Troy
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen

To me, this was the most anticipated movie of the year, being an ardent lover of ancient history, mythology, legends, and of course, The Iliad. Troy has a wonderful nostalgic and old fashioned essence to it, special effects aside, it's as if it came out of the sword and sandal golden age of Hollywood from the 1950's. The story does not quite follow Homer's The Iliad (otherwise they would have titled it "The Iliad" now wouldn't they?) There are some major changes made to the story to A) Make a movie under 3 hours long and most significantly B) Keep the movie politically correct with the times (more on that later). Changes aside, what is retained from Homer's narrative I believe is executed with loving detail.

Story (C'mon, you know how it ends already.)

Greedy and megalomaniacal Greek King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) of Mycenae is attempting to unite the tribes of Greece under his rule city by city and succeeding - not because of his cunning, but because of one champion warlord under his (sometimes) employ, Achilles (Brad Pitt), greatest warrior in all of Greece who commands a fierce army known as the Myrmidons. Achilles cannot stand Agamemnon who he views as a coward and a tyrant who is only looking for more riches for himself instead of glory for Greece. Agamemnon cannot win without Achilles. Achilles cannot have glory without Agamemnon.

King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) is Agamemnon's brother and king of the Greek city Sparta. Queen Helen (Diane Kruger), the most beautiful woman in the world, is his wife. In Sparta, there is a celebration to commemorate the end of hostilities between Sparta and Troy, and princes Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom) of Troy are visiting Sparta to finalize the agreements. Playboy Paris, known throughout the Mediterranean for his trysts and affairs, and Helen manage to secretly fall in love and Paris smuggles her onboard his ship on the way home to Troy - much to Hector's outrage.

When Menelaus discovers what happens, he turns to big brother Agamemnon for help in rectifying this insult upon his manhood. But Agamemnon sees only the opportunity to sack the richest and most prized city in the world. Agamemnon rallies and unites the Greek tribes together and a thousand ships packed with Greek warriors set sail for the shores of Troy to (ostensibly) retrieve their honor, but Agamemnon can see only wealth and power.

Back in Troy, King Priam (Peter O'Toole), Hector, Paris, and the other leadership of Troy determine how best to repel the Greeks. Troy is the richest but also the most fortified city in the world - its walls have never been breached.

And so the Greeks lay siege upon Troy. Achilles must battle a slew of his own personal demons - along with the greatest Trojan warrior Hector. The Greeks are unsuccessful in breaching Troy, and crafty Odysseus devises a plan to break into the city by constructing a gigantic wooden horse under the pretense of a Greek surrender and withdrawal. Hidden inside of course, are the Greeks who sneak out in the middle of the night, open the gates of Troy and in come the marauding Greeks.

How is Troy different from The Iliad?

This section pretty much contains a lot of the movie's shortcomings. The story is the generally the same, but it is condensed. The Iliad is an account of the last year of the 10 year siege of the city and focuses on the feud between Achilles and Agamemnon. The movie gives the impression that the war lasted only 2 weeks or so because of the exposition needed to explain why the war began.

Aside from that, the other most noticeable difference is the complete and conscientious removal of the gods. According to Homer, the war began as a squabble among the goddesses Aphrodite, Athena and Hera. Troy is a strictly human imagining of the events of The Iliad - Athena doesn't come out of the sky to help the Greeks, nor does Ares appear to slash them down despite the fact that the gods and mythology are often referenced in the movie. Even Achilles' lineage with the gods (his mother was a sea goddess named Thetis) is only flirted with. Troy also makes an assumption that we know certain things about The Iliad (such as why Achilles' weak spot on his body was the heel of his foot) but it doesn't explain it in the movie and seeing as how the mythical/god stuff was ignored, it seems immaterial. In the movie a boy asks Achilles if he was invincible or something, and the dialogue actually has Achilles respond:

"Then I wouldn't be bothering with the armor, now would I?"

