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Troy
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Wargames have been particularly lucky of late in regard to the range of excellent films that have hit the screens that are of interest to those of us who play with toy soldiers. The Return of the King, The Last Samurai, Master and Commander, and recently Van Helsing, all in their own ways very enjoyable some excellent in part or whole. So it was with high hopes that I handed over my dosh and clutched my popcorn as I stepped into the inky darkness to watch Troy.
The omens were good for this film, Wolfgang Petersen the director, is skilled and experienced, and was responsible for one of the best war films ever made with Das Boot, the story of a German U-Boat and its crew. Peter O'Toole plays King Priam, with a host of international character actors in supporting roles. I was concerned over Brad Pitt as Achilles, but hey could he really cause that much of a problem?
The opening sequences reminded me of those historical epics of the fifties and sixties with a brief written backgound to the events about to unroll. And then on to the action where an army consisting of units from a number of Greek states faces the army of
Thessaly, the one state standing out against the power crazed Agamemnon. I am afraid that wargamers twitch kicked in immediately as my eyes tried to decipher just what the troops were wearing. I reminded myself sharply that it was just a film, and a film based on a heroic legend, so a fantasy hot to be judged too harshly in terms of historical accuracy. I was still telling myself this when the scene opened at the "port of Sparta". Port? Sparta? Bollocks! I visited Sparti a few years back, it lies in a dry valley surrounded by mountains and a good hours drive from the sea. Still, remember, it is just a film.
I have to say I was pretty unimpressed by Helen, though she does have a very sweet bum, which we see in all its naked glory as she talks with her lover Paris, played by Orlando Bloom. But enough of the love story, lets get to the action..... well the military action!
And soon we reach Troy, very impressively recreated, with massive walls and city gates, and an absolutely useless set of beach defences. Still the market place is suitably exotic, complete with pack llamas..... remember it's only a film! The Trojan army are very fancifully armoured, reflecting the wealth of their city state, and all the nobles wear deep blue robes illustrating the use of fantastically expensive dyes. These are rich folk, and the difference between them and the dirty murderous Greeks becomes all to clear when the 1000 ship invasion fleet arrives.
The blood thirty Achilles leads the way, and the well muscled Brad Pitt hacks his way bloodily through the poor Trojans, as his Myrmiddons slaughter the unarmed priests of Apollo. To be fair the fighting is impressive, and pretty bloody, and perhaps the best part of the whole film is the combat between Hector and Achilles which is amazingly choreographed. But the battle scenes, massive though they are, still left me unsatisfied, and disappointed compared with the action scenes in Cold Mountain, Gladiator, or LOTR.
I think the biggest problem with the film is the story, which is not the epic recounted by Homer, but one "Inspired" by The Illiad. Well I am not sure what the American definition of inspiration is, but it is clearly different from mine. I understood that the
siege of Troy lasted 10 bloody years. However the writer, Mr Benioff (not a name I am too familiar with) has reduced this to something like 16 days of which 12 days is covered by a caption, "twelve days later"! Not only that he has decided that Homer's story was just too inconvenient for him and..... well you will just have to go and check it out for yourself.
So what about the acting? Brad Pitt is mean and moody, and a pretty mean fighter; Hector is well portrayed by Aussie actor Eric Bana as a mighty warrior tired of war and wanting nothing more than to live in peace with his wife and child. Brian Cox is appalling as the tyranical Agamemnon, a great pity as he can be such a fine actor. Peter O'Toole is ... well Peter O'Toole, while Orlando Bloom is pretty useless until he gets a bow in his hand