Ben Shapiro Reviews The Odyssey

Ben Shapiro opens his review of Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey with a confession: he went in expecting to be annoyed by the politics, but came out rating the film between 8.5 and 9 out of 10. “It’s a masterpiece,” he says, while immediately acknowledging that the movie has “stones in the shoe”—flaws that feel like a canyon in your tooth even if others don’t see them. The review is a careful balancing act: Shapiro wants conservatives to enjoy a film with themes he finds deeply resonant, without letting a few casting decisions ruin the experience.

The central theme: Zeus’s law and conservative natural order

Nolan’s version of The Odyssey smuggles a clear thematic invention into the ancient story: Zeus’s law, which essentially means “treat people as you would want to be treated, because that person might be a god in disguise.” Odysseus violated this law when he devised the Trojan horse, which led to the slaughter of Troy. The film’s core argument is that violating natural law has infectious, cascading effects. Odysseus is racked not just with survivor’s guilt over his lost men, but with moral guilt over his role in the sack of Troy. The movie introduces unseen “sea people” who are invading Ithaca because Zeus’s law has been broken—a direct causal chain from one violation to a broader unraveling of order.