicting his own masterpiece claim.
- Mainstream critics like IGN and Chris Stuckmann gave the film strong reviews, calling it a “must-watch epic” with a standout third act.
Shapiro Calls the Film a Masterpiece — Without Seeing It
Ben Shapiro went public with a strong defense of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey, telling right-wing critics they are “dead wrong” to pan the film. He called it a masterpiece. The catch? Shapiro admitted he had not yet watched it. That detail matters. Praising a film as a masterpiece before sitting through it is hard to defend — and it handed critics an easy way to dismiss his entire argument as fanboy enthusiasm rather than honest review.
Shapiro also called Elliot Page’s casting as the Greek soldier Sinon “incredibly stupid” and “a dumb kind of woke acknowledgement.” That puts him in an odd spot — praising the whole film while calling one of its casting choices unrealistic and distracting. Both things cannot fully be true at once, and that contradiction is exactly what critics used to paint the right’s response to the film as confused and driven by ideology rather than honest artistic judgment.
What Right-Wing Critics Actually Found in the Film
Michael Knowles watched the film and raised specific, detailed concerns. He found that Nolan changed Homer’s original story in meaningful ways. In Homer’s epic, Odysseus resists the lotus plant that causes forgetfulness. In Nolan’s version, Odysseus gives in to it. Knowles also noted that Nolan adds a guilt storyline about the Trojan Horse violating Zeus’s law — something not in Homer — and changes the ending so Odysseus exiles himself rather than reclaiming his home and family.
Knowles also pointed to Lupita Nyong’o being cast as both Helen of Troy and Clytemnestra — reimagined as twins rather than sisters. He argued this framing shifts the cause of the Trojan War away from Helen and toward male ambition, which he read as a feminist rewrite of the classical story. These are real, documented changes to the source material. Whether those changes hurt or help the film artistically is a fair debate — but the changes themselves are not in dispute.
Where the Right’s Case Gets Complicated
The strongest counter-argument to the right-wing critics is that mainstream reviewers — who are not ideologically aligned with Nolan — also praised the film. IGN gave it an A rating and called it a “must-watch epic.” Film critic Chris Stuckmann called it “fantastic” and said the third act was his favorite Nolan had ever made. Matt Damon, who plays Odysseus, called making the film “the best experience of my life.” That kind of cross-the-board praise is hard to wave away.
Ben Shapiro (for once in his life) could have been cool.
He had the easiest opportunity imaginable. The entire internet was coming together to mock Christopher Nolan’s latest movie, united by one simple TRUTH:
This movie is sucks.
Ben could have stood with the people. He could… pic.twitter.com/ZyOpAYQuPY
— 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐀𝐫𝐭 𝐨𝐟 𝐏𝐮𝐫𝐩𝐨𝐬𝐞 🇺🇸 (@creation247) July 18, 2026
At the same time, right-wing critics have a legitimate point that narrative changes and casting choices deserve honest scrutiny. Calling every concern about story accuracy or casting “bigotry” shuts down real artistic debate. The problem for Shapiro specifically is that he undercut his own side. Declaring a film a masterpiece before watching it, while also calling one of its central casting choices stupid, gives opponents all the ammunition they need to ignore the valid criticisms his allies raised. The strongest conservative case here was always the specific, sourced story-change arguments from Knowles — not a blanket “masterpiece” verdict delivered without evidence.
Sources:
mediaite.com, vanityfair.com, independent.co.uk