In Troy, Helen's going to Troy was completely of her own volition (wench!) while in The Iliad it was decreed by the gods. Her scenes with Paris are actually some of the weakest in the movie. Helen comments to Paris about their time together:

"It was a mistake. I made many mistakes this week."

Also, some characters die in Troy that survive in The Iliad and vice versa. (Probably the biggest thorn in my side). However, this happens mostly during the end of the movie - which in fact The Iliad does not cover, it is in other classical works that we learn how the Trojan War ended. Some characters are overdeveloped (for political reasons), such as Achilles' relationship with his captured Trojan trophy woman Brisseis (Rose Byrne) while others have been changed (again for political reasons) such as Patroclus, who suddenly becomes a blood relative of Achilles.

Also, there is an intricate history to Agamemnon and his family that is missing as well that would have made Agamemnon less of a one dimensional character.

Brad Pitt as Achilles

It pained me so much to see Brad Pitt try so hard to be so good at portraying the complexity that is Achilles (I mean, there's a reason why The Iliad is so long) and sometimes fail because he looks like he's just trying too hard. Sometimes he's aloof, sometimes he has the soul of a poet, sometimes he's wise, and many time's he's just enraged. His long blonde hair evokes more of a punk surfer than an ancient Greek warrior. It's the times when Achilles is enraged that Pitt is most believable. The first you see of Achilles he kills the mightiest warrior of Thessaly in about 7 seconds (true to his Homerian epithet of "swift footed").

Eric Bana as Hector

With respect to the great Peter O'Toole, in my opinion Eric Bana nailed the role of Hector down to a tee and deserves the Oscar for this movie. Bana portrays Hector exactly as I imagined him when I was reading The Iliad right down to his hair, mannerisms, armor, and speech. Everything about his character, every detail about Hector - his unquestioning loyalty and devotion to his country, his undying and virtuous love and caring for his wife Andromache (Saffron Burrows) and their young son, his supreme affection for his father King Priam, and his loathing and derision of war (despite the fact that he's the best warrior in Troy). Homer, even knowing that Hector is on the "bad guy's" team, portrays Hector as the most honorable and virtuous enemy and you're supposed to feel sad at his eventual death. And so it is here. I could watch Eric Bana as Hector over and over again. His final duel with Achilles was also chillingly real (especially as Priam watches) but with a lot of stylized flair and camera angles to give Achilles that special mythic wonder.


Peter O'Toole as Priam

Peter O'Toole does great things with the limited amount of material with which he has to work on for the role of Priam, but he does them perfectly and just as I imagined. His scene with Achilles is magnificent.

Orlando Bloom as Paris

Visually he seems to be the perfect choice for one of antiquities most famous playboys. But his scenes with Diane Kruger are among the weakest in the movie. Other than that, Bloom portrays the sissy Paris rather nicely - except for the stupid end, which was extremely and suspiciously too Lord of the Rings like and completely out of Paris' character.

Great things about Troy

The great things about Troy are some of the ways in which it genuinely reflects The Iliad

An epic would not be an epic without larger than life battles and visuals. There are several in Troy that are forever etched in my memory. The first is the incredible scene where the hundreds of Greek triremes set sail for Troy - a fearsome armada. The second is or are the numerous epic clashes and engagements of the Trojan and Greek armies. It is as if Wolfgang Petersen intentionally set out to create a literal interpretation of how Homer described the battles in The Iliad with thousands upon thousands of spearmen clashing together. People die in every gruesome way Homer described. And when the important people stop to fight each other, the soldiers stop and watch. The diversity of the Trojan army - which was outnumbered and contained mercenaries from every corner of the world, was illustrated through the use of different shields and armor. The volleys of arrows from the archers of Troy would be enough to "block the sun". Combat was accurate, as soldiers were spearmen first and swordsmen second (because bronze is such a weak metal, swords are prone to break). The city of Troy had an almost Babylonian flair and opulence to it with its many temples and gardens. The last scene etched in my memory is the palpable and utter hopeless despair and anguish on Peter O'Toole as he helplessly watches his city burned by the Greeks.

