Nolan's Odyssey is a Trojan Horse
Christians Fail...Again...
Christopher Nolan has dealt a mortal wound to the Christian-conservative movement. He has demonstrated that the moral resolve of most Western Christians and conservatives is non-existent. Many are downplaying his intent and casting choices as “artistic” decisions. Some argue that he is simply obeying the DEI requirements for his movie to be considered for Oscars. But intent doesn’t really matter — even though his intent does align with what most conservative commentators are denying — when we consider our own cultural context from which this film was birthed.
Two Things Can Be True at Once
Right now there are generally two camps of reviewers of The Odyssey. The first is to review it purely on cinematic qualities. Essentially asking the question, “Was the movie worth my money?” It’s a Nolan film, so it probably is worth your money on a purely cinematic level. It’s all IMAX all the time, and Nolan’s one of the few directors that continues to shoot his films on, well, film.
The second way is to evaluate from our civilizational or cultural moment. That is, to evaluate within the current cultural tensions in which we find ourselves and ask the question, “Which way is this going to move the cultural needle on issues like race, transgenderism, religious liberty, perceptions of Western history, etc?”
On the first way, Christians and conservatives are saying that the film is a masterpiece, a work of Oscar-worthy cinema. This is especially true since, from what other podcasters have said, Hollywood has placed diversity quota requirements on directors. This means that directors like Nolan must either conform to the quotas or be disqualified from his films being considered for Oscars.
The second way to evaluate the film is according to the times in which we live. For those who have read the writers who survived Nazism (Frankl) and Communism (Solzhenitsyn), there is no doubt that we are living through a revolutionary moment. Since film affects culture, it is appropriate to criticize Nolan in light of our cultural moment. In fact, to not do so would fail to recognize art as the impetus for cultural change. Christians, more than anyone, should recognize the power of a well-written or spoken parable to change the world in which we live.
In considering our cultural moment, we discover a culture whose government, academia, religion, and entertainment are incapable of answering the following questions: What is an American? What is a woman? What is a man? What is a marriage? What is a baby? What has more rights, a human or a dog?
When we recognize that our society cannot answer these questions truthfully and without doubt, it becomes clear that we are in a Marxist Revolution. Nolan’s film is not mere eye-candy, but an EKG intended to resurrect the transgender and DEI movements. Whether Nolan intended this doesn’t really matter because far-left outlets have already proven and celebrated Nolan’s film as a woke triumph.
Our entire cultural, historical, and religious foundations are under attack by Marxist revolutionary forces known by the fancy academic term, “cultural hegemony.” This idea was put forward by the cultural Marxist, Antonio Gramsci.
Gramsci believed that you could manipulate people to achieve ideological dominance without relying entirely on government coercion. This was accomplished through dominating three non-governmental institutions: churches, media, and schools.
Once “hegemony” has been achieved, a new social order can be established in which the coercion of the citizen no longer comes exclusively from the government, but almost entirely from the pressure of the citizen’s peers. Society itself serves as the enforcer and government is called upon only when someone really gets out of line.
In other words, by dominating the cultural institutions, of which Hollywood is one, people can be coerced to submit to bad ideas, even if they don’t believe them personally; even if the person is very smart and well educated, they will submit. If for no other reason than that they do not want to be ostracized. 1
You Better Start Believing in Ghost Stories
The facts about revolution are undeniable, but they are easily ignored because revolutions take time to gain momentum and footholds in their culture. Like a frog slowly boiled in water, by the time the frog realizes he’s in danger, he’s already cooked.
There is a great line from the movie The Pirates of the Caribbean that captures this idea more clearly. The actress Kiera Knightley plays a character named Elizabeth Swann. Swann is captured by a bunch of pirates who are actually dead, but unless the moon shines on them, you can’t tell.
Swann does not believe in ghosts, and the captain of the ship decides that it’s time to reveal to her the reality of their plight and rid her of any denial she might have about the dark supernatural forces at work in her world. As the moon comes into full view, the music becomes more dramatic, and as the Captain’s skin washes away under the light of the moon, he says, “You best start believing in ghost stories…you’re in one.”
