Ben Shapiro Reviews The Odyssey

[00:00:00]Alrighty folks, the time has come. We are going to review the Odyssey. I saw it in IMAX [music] and I have many, many thoughts. This video is sponsored by our friends over at PDS Deep.

[00:00:15]All righty. So, I want to begin with the overall. On a scale 1 to 10, where does this movie lie? Somewhere for me between an eight and a half and a nine. 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 [music] casting and some of the sort of stones in the shoe when it comes to this movie.

[00:00:33]There there are certain flaws in the movie that feel enormous truly to the viewer. They feel big. It feels like a 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, you're like, "Oh my gosh, there's like a canyon in my 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. It is. Now, it doesn't hue entirely to sort of the characterization of Odysius in the Odyssey. If you're reading the Robert Fagel's version, for example, it takes liberties with some of the characterization. You would 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 will insert a theme here or there, but it's not as though there's some sort of overarching [music] dramatic theme to the Odyssey other than a man trying to get home. But no one 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 Odicius is actually kind of directly from the text. That's okay. [music] You're allowed to take liberties with ancient taxes as a film. Does it work?

[00:01:52]Absolutely. Now, the film starts [music] 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. There are 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 [music] is amazing. The script has some flaws. And 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 [music] his movies where the sound of the of the score sometimes overwhelms the dialogue, which is a problem cuz [music] I'm trying to actually hear what the character is saying. And that does happen from time to time. Particularly, there's this a scene where Chariss Thuron, who's playing Calypso, is sort of giving you her rationale for [music] why Odysius was stranded and and why she's allowing him to leave and all of that. And it kind of gets eaten up by the score. That's [music] 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 [music] movie after iconic movie. The cinematography is beautiful. The score by Lia Gorensson is, I would say, good, not great. You don't walk out sort of of thinking that that was one of Gorson's [music] best scores. I think his score to Oppenheimer is better. The acting throughout is very good with a few exceptions. So Matt Damon is Odysius. I [music] will admit I'm a big Matt Damon stand. I really like Matt Damon. I think he's great in nearly everything. He he really sort of disappears into the part in a way that he doesn't in a lot of his other movies.

[00:03:29]He's he's great at Zodius. Robert Patson as Antonist [music] is an excellent antagonist. He's sleazy and gross.

[00:03:36][music] Tom Holland as Telmachus is excellent, well cast. and Hathaway does a great job as Penelopey. Cory Hawkins as Palibus is great. Zeniah, >> my name is not Zeniah.

[00:03:45]>> I actually liked in this movie. I know that's a rarity. I'm not a huge Zeniah.

[00:03:48]>> Zenia >> fan, but Zenziah.

[00:03:50]>> Zenia.

[00:03:51]>> What Nolan does with Zenia.

[00:03:52]>> Zenia, >> I'll explain in a second is actually quite smart. John Bernthal as Menaaus. I I do like John Bernthal in nearly everything. Charlie Theronos Galypso is great. John Leguisamo as a lot of people didn't like his performance. I I liked it. I I didn't have a problem with Lea Niongo as Helen or Clydeestra. You know where I'm going here. You know where I'm going to say that the casting went arai and it really did. Okay. So, I'm going to talk about the themes and then I'm gonna get to the flaws. So, the theme of the movie, the way that that Nolan unspools it is basically that Odysius is in 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 he doesn't think the Trojan War should have been fought. He's sort of strong armed into it by Agamemnon and by Menaaus. 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.

[00:04:39]All of that is stuff that he regrets. So he 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 smuggled into Greek theology. Treat people as you would want to be treated.

[00:04:56]I mean this comes up multiple times in the film. that rule is put into the guise of because that person may turn out to be a god, right? Because if you're treating a person in a certain way, that person may turn out to be a god in disguise. It's called Zeus's law.