There are many themes in The Iliad that were presented with surprising accuracy and detail. The first of which is the personal choice Achilles had to make - will he choose to live a long happy life and be forgotten when he dies, or will he take a short, painful, but glorious life that will allow his name to live on? What would you choose?

Another is the theme of honor in Greek combat. Everything the ancient Greek warriors did was based on a code of honor. The Greeks had many rules of engagement, most notably was respecting proper death rites for the fallen. Fairness and honor was important in one on one combat as well. In a rather humorous scene, Paris attempts to end the war by challenging Menelaus to one on one combat - and gets his butt handed to him. He crawls to the feet of his big brother Hector to protect him while Menelaus shouts (to Helen):

"You left me for THAT!?"

The theme of honor in combat is illustrated perfectly after Achilles defeats Hector. I was wondering whether Peterson would go into the next part or if the movie would ignore it but it didn't! Achilles ties Hector's slain body to his chariot with a rope and parades him around - an incredible offense that horrifies Priam and disgusts even his fellow Greeks. In the best scene of the movie and the most important scene in The Iliad King Priam sneaks into Achilles' camp and humbles himself before Achilles to return the body of his son so that he can be given proper rites.

I also have to give credit to Odysseus' portrayal - wise, crafty, and clever, he was played well by Sean Bean.

The music by James Horner is excellent and again brings to mind the sword and sandal classics of the 1950's.

And finally, thumbs down to Hollywood politics

Boo Hollywood and its politics. Boo to the rating system, which forces moviemakers to do or not do things to make movies fit into rating categories. I don't understand the desire to capitalize on teachers sending their students to see Troy seeing as how it contradicts The Iliad.

Ancient Greek society was a warrior society. Men ruled. Plain and simple. Women were little more than property to be competed for and owned by men. Because this depiction and treatment of women is so politically incorrect, Troy couldn't exactly be made according to strict Homerian treatment (thus necessitating a scene for the downtrodden woman exacting her revenge on the boorish, evil man). To go into detail would honestly ruin part of the ending because this was part of the movie that differs to The Iliad as well as many other classical works. (The whole people dying when they don't die in the book thing).

Ancient Greek society was also notorious for its institutionalization and incorporation of homosexuality. Although in The Iliad it is completely ambiguous as to whether or not Achilles' relationship with Patroclus was romantic or not, in Troy they go out of the way to create a phony familiar relation to us that Patroclus is a cousin and relative of Achilles and nothing more. But, even in Troy, the only time we really see any kind of joy in Achilles is when he was with Patroclus - but shame on politics for not letting us come to our own conclusions!

Conclusion

As an epic sword and sandal action movie, Troy delivers solid action that is slowed only somewhat by a few cumbersome scenes. As an interpretation of Homer's The Iliad however, it falls somewhat short. So I have a love-hate relationship with Troy I guess. Still, it is grandiose and visually stunning, and I'm not just talking about beefy warriors and Helen. Even everyone's hair seems so thick and luxurious in the movie! Not for Homerian purists, it is an extravagant imagination of ultimate war - a war initiated by love, motivated by greed, and ended by cunning. Sad to say it could have been executed better.

The legend of the Trojan War forever marked the people of Greece; whether or not the war is fictional or fact - a question still debated today. If fact, the destruction of Troy was simultaneously Greece's greatest conquest and its most horrific atrocity. But the power of the legend is impossible to ignore - for the Greeks 3,000 years later still call themselves using the name of the woman for which it was all sacrificed for, the woman that if only briefly united them all:

"Hellenes"

So boys and girls, what have we learned?

Don't mess with the Greeks.

And...

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts! (Or gifts bearing Greeks, rather...)

Related Link:
Music From The Motion Picture Troy

The Premier
Epinions - May 2004


Recommended:
Yes