For those of us experienced in the consequences and dangers of DEI ideologies, it can be difficult to explain the dangers of our current cultural moment. Trying to explain it to those unfamiliar, especially as it relates to Nolan’s The Odyssey, is a bit like trying to convince Elizabeth Swann that ghosts actually exist. They won’t really believe it’s happening till they experience it themselves.
Most people that I know who saw the film are focused on the in-fighting on the right. Those in favor of Nolan’s film have already started blaming their conservative allies as “Woke Right.”
They conclude that those few right-wing voices condemning the film as “woke” are overreacting. They argue that our desire for sanity in the arts is what is ruining the entire industry. But those conservatives that hold these positions fail to recognize that The Odyssey reviews coming out of left-wing outlets are calling The Odyssey proof that “Go Woke, Go Broke” is a myth.
Here are a couple of major news outlets affirming the idea that Nolan went woke and got rich. One of the articles is from an outlet called THEM, which describes itself as “The award-winning authority on what it means to be LGBTQ+ today — and tomorrow.”
Vanity Fair: “The Odyssey’s Epic Box Office Haul Breaks The “Go Woke, Go Broke” Myth”
Slate: “Christopher Nolan’s Odyssey Supposedly Went “Woke.” It Did Not Go Broke.”
The Guardian: “Go woke, get rich: why rightwing hate campaigns don’t affect the box office”
THEM, a self-described “award-winning authority on what it means to be LGBTQ+,” published this article: “Go Woke, Go Broke? The Odyssey Sails to Massive Opening Weekend Despite Racist, Transphobic Backlash”
Articles like these demonstrate that those on the right using words like “masterpiece” or scolding their fellow conservatives are joining the far-left in shaming people for condemning a movie where a woman was allowed to take a male role because she’s delusional.
To give you an idea of how far left these news outlets are, here is a quote from one of their “live-update” pages that they put up for their coverage of the Charlie Kirk assassination.
Kirk’s rhetoric regarding trans people was often cruel and conspiratorial. He not only gleefully used anti-trans slurs, but advocated for physical and political violence against trans people. He also advocated for ways to further marginalize and ostracize them and their supporters.
People are free to like whatever movie they want. But if you like The Odyssey, then just know that your movie choices are shared by those who mischaracterized Charlie as someone who “advocated for physical and political violence.” These are advocates for all the destructive ideas that Charlie died fighting.
These same people see The Odyssey as a win for their side. This is why it’s absurd to think that Nolan’s take on Homer’s epic is somehow right-wing coded, a theory floated by many conservative commentators trying to cope.
The fact that Nolan has submitted himself to such insanity proves that the originator of the idea of “cultural hegemony,” Antonio Gramsci, was right. If you don’t believe in Marxist Revolutions, you better start believing it because you’re in one.
No one had to threaten Nolan to make this movie, as they would have in Hitler’s Germany or Stalin’s Russia. They just had to adjust the incentive structure within his institution. In doing so, the woke Hollywood elites won over one of the greatest filmmakers to their agenda and exposed the moral apathy and ignorance of the Christian and conservative influencers. These are the same people who, for the last ten years, have faced cancellations, threats against their lives, illness, and even death for fighting the very ideologies that are woven throughout Nolan’s The Odyssey. If you don’t recognize this, you’re either an ignorant pawn for the left to parade around as a conservative who agrees with them or you're a coward.
Youth & Entertainment
Plato and Aristotle understood the power of media and its influence on culture, especially as it relates to the youth. Here is a quote from Plato’s The Republic where he is talking to Socrates about music and its influence on politics and the youth:
§ 424d - § 425a [Music] softly overflows upon the characters and pursuits of men… from these relations it proceeds against the laws and the constitution with wanton licence, Socrates, till finally it overthrows all things public and private.”
“Well,” said I, “are these things so?”
“I think so,” he said. “Then, as we were saying in the beginning, our youth must join in a more law-abiding play, since, if play grows lawless and the children likewise, it is impossible that they should grow up to be men of serious temper and lawful spirit.”
In other words, if all the kids are listening to gangster rap, nihilist rock, or worship songs where man is omnipresent and God is nowhere to be found, then there will be negative consequences for society. It will be a culture with no common sense and no conscience.
Those in the pro-LGBTQ+ side of the culture war have been strategizing this way for years, but for the sake of time we won’t cover that here. If you want to see a quick breakdown on that topic as it relates to The Odyssey, check out Catholic Apologist Trent Horn’s video, “Why I Refuse to See The Odyssey.”