[00:05:08]They keep saying it over and over in the film. And so the basic idea is that Zeus's law was violated by offering a gift in order to get inside the walls of Troy. And [music] then a slaughter was carried out. Essentially, holocaust of Troy was carried out. And so he has regrets over both the slaughter that was carried out, but mostly over his crucial role in violating Zeus's law because he as a character is not someone who tends to fear the gods. He's not someone who tends to think that fate is in the hands of the gods. He's constantly rebelling against fate as he's informed by one of the other characters, Athena. It turns out that actually he's not rebelling against fate as much as he's rebelling against human nature. In any case, because of those regrets, he's sort of sidetracked and he has to learn that human nature is venal and greedy and bad and that he's not in control of everything. But the idea also is that's why you have things like Zeus's law. And when Zeus's law is violated, then it is very difficult to put back together.

[00:06:00]There's a a threat that is sort of materialized into the script that there [music] are these sea people whom you never see who are violating all the laws of war and they're going ashore in places like Ithaca in order to invade it and they're not paying attention to any of Zeus's law. And it turns out that Odysius [music] believed that the reason why that's happening is because he violated Zeus's law and now you've unleashed upon the world this violation of the natural order. Again, very conservative messaging that once you violate the natural law, that has infectious effects. The idea that human beings are greedy and [music] venal. You see that in the scene with Cersei where the men are turned into pigs, which by the way is one of the creepier scenes ever filmed. I mean, really creepy. The way that he films that is that Cersei physically manipulates these these men get addicted to eating and then she physically manipulates their bodies into the bodies of pigs. It's super creepy and weird. Yeah. Again, really well filmed and thematically pretty interesting. [music] And the idea is that he has to violate Zeus's law essentially one last time and then go into exile in order to preserve the city. That's Samantha Morton who plays Cersei by the way. The basic idea here is in the very last battle he comes back obviously and now he has to kill all the suitors. Now in the Odyssey he just kills all the suitors and retakes the crown and then he has to sort of broker a piece with all of the remaining lords.

[00:07:13]Here the idea is that he's going to violate Zeus's law one last time in order to take out all the enemies and then he's going to go into exile with Penelopey [music] and Telmachus is going to become the king because he hasn't actually violated the law of Zeus and that means that he essentially has to take on everybody by himself. Again, the thematic I think is kind of great. I kind of love it a little bit and the movie is beautiful.

[00:07:32]And now on to the actual flaws. So, there have been a bunch of flaws that have been pointed out particularly by people on the political right. And again, I'm trying to be objective about these films. I like this is why I wasn't going to jump to conclusions about the film based on a bunch of sort of online rumors. I wanted to see it and then review it. I know a weirdness, an oddity. Okay, so there are essentially I would say five flaws that have been presented by people on the right when it comes to [music] casting and all the rest. Those flaws would be in order.

[00:07:58]Travis Scott, who's a rapper, playing the bard. Leita Niango playing Helen, the most beautiful woman ever to have lived. The use of the terms dad and mom in the film, the sort of modern language of the film, Zenaiah.

[00:08:09]>> Zenaia >> as Athena and Elliot Pageige as Sinnon.

[00:08:12]So, I'm going to go through those in in order. So, starting with Travis Scott as the bard. He's in it for about 5 seconds. Okay. So, this goes to why isn't everybody in the movie Greek? I'm just going to point out at this point, no one in the movie is Greek. Literally no one. Matt Damon is of Nordic extraction. Okay, Matt Damon is a very white guy. He is not Greek. Tom Holland does not look Greek. Anne Hathaway does not look Greek. None of these people look Greek. So, we can start with that.

[00:08:38]I'm not super bothered by, you know, Travis Scott playing the bard. It didn't really take me out of the story in any significant way. Okay. So, maybe the bard is just a traveler from Northern Africa in this particular version. I'm not going to I'm not going to go crazy over that. It doesn't doesn't change the story in a fundamental way. I feel the same thing about Lepita Nyango. So, I know a lot of people were like, "Oh my god, Lepita Niongo is supposed to look like Diane Krueger." I don't know. Diane Krueger doesn't look very Greek. She's German. So, Lepa Nango is a beautiful woman. But here's the thing. [music] Actually, in the script, Nolan goes out of his way to explain that the war wasn't really launched over Helen being gorgeous. There's a line where he actually has Odysius explain to Penelopey the reason the war is being launched is that Helen is a pretext.

