Ben Shapiro Reviews The Odyssey

Alrighty folks, the time has come. We are going to review The Odyssey. I saw it in IMAX and I have many, many thoughts. This video is sponsored by friends over at PDS Deck. Alrighty, so I want to begin with the overall. On a scale of 1 to 10, where does this movie lie? Somewhere for me between an 8.5 and a 9. It's really, really, really good. It's a terrific

movie. And believe you me, I'm going to get into all of the politics, specifically regarding the casting and some of the sort of stones in the shoe when it comes to this movie. There are certain flaws in the movie that feel enormous, truly, to the viewer. They feel big. It feels like a sort of chip in your tooth where everybody else looks at your tooth and they're like, ah,

there's nothing wrong with your tooth. And then you feel with your tongue like, oh my gosh, there's like a canyon in my tooth. Well, there's some of those things in the film and I'll get to those things. Some of them are things that you've probably been thinking about. Some of them not as much. But overall, the movie is, Nolan's great at what he does. I mean, the movie is a masterpiece.

piece. It is. Now, it doesn't hew entirely to sort of the characterization of Odysseus in the Odyssey, if you're reading the Robert Fagel's version, for example. It takes liberties with some of the characterization. You'd figure it would have to. When you're talking about ancient literature, most of the characters in ancient literature are not particularly well characterized. You don't

sort of get their interior monologue, the thing that they're thinking the whole time. And the thematic, when it comes to the Odyssey, is not totally clear. You have a bunch of speeches that kind of will insert a theme here or there, but it sounds as though there's some sort of overarching dramatic theme to the Odyssey

other than a man trying to get home. But Nolan does something different here. He actually inserts a sort of overarching theme that I quite liked.

Now, whether you think that's true to the theme of the Odyssey is another question. There may be hints in the original poem, but it's certainly not clear from the text of the Odyssey

that what he's doing with Odysseus is actually kind of directly from the text. That's okay. You're allowed to take liberties with ancient texts.

As a film, does it work? Absolutely. Now, the film starts off relatively slowly. So the first hour starts off fairly slowly

and kind of episodic. And then about halfway through, it kicks in and you realize what the theme is going to be and it just gets better and better.

So by the time you hit the end, it actually is quite moving and quite effective. Okay, so again, we'll start from the very beginning. Nolan is great at what he does.

The movie looks beautiful. It's well shot. The images are incredible and iconic. They're images you can't get out of your head

after having seen the film, particularly the fall of Troy, which appears in the last hour of the film or so, is extraordinary.

The entire incident with the Trojan horse is filmed in dramatic fashion. Again, extraordinary. Everything with the Cyclops is amazing.

The script has some flaws. I'll get to the flaws in a second. I do have somewhat of a problem with Nolan's sound mixing.

He does this thing in a lot of his movies where the sound of the score sometimes overwhelms the dialogue, which is a problem

because I'm trying to actually hear what the character is saying. And that does happen from time to time. Particularly, there's a scene

where Charlize Theron, who's playing Calypso, is sort of giving you her rationale for why Odysseus was stranded and why she's allowing him to leave

and all of that. And it kind of gets eaten up by the score. That's a problem. But again, as a director, Nolan is unparalleled.

He's the best director working today, without a doubt. He just creates iconic movie after iconic movie. The cinematography is beautiful. The score by Ludwig Goranson is, I would say, good, not great.

You don't walk out sort of thinking that that was one of Goranson's best scores. I think his score to Oppenheimer is better. The acting throughout is very good with a few exceptions.

So Matt Damon as Odysseus, I will admit, I'm a big Matt Damon stan. I really like Matt Damon. I think he's great in nearly everything.

He really sort of disappears into the part in a way that he doesn't in a lot of his other movies. He's great as Odysseus. Robert Pattinson as Antonis is an excellent antagonist. He's sleazy and gross.

Tom Holland as Telemachus is excellent, well cast. Anne Hathaway does a great job as Penelope. Corey Hawkins as Polybus is great. Zendaya.

My name is not Zendaya. I actually liked in this movie. I know that's a rarity. I'm not a huge Zendaya fan, but Zendaya.

Zendaya. What Nolan does with Zendaya. Zendaya. I'll explain in a second.

He's actually quite smart. Jon Bernthal as Menelaus. I do like Jon Bernthal in nearly everything. Charlize Theron as Calypso is great.

John Leguizamo as Eumaeus. A lot of people didn't like his performance. I liked it. I didn't have a problem with Lupita Nyong'o as Helen or Clytemnestra.

You know where I'm going here. You know where I'm going to say that the casting went awry. And it really did. Okay, so I'm going to talk about the themes and then I'm going to get to the flaws.

So the theme of the movie, the way that Nolan unspools it, is basically that Odysseus is almost a self-imposed exile. Yes, he wants to get home, but he suffers tremendous guilt

over the loss of his men during the Trojan War. He doesn't think the Trojan War should have been fought. He's sort of strong-armed into it by Agamemnon and by Menelaus.

He has to abandon his wife. He has to take a draft of his people, and then he has to go, and he's there for 10 years,

and then he's missing for another seven years. All of that is stuff that he regrets. So he's racked by regret over the loss of his men, but as it turns out,

he's also racked with regret over the end of the Trojan War itself. So one of the conceits of the film is that there is this rule

that is essentially a biblical rule