Again, Nolan’s film is not just an artistic experiment. It is a tool for propaganda, whether he intended it to be or not. Most people who disagree with this statement do so because there were no “overtly transgender” ideas conveyed in the story.
Not only did Nolan’s casting of Ellen Page as Sinon normalize transgenderism, but it was also a middle finger to Jordan Peterson, who was suspended from Twitter for criticizing Ellen Page and not referring to her by her new identity, Elliot Page. This was prior to Elon Musk buying it and rebranding it as X. Daily Wire supported him at the time, published articles, and eventually supported him as a content creator on their platform.
It’s not just Hollywood that is attacking our cultural and religious roots; it's also educational and religious institutions. This also shouldn’t be radical since it was Ronald Reagan who said that freedom is one generation away from being lost.
The pattern is clear. It’s happened in China, Poland, Russia, and now America. But we Catholics especially should not be surprised. Therefore, we shouldn’t be surprised that Nolan’s film is so subversive and culturally accepted since so many other institutions are doing the same thing.
Rewriting History
Recently, on the popular Christian news podcast, The World and Everything in It, Joe Riggney discussed his experience taking his family to the Smithsonian this past summer.
Riggney visited the Smithsonian with his family, and their experience was an anti-American one. He describes the Smithsonian as a propaganda outlet for “retelling” the American story. The following is pulled from the podcast transcript:
It’s become common place to say that many of today’s culture war battles are really fights over definitions. What is a man? What is a woman? What is a citizen? But they’re also fights over history. I visited the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American History with my family earlier this year, expecting to revisit the story of America’s founding. Instead, we found ourselves walking through exhibit after exhibit devoted to progressive political causes. We may not have learned much about Washington, Hamilton, nor the influence of Christianity on our nation, but we did learn that illegal aliens and vaudeville lesbians of the 19th century literally built America. 2
His anecdotal experience was confirmed by a report put out by the Trump Administration titled, “Saving America’s Story.” Riggney continues,
The report claims that progressive activists have captured the Smithsonian and are telling our history through the lens of race, gender, and sexuality instead of focusing on the nation itself. The report claims that Museum’s leadership has embraced what it calls restorative history, making social justice the organizing principle of its exhibits.
The result is striking. The pilgrims and Puritans are largely absent. The founding generation receives little sustained attention. Instead, visitors encounter exhibits celebrating illegal immigrant activism and gender ideology. Progressive causes have become the museum’s organizing story about America.3
When we consider the revisionism happening at schools, universities, and museums, we are realizing that we truly are in a new Cold War. There are two visions for America. One believes that America and its values are basically good, while the other believes that America is a force of oppression and its ideas must not remain freely represented in the world.
Now, you may be wondering, “How does this relate to Nolan’s film?” There is an answer.
Nolan’s Intentions
Most people will say that Nolan isn’t woke and that he’s just a guy who wants to make movies. He might be willing to bend the knee on a few issues to get the movie made, but in the end he’s really just an artist exploring his craft. Let’s fact-check that claim with some recent interviews he did about The Odyssey, where he explained some of his casting and writing decisions.
Nolan admitted that his film was intended to “do away with the cultural prejudices we have when we think about the ancient world.”4
Nolan admitted to taking a revisionist approach to certain scenes because the source material was “too misogynistic.” 5
Multiple far-left outlets praised the Odyssey for debunking the myth of “Go woke, go broke.” We dive into them later.
Nolan’s film is one of the first to spotlight a transgender actress — a woman who thinks she’s a man — and put her into the role of a man.
Nolan put many different ethnicities in the film as if they are all Greeks, including Africans and Asians.
In reality, what people are missing, except for Matt Walsh and a few others, is that two things can be true at the same time. The Odyssey can be considered a cinematic masterpiece, but it’s also true that it is a devastating blow to our progress in the culture.
Whether we like it or not, just as Nigerian culture and mythology are black, so Western culture and mythology are mostly white. Stating this basic historical and cultural truth should not be controversial, but the fact that it is controversial demonstrates that Americans have become bullied into thinking they are the only ones not allowed to be proud of their country or their ancestors. But this does mean that when Christopher Nolan says that he’s going to have a woman play a man and he’s going to load up the Greek Armory in his story with every ethnicity on the planet, with the ironic exception of “Greek,” we are justified in saying, “Hey, interesting casting choice. Why are you doing that?”