[00:09:19]Helen is an excuse. Actually, Troy just exists on the trade routes. And Agamemnon and Menaaus want to seize control of the trade routes. The Greeks want control of that trade route. And they're going to use the abduction or flight of Helen as the excuse [music] for the battle. So, it's not really about Lepita Niongo being like extraordinarily beautiful as much as it is an excuse for why they did this thing in the first place. And by the way, I think that's also why Nolan is trying to underscore that by having Helen and Clyde Himnestra actually be twins. The the goal there is to say her beauty is not unique. It was a pretext. So, he actually solves the problem that people were complaining about. Again, I'm not sure it was a huge problem to begin with, but okay. So, Travis Scott didn't bother me. Leita Yango didn't bother me.

[00:09:58]How about Zeniah?

[00:10:00]>> Zenaia.

[00:10:01]>> Okay. Third casting thing that people were upset about was Zenaia as Athena.

[00:10:04]This is actually in the script. Nolan does something super clever here. I actually really love what he does with Zeniah as Athena here. Why? Wh Why does Matt Damon, again, the idea is that the gods appear to Matt Damon as he sees them and not that objectively speaking, Athena looks like Zeniah. Why does that happen? Okay, so there's a flashback near the end of the film where he is flashing back to the sack of Troy and they're slaughtering everyone. He says it's 10 years of rage and anger being taken out on the population. And it's a slaughter. I mean, they're killing men, they're killing women, they're killing children, all of it. He watches as soldiers, as Greek soldiers take Zenaia, who's a young woman living in Troy, and behead her in front of him. At the same exact time, he is watching a statue of Athena beheaded. [music] Right? Again, Zeus's law has been violated. And so now forever in his mind, this young woman who's been beheaded and Athena are tied and they're the same. The idea is that any god can be a human being, right?

[00:10:51]That's part of Zeus's law. And so it's actually a super clever device. Casting Zenaia in that role doesn't change anything. The point isn't that Athena is supposed to be the most beautiful woman who has ever lived and she's supposed to look Greek or like the idea is that he sees the humanity in the goddess Athena, right? That's the idea there. So it's actually cleverly woven into the script.

[00:11:09]I think Zenai does a fine job. She doesn't bother me at all. So again, [music] those three problems don't have a problem. Then there are the two that are a problem. Here are the actual stones in the shoe. One of them is the use [music] of language like dad or daddy and mom. It takes you out of it.

[00:11:21]Just a reality. It takes you out of it and there's no reason for it. You could have just said father and mother and it would have not taken you out of it.

[00:11:27][music] Anything that takes me out of the film is a thing that should not have happened in the film is my basic rule here. So if it takes you way out of the film, again, it doesn't take me out of the film that there's a multi-racial cast. If you want to make the case everybody needs to be Greek to be authentic, [music] I think you can make that case. If you want to make the case everybody has to be white, I think that that is a a lesser case because white people and Greek are not quite the same thing. And if you want to make the case that males should play males and females should play females, I'm very much into that. That makes sense to me. Well, folks, in the Odyssey, Odysius spends a [music] lot of time treading water. But here's the thing. If your credit card balance is going down by 20 bucks a month, you are also just treading water.

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[00:13:01]And that brings us to Elliot Page. This is an absolute puzzler of a decision by Christopher Nolan. And it's a decision that actually has impact on the film.

[00:13:10]Okay, so Elliot Page does not in fact play Achilles. I know there are lots of rumors that Elliot Page plays Achilles.

