Troy ««
R, 163m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Julian Glover (Triopas), Brian Cox (Agamemnon), Brad Pitt (Achilles), John Shrapnel (Nestor), Brendan Gleeson (Menelaus), Diane Kruger (Helen), Eric Bana (Hector), Orlando Bloom (Paris), Peter O’Toole (Priam) and Julie Christie (Thetis). Screenplay by David Benioff based on The Iliad by Homer. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
Troy is a tediously, overlong epic based on Homer’s Iliad that is as big on elaborate costumes, giant size armies and endless battle sequences as it is spectacularly short on character development. The film is as emotionally barren as the sandy islands of Greece itself. There is not a single character in this movie that gives me any reason to be for or against them. It is all style and no substance.
I was more intrigued by my sixth grade teacher who more than two decades ago told my grade school class about how the Greek armies hid themselves inside a wooden Trojan Horse they built thus fooling the people of Troy into thinking it was a gift from the Gods. At night, when everyone was asleep, the Greek soldiers climbed out from the beast and slaughtered all of Troy’s citizens.
The film’s best performance comes from British actor Peter O’Toole who as Troy’s doomed king has a particularly memorable scene where after seeing his son die at the hands of Brad Pitt’s Achilles appears before the blond haired enemy asking him for his remains.
Seeing O’Toole’s Priam shout “Have you no honor” as the Greeks mercilessly slaughter and pillage his kingdom shortly before he dies reminded me of the final lines uttered by tragic characters in Shakespeare’s works.
Big budget epics like Troy should be written in such a way that it makes me hope the Trojans will be able to fend off the Greek armies as long as they can the way audiences might have felt when they saw Titanic (1997), hoping the luxury liner wouldn’t sink. They should make us want to yell at the big screen when Priam accepts the Trojan Horse as a gift from the Gods instead of listening to the suggestions of his cowardly son, Paris (Orlando Bloom) that they just set fire to it.
A movie like this should feel like a tragic love story as Bloom’s Paris runs off with the woman named Helen (Diane Kruger) whose face “launched a thousand ships” that began a war. I should at least be compelled to root for Troy’s valiant Prince Hector (Eric Bana) as he battles Pitt’s Achilles to the death though we have a pretty good idea just who will emerge victorious.
Troy might have even benefited at featuring mighty Gods and Goddesses conversing amongst themselves about the events taking place the way it was done in 1981’s fantasy Clash of the Titans instead of just having the characters refer to such icons as Apollo, Zeus and Poseidon. The closest we see of any Goddess is by Julie Christie, in a cameo, who plays Achilles’ mother who gives her warrior son her blessing to go off and fight though she seems to already know that he’s headed for tragedy.
What I get instead is a drawn out chick flick built around women who can’t get enough out of seeing a 40-year-old blond muscle bound box office star like Brad Pitt whose warrior is more ego-driven than anything else.
“This man was made for killing,” says one character referring to the warrior’s persona.
The film is directed by Wolfgang Petersen whose credits include the children’s fantasy, The Neverending Story (1984) and the Die Hard terrorist themed movie, Air Force One (1995) with Harrison Ford, which was the perfect pick-me-up for any red blooded Americans still ticked off by the events of September 11.
Petersen’s best works, however, have been movies that take place in the ocean like the German U-boat epic, Das Boot (1981), which has recently been re-released again on DVD and runs even longer than the 1996 four hour director’s cut. There is also The Perfect Storm (2000), a true story about a group of fishermen who never make it home.
Some of Troy’s best cinematic moments take place at sea. I loved how the camera panned in on one Greek ship and then panned back to reveal thousands of wooden vessels and enjoyed the sounds of waves rushing onto shore in the moonlit night. Something tells me Petersen loves to shoot movies on water. Maybe that’s why his next film will be a remake of The Poseidon Adventure (1972) about an ocean liner capsized by a tidal wave at sea.
©5/17/04
R, 163m. 2004
Cast & Credits: Julian Glover (Triopas), Brian Cox (Agamemnon), Brad Pitt (Achilles), John Shrapnel (Nestor), Brendan Gleeson (Menelaus), Diane Kruger (Helen), Eric Bana (Hector), Orlando Bloom (Paris), Peter O’Toole (Priam) and Julie Christie (Thetis). Screenplay by David Benioff based on The Iliad by Homer. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
I was more intrigued by my sixth grade teacher who more than two decades ago told my grade school class about how the Greek armies hid themselves inside a wooden Trojan Horse they built thus fooling the people of Troy into thinking it was a gift from the Gods. At night, when everyone was asleep, the Greek soldiers climbed out from the beast and slaughtered all of Troy’s citizens.
The film’s best performance comes from British actor Peter O’Toole who as Troy’s doomed king has a particularly memorable scene where after seeing his son die at the hands of Brad Pitt’s Achilles appears before the blond haired enemy asking him for his remains.
Seeing O’Toole’s Priam shout “Have you no honor” as the Greeks mercilessly slaughter and pillage his kingdom shortly before he dies reminded me of the final lines uttered by tragic characters in Shakespeare’s works.
Big budget epics like Troy should be written in such a way that it makes me hope the Trojans will be able to fend off the Greek armies as long as they can the way audiences might have felt when they saw Titanic (1997), hoping the luxury liner wouldn’t sink. They should make us want to yell at the big screen when Priam accepts the Trojan Horse as a gift from the Gods instead of listening to the suggestions of his cowardly son, Paris (Orlando Bloom) that they just set fire to it.
A movie like this should feel like a tragic love story as Bloom’s Paris runs off with the woman named Helen (Diane Kruger) whose face “launched a thousand ships” that began a war. I should at least be compelled to root for Troy’s valiant Prince Hector (Eric Bana) as he battles Pitt’s Achilles to the death though we have a pretty good idea just who will emerge victorious.
Troy might have even benefited at featuring mighty Gods and Goddesses conversing amongst themselves about the events taking place the way it was done in 1981’s fantasy Clash of the Titans instead of just having the characters refer to such icons as Apollo, Zeus and Poseidon. The closest we see of any Goddess is by Julie Christie, in a cameo, who plays Achilles’ mother who gives her warrior son her blessing to go off and fight though she seems to already know that he’s headed for tragedy.
What I get instead is a drawn out chick flick built around women who can’t get enough out of seeing a 40-year-old blond muscle bound box office star like Brad Pitt whose warrior is more ego-driven than anything else.
“This man was made for killing,” says one character referring to the warrior’s persona.
The film is directed by Wolfgang Petersen whose credits include the children’s fantasy, The Neverending Story (1984) and the Die Hard terrorist themed movie, Air Force One (1995) with Harrison Ford, which was the perfect pick-me-up for any red blooded Americans still ticked off by the events of September 11.
Petersen’s best works, however, have been movies that take place in the ocean like the German U-boat epic, Das Boot (1981), which has recently been re-released again on DVD and runs even longer than the 1996 four hour director’s cut. There is also The Perfect Storm (2000), a true story about a group of fishermen who never make it home.
Some of Troy’s best cinematic moments take place at sea. I loved how the camera panned in on one Greek ship and then panned back to reveal thousands of wooden vessels and enjoyed the sounds of waves rushing onto shore in the moonlit night. Something tells me Petersen loves to shoot movies on water. Maybe that’s why his next film will be a remake of The Poseidon Adventure (1972) about an ocean liner capsized by a tidal wave at sea.
©5/17/04
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