The issue is not that film can’t welcome different ethnicities into a predominantly white story, or even an exclusively white story. The issue is that when you make a film like this one at a time when people are explicitly calling Whiteness a disease in media and peer-reviewed journals, then it would be foolish not to see these casting decisions as a kind of racist act. Especially considering some of the journal articles that have been published in recent years. Here is a quote from the Journal of American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA), which is still publicly available on PubMed:
“Whiteness is a condition one first acquires and then one has—a malignant, parasitic-like condition to which “white” people have a particular susceptibility.”6
That is the first line from the abstract. Imagine if the word “whiteness” was replaced with Jewishness or Blackness and think about the cultural outrage that would occur. Returning to Hollywood, we see that this double standard is not merely in academia, but is demonstrated in other films too.
Right after The Odyssey’s opening weekend, news reached social media of a new African mythological epic set in pre-colonial Africa. The set and costumes look amazing. Images from the set and costumes revealed that, for the time being, the cast is entirely black, which makes complete sense, given the culture and heritage the director is trying to represent. Here are some screenshots:
Now imagine someone asking why there is no “white representation” in this movie, Children of Blood and Bone. People should rightly say, “Uh, because all the characters are black.”
But if this is reasonable for Children of Blood and Bone, then it shouldn’t be racist to criticize Nolan or at least question him for replacing traditional roles played traditionally by white actors with black ones.
In other words, had Nolan made his film during the 2000s, when we had comedies like White Chicks and Tropic Thunder (see image below), his film would have been criticized for his casting decisions, and his film would have flopped. Today, not only is it not possible for comedies like White Chicks and Tropic Thunder to be made due to cultural pressures, the things they mocked are now openly celebrated: women are now playing male characters unironically, and black women filling roles that are traditionally intended for white women.
If a white person says that they want to do a movie that celebrates their heritage, everyone immediately thinks of the KKK — or that amazing Chapelle skit with the blind KKK member — as if racism is the only thing white people have contributed to history.
But when Dwayne “the Rock” Johnson says that he’s honored to play Maui in the “live-action,” heavily CGI, remake of Moana, a film that represents ancient Polynesian culture, everyone ignores the fact that his heritage also has dark elements. Many tribes participated in human sacrifice and cannibalism, but we’re supposed to just accept the Disney version of these cultures, while accepting the revisionist history that ignores the sacrifices that white and black men and women made to build this country.
It’s not racist to say that the optics and the decisions of Nolan’s film are an attack on Western culture and our Judeo-Christian values. When Nolan casts a transgender woman in the role of a man and makes Odysseus’ Greek army an ad for a Democrat campaign about Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI), these are Marxist attacks on Western values. Note also, this is not my interpretation of the facts. This is affirmed by the woke-left’s celebration of Nolan’s decisions for casting and his revising of the story in a more anti-Western way.
Facts Don’t Care About Your Feelings
I’m not going to berate people for going to see this movie. It’s Christopher Nolan, and it’s going to put butts in the theater the way that Trump puts eyeballs on the media. But while there is no moral prescription to abstain from attending this film, that doesn’t mean that your decision to do so was prudent. Just stop saying it’s not woke simply because you can’t admit that you like a woke movie.
Directors make movies for a reason; their casting decisions are intentional, not arbitrary, and Nolan made several anti-Western and anti-Christian decisions for The Odyssey. If you want to support those kinds of movies over movies like Young Washington, that’s your choice. But the facts are the facts, and as one prominent endorser of The Odyssey is fond of saying, “facts don’t care about your feelings.”
So, let us revisit some key defeats that Christians and conservatives have had in the last 10 years, leading up to this moment. Some of these are obviously related; others may not seem to be. The main point is to show that we are losing on virtually every major cultural front right now. Hopefully this helps some Christians and conservatives understand why they should be hesitant to jump on the Nolan bandwagon:
Charlie Kirk was killed, and all evidence appears to point to the shooter being Tyler Robinson, an individual who was a member of the trans community.
