The last time I read anything about Homer’s Iliad was back in high school, reading the tragic tale of war, kings and god-cursed love from Edith Hamilton’s Mythology book. I had already read the much shorter versions/excerpts from encyclopedias when I was much younger- I was already fascinated by the story, the fighting, the Trojan horse myth and so on. And so, when I heard about a big budget Hollywood film on the epic, I was excited.
Well, last night I, Vin, Gig, Dean and Ralph went to Podium and watched the 11 PM showing of Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy.
Everyone knows the story of course- Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) steals away Helen (Diane Kruger), the wife of Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), King of Sparta and the brother of the powerful Greek empire-builder, Agamemnon (Brian Cox). This of course results in the launching of a thousand ships to take back Helen from Troy. Joining the fight solely for glory and the prospect of immortality is Achilles (Brad Pitt at his buffest), a supposedly invincible, masterless warrior.
Going into this, I already knew that it would be worlds away from the myth. There would be no gods joining the fight for either side, the whole Trojan war would be compressed into a matter of days (it lasted more than a decade in the myth) and characters’ parts would change dramatically. What we have here is a period war movie with political maneuverings, family drama, man-to-man combat and lots and lots of killing. Now, while I’m kinda disappointed that this wasn’t going to be another LOTR (despite having Legolas and Boromir in the cast) and there weren’t any Amazons in the film, I actually liked it.
The movie looks gorgeous, for starters. The mammoth armies are impressive to look at, and the first couple of battles were well-staged. The cast generally do their parts well- Brad Pitt is pretty bad-ass as the original bad-ass, Achilles, a masterless warrior who leads his own private army of professional soldiers and fights wars simply for glory. Achilles has mastered combat like no other man, and that shows in some quite exciting fight sequences.
Eric Bana RULES as Hector, the dutiful elder prince, defender of the city of Troy and loving son and brother. Seeing him here is a huge difference from his role as Bruce Banner in the boring Hulk movie, and it was a revelation. While he leads the Trojan defense, I actually seemed to feel the city was safe- he was that convincing as the story’s actual hero. And his duel with Achilles is a sight to see.
Evil Agamemnon is played with hammy glee by Brian Cox, who has moved on from hunting mutants in X2 to killing Trojans. Dignified actor Peter O’Toole plays the sympathetic but far too religious King Priam, who figures with Achilles in one of the most impressive scenes of fatherly love I’ve seen in recent films.
Orlando Bloom plays the somewhat wussy Paris, a far cry from his valiant, perfect elf warrior Legolas in LOTR, and I found his performance quite good, and the slow development of his character quite effective. Fellow LOTR vet Sean Bean finally gets to play a character who doesn’t die, as the crafty but sympathetic Odysseus, the mastermind behind the Trojan Horse.
It has to be said as well that the women of Troy- handmaiden/royal cousin Briseis (Rose Byrne) and Hector’s wife Andromache (Saffron Burrows) are portrayed as solid foundations to their husbands/men, in contrast to the more flighty Helen.
High Points- the first battle, the Trojan counterattack, the Hector-Achilles duel and the climax.
Hand-clapping Moment of the Night- when Agamemnon gets his.
Best reasoning of the night, from Gig- Aeneas is shown being entrusted with the care of the remnants of Troy, and goes to someday build Rome. Since Paris seems to survive as well, does he go on to build… Paris?
As I said, there are many deviations from the original myth, and I unexpectedly found myself rooting for the Trojans, but in the end the story told is clear, rational and in the end, satisfying. So troop down to theaters and join the siege yourself.
No comments:
Post a Comment