[00:13:14]Nope. Nope. That's stupid. Elliot Page is not playing Achilles. Malia Page, who is a woman with mental issues who believes that she is a man and has had surgeries to make her appear more man-like, but still she is about 5' 2 and 105 lbs soaking wet and has the voice of a woman. It doesn't work. Hey, so Elliot Page plays a character named Sinnan. The character arc of this character is you see Sinnon as a young boy, a pudgy young boy who's maybe 10 or 11 years old. And Robert Patson's character is selected to be [music] drafted to go to the Trojan War and essentially threatens this young boy to go to the Trojan War instead or he's going to kill the family. And so Cinnon ends up going to the war in place of Robert Patson. It's kind of a crucial plot point. Okay, Sinnon, this young pudgy boy, then turns out to be a for a 39-year-old woman dressed as a man, which again, that's weird. It's especially weird because the person they got to cast as kind of young Robert Patson looks like Robert Patson. The person they cast as young Elliot Page looks like a pudgy boy. So it doesn't work. Son is supposed to be the soldier who's stationed outside the Trojan horse to tell the Trojans that this is actually a giant gift. Okay. In the film, Sinn is told by Odysius that you're [music] going to explain this to the Trojans. And instead of Sinn explaining to the Trojans what's going on with the horse, the Trojans just kill Sinnan right away. That's the one scene with Elliot Paige. And then there is a second crucial scene. This scene is drawn originally in the Odyssey from I believe book 11 of the Odyssey, which is the part where Odysius visits Hades, right? Visits hell and has a conversation with Achilles. Now again, in the Anid Sinn is a character who actually appears in in Hades. So this part, the Elliot page part is not supposed to be Achilles. In the movie, he takes his crew Odicius to Hades. And in Hades, he has a conversation with Cinnon in which Sinnon explains that Odysius must have lied to him about not dying, about living through that that particular affair. And also Sinnon warns him that he is going to that that his crew members are likely going to die and talks about heroism in battle and how heroism isn't really worth it so much.

[00:15:21]Coming out of the mouth of Elliot Page just doesn't land. The shots are beautiful, the dialogue is good, and it's coming out of the mouth of a woman.

[00:15:28]There's just no other way to put it.

[00:15:29]Elliot Page is still a woman and the voice is the voice of a woman. And having a woman pretending to be a youngish man telling you these things does not land in the way that it should.

[00:15:39]Does it kill the movie? No, of course not. But is it a flaw in the movie that is utterly unnecessary? [music] To me, this falls into totally the same category as dad and mom and mommy and like it's just it's a it's a stone in the shoe of the movie that is totally unnecessary and takes you out of it. And that's annoying. It's an unforced error.

[00:15:56]Now, I'm not going to speculate as to why Nolan did this. Maybe it's because he's personally friendly with Elliot Page. Feels bad for Elliot Page because Elliot Page is a disturbed person, was friends with that person from the time they did Inception together. Maybe it is in fact some sort of Oscar bait attempt.

[00:16:11]Although, I'm not sure why Nolan would need to do that considering that again Nolan's already won Oscars for Oppenheimer. In any case, it's a puzzling and nonsensical decision and he shouldn't have made that decision. It's a real flaw. Overall, the the action scenes are unbelievably wellstaged.

[00:16:25][music] the the scenes in which they face down the Cyclops, beautifully staged. The scenes in which they face down giants, [music] incredibly wellstaged, very scary. The the scene with Cersei, again, like Nolan is a master of his craft. Uh I I would say that this this movie, it's [music] definitely top tier Nolan. When when you think of of like the best Nolan films, like the best ones, you're talking Dark Knight, Interstellar, The Prestige is up there on the list, and then you get to sort of the just under that tier. I'd put this in the just under that tier. I put this in like The Odyssey, Inception, Oppenheimer, Dark Knight Rises. I kind of go it's like it's like top of the second tier is where I'd put the Odyssey. It's not as good as like the the movies I think are are his very best, but it is better than pretty much anything else anybody else is making. I think there's a message here for conservatives. I know there are a lot of conservatives who are getting pre whipped up about the film because it is stupid [music] to cast Elliot Page as a dude. It's just stupid. But people on the right were saying, "Oh, the movie is going to bomb because of that." [music] No, the movie's not going to bomb because of that. It turns out that when people want to be entertained, they are willing to entertain even [music] bad flaws in the tooth if it turns out that the smile is nice. It turns out that the people are willing to undergo some bad politics and some bad decision-making if the film is great. But if conservatives want to be effective in the culture, you can't just label the entire piece of art bad [music] because a decision in the art is bad. This movie is going to make a fortune. It should make a fortune.

[00:17:51]It's creative. It's interesting. It's visually incredible. I think the broader theme of the movie is actually very much in line with many things that conservatives think. And if you let Elliot Page kill that for you, I think you're missing out on an incredible moviegoing experience. And you can do all of that while still being annoyed.