Before Nolan’s film, we have had multiple shootings by members of the trans community targeting private Christian schools where children were murdered.
Jordan Peterson was being persecuted by the Ontario governing body for psychologists, the College of Psychologists of Ontario (CPO), for criticizing Ellen Page and her doctor who did her “top surgery.” Here’s what he posted on Twitter: “Remember when pride was a sin? And Ellen Page just had her breasts removed by a criminal physician.” He was also suspended from Twitter (before it was X.com).
Academic journals have published racist peer-reviewed articles, which were later picked up by mainstream news outlets. American Psychoanalytic Association (JAPA) that “whiteness” is a disease (2020). Here’s the first line from the abstract:
“Whiteness is a condition one first acquires and then one has—a malignant, parasitic-like condition to which “white” people have a particular susceptibility.”7
Feminism has spread like a cancer in this country, destroying families and leading to low fertility rates among the next generation. This is a major theme in the film.
In conjunction with the rise of Feminism, witchcraft and paganism have also been rising. According to an NBC opinion piece from 2022 titled “Why paganism and witchcraft are making a comeback,” Wicca found its inspiration from feminists: “Wicca began to be practiced in America in the 1960s by feminists, environmentalists and those seeking a nonstructured spirituality…”
Related to feminism is the decrease in our birth rate. Our birth rate is at an all-time low, while anti-American sentiment is at an all-time high. Here’s a chart to help you visualize the birth rate:
Matt Walsh had to move his family due to death threats. This was directly related to his work fighting the Transgenderism and DEI culture wars. But don’t worry, Nolan just undid all that.
Matt Walsh@MattWalshBlogI had to move because of the threats on my life and my family and I lost many thousands of dollars from demonization specifically because of my advocacy on this issue. You may not have paid a price. I did.
David Marcus @BlueBoxDave@MattWalshBlog I have no idea what you mean by “feminism” here, you’re collapsing a century into a very presentist conservative definition. But my point remains, you and I never paid a price for fighting it. We both benefited from it.4:34 PM · Apr 17, 2025 · 310K Views121 Replies · 252 Reposts · 4.09K LikesIn my own life, I told a friend to take a stand on trangenderism in the state of Colorado. She did, and she lost her job. Her name was Kaley Chiles, and she ended up at the Supreme Court.
For a while, it seemed like we were just going to keep losing this fight. Then Trump won the 2024 election. Executive orders were signed against the insanity of transgenderism. DEI began to be rooted out of our military. It seemed we were finally pushing back on the woke mind virus on every level.
But then Nolan made a movie, and everyone seemed to forget about the war they were in. In fact, to summarize the entire failure of the Christian and political right on this issue, one might say “they just forgot what they were fighting.”
Podcaster Hypocrisy Exposed
In one weekend, the Christian and conservative podcaster world showed that their values could be purchased for the cost of a movie ticket and a bucket of popcorn. To be clear, I’m not saying someone who has decided to go see this film is an evil person. But there is a big difference between an individual who is going to the movies for fun to see Nolan’s epic versus the cultural warriors who have told their listeners to fight woke ideology at every level of society, even if it means losing your job, your friendships, or even family. Then to tell these people to kick back and go see The Odyssey after years of lectures on being uncompromising feels jolting. For example, Michael Knowles said this at a CPAC speech in 2023:
The problem with transgenderism is that its acceptance at any level necessarily entails the complete destruction of women’s bathrooms, women’s sports, all of the specific rights and spaces that women currently enjoy. There can be no middle way in dealing with transgenderism.
— Michael Knowles, CPAC Speech, March 4th, 2023 (emphasis mine).
It should be surprising that the man who made that statement is the same guy who told his audience they should go see The Odyssey, the biggest film to affirm and normalize transgenderism to date.
Nolan is so good at making films that no one can resist him. Nolan has somehow, without making a single argument, completely flipped the script on the conservative movement’s resilience to transgenderism, DEI quotas, and racism. Our experience this weekend should show that great art can be great propaganda.
But before I list off those who compromised their values, read more of the infamous CPAC speech from Michael Knowles, a trad Catholic by the way:
There can be no “middle way” in dealing with transgenderism. It’s all or nothing. If transgenderism is true — if men really can become women and women really can become men — then it is true for everybody of all ages. If transgenderism is false, as it is — if men and women really are different, as we are — then it is false for everybody too. And if it is false, then we should not indulge it, especially since that indulgence requires taking away the rights and customs of so many people. If it is false, then for the good of society and especially for the good of the poor people who have fallen prey to this confusion, “transgenderism” must be eradicated from public life entirely — the whole preposterous ideology, at every level.
— Michael Knowles, CPAC, 2023
With that top of mind, consider the following list of top cultural conservatives who have endorsed The Odyssey:
Michael Knowles - Endorsed it, and then proceeded to say it was full of modern woke ideologies and subtexts. Towards the end, he tries to justify it with some psychological analysis, Nolan being Odysseus in real life.8
Ben Shapiro - Said it was a “Masterpiece,” and that you’re missing out if you don’t go and see it. 9
Jonathan Pageau - close friend of Jordan Peterson, argued that it was the most “meta” thing he had seen and that conservatives were dead wrong about the film.10
Michael Brendan Doughtry - Writer for the National Review, penned a piece titled “Open Mind on Nolan’s The Odyssey” in which he argued that people were jumping to conclusions and then later penned another one saying “The Odyssey Is Going to Be a Smash.”
Spencer Klavan - Although his relation to Andrew Klavan is disputed, he has published several reviews to various news outlets: “Nolan’s gorgeous ‘Odyssey’ makes the controversies evaporate,” “What Nolan’s ‘Odyssey’ Leaves Out,” and “There Is Good and Evil. Christopher Nolan’s ‘The Odyssey’ Isn’t Afraid to Say So.”
Dave Rubin - Former liberal from far-left show, the Young Turks, posted to X.com, saying “The Odyssey was an absolute masterpiece.”
It’s a long list, and it’s only getting longer. But we should have known. After all, Michael Knowles told us that this is the norm for conservatives.
Transgenderism did not even exist as a political issue until about eight years ago when Barack Obama and some liberals in North Carolina proposed this lunacy through military policy and bathroom ordinances…
And then a handful of devoted, radical left-wing activists pushed relentlessly to normalize this crazy notion. The craziest part is that now many conservatives want to meet them halfway. But there is no meeting halfway between truth and falsehood, between reality and delusion. There is no neutrality either. We are either gaining ground or losing ground. Meeting the liberals halfway will always take us all the way down their road to perdition in the long run. That’s the story of the last 50 years.
— Michael Knowles, CPAC, March 2023
Michael probably didn’t realize that he would be talking about himself in two years. Jonathan Pageau was an ARC speaker this year, an event about preserving and fighting for Western ideas and values. In his excitement, he even began to refer to Ellen Page by her male name, “Elliot,” during his review of the film. He even used the full range of male pronouns in referring to her — he/him/his. He later apologized and admitted that he slipped, but that only proves the Nolan Effect is real.
At this point, one might ask, “So what. Are you saying that we can’t just go to the theater and enjoy a good movie?”
Why Nolan’s Trojan Horse Matters
Our country is sitting on a time bomb. On the left, they are being overrun by a cultural Marxist revolution that has entrenched itself at virtually every level of our society. Trump has only delayed its progress. Nolan has proven that the march through the institutions continues, and the conservatives who gave his film glowing reviews without any consideration for its negative impact on the culture have evidenced that the left still controls the arts.
On the right, there is a growing number of disenfranchised conservatives who feel that their country does not care about their future or their history. The left cannot stop the rise of Communist and Marxist ideas on their side, and cultural conservatives on the right who fail to live up to their own principles will only lead young nihilists to seek more radical and conspiratorial voices. If Ben Shapiro and company want to keep people from listening to Candace, they need to understand that suffering people will gravitate to those who appear to be suffering for what they believe, even if what they are suffering for is morally reprehensible.
The Catholic Bishop, Venerable Fulton Sheen, soon to be beatified, said
Communism offers a secular version of the Christian doctrine of sacrifice. It announces that self-denial, purges, liquidation, the violence of revolution are needed before man can enter into a new kind of heaven upon earth. Communism has found many who subscribe to it — not because its teachings are true, but because men had wearied of the milk-and-water Liberalism which new no evil wikced enough to condemn and no good high enough to be worth dying for.11
In a recent speech, Secretary of State Marco Rubio discussed the slow tolerance of left-wing violence that has spread through America. In this speech,12 he compares the violence of neo-Nazis to that of Marxist revolutionaries, but explains that our think tanks and fellowships tend to think of the bombs, “planted by a Marxist revolutionary…” as merely “a tragic excess of idealism. Perhaps its means were misplaced or overzealous, but its ends were virtuous and just. That’s the implication of how they treat it.” He continued by explaining how the West has come to tolerate ideological violence from the left, when both violence from the left and right should be equally condemned.
For years, this extraordinary ideological prejudice was embedded in the way we talked about political violence and extremism. It was repeated again and again, until it was accepted as the neutral and objective baseline, so entrenched – so entrenched in the mainstream conventional wisdom that it came to be regarded as an apolitical fact. It is the reason why, here in my country, so many people in positions of power have repeatedly dismissed acts of violence and even terrorism as legitimate forms of political expression so long as they served a left-wing cause.
— Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, July 2026
The reason why Nolan’s movie matters is because it comes at a time when Americans and Europeans are being crushed on either side.
Dostoyevsky said, “Beauty will save the world.” One of the most important aspects of beauty is its ability to radically change the beliefs of people. It does this without firing a shot and without making an argument. It just shows you.
A clear example in which this was done for good was Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ. That movie saved souls because of its beauty and authentic telling of the life, death, and resurrection of Christ. People were interviewed after the movie weeping at the thought of Christ dying for them, some of them not even Christian.
If beauty in the right hands — preferably nail-pierced ones — can save the world, then beauty in the wrong hands will destroy it. Art is a weapon used by both God and man in the war for men’s souls. It’s far greater than logic or reason, precisely because it can, like Christ, walk through the locked door of our minds and pierce our hearts, for good or for ill. Perhaps this is why, regarding his own films, Nolan has said, “Don’t try to understand it, just feel it.”
Nolan has proven himself to be someone who can wield beauty to tell a story in profound and powerful ways that actually change the way that culture thinks about the world and their own culture. One of the clearest examples of this ability was demonstrated when Nolan decided that he was going to tell the story of Bruce Wayne in the Dark Knight trilogy.
One might argue that Marvel’s cinematic universe is indebted to Nolan because he widened the audience’s range of “suspension of belief” — the idea that there is a limited tolerance among audiences for how much of the “fantastic” they are willing to accept before they find the story absurd. Whether Nolan intended to or not, his Batman films completely changed how people saw heroes on the big screen.
What Nolan did with the Dark Knight completely changed the audience’s perception, not only of Batman, but their boundaries of belief. It’s this “Nolan Effect” that proves that he is not a normal director.
His films change the way people think about ideas, people, and cultures. Nolan’s films are one of the few shared cultural moments our society has left, and Nolan just decided to use his latest film as a beautiful but woke atom bomb that will, whether he intended it to or not, resurrect the DEI, Transgender, and neo-feminist ideologies that have been ripping our American and European countries apart. It’s this “Nolan Effect” that makes The Odyssey so dangerous.
— DR
“Cultural Hegemony,” Wikipedia, accessed July 25, 2026.
The World and Everything in It, “Ally Detains Diplomat, Naloxone Debate & Lone Star Tick | WORLD Radio,” July 16, 2026, YouTube video,
Ibid.
IGN - ‘There’s a Lot of Elevating It Because It’s Old’ — The Odyssey Director Christopher Nolan Set Out to ‘Do Away’ With ‘Cultural Prejudice’ Around How We View the Ancient World, July 10, 20206. Accessed July 25, 2026.
TIME - “Christopher Nolan on Helen, Athena, and His New Ending for The Odyssey,” July 24, 2026. Accessed July 25, 2026.
Donald Moss, “On Having Whiteness,” Journal of the American Psychoanalytic Association 69, no. 2 (April 2021): 355–71, https://doi.org/10.1177/00030651211008507.
Ibid.
“Christopher Nolan’s The Odyssey Is Not What I Expected” — Michael Knowles
“Ben Shapiro Reviews The Odyssey” — Ben Shapiro
“Christopher Nolan’s Trick” — Jonathan Pageau
Fulton J. Sheen, Way to Happiness (Gastonia, NC: TAN Books, 2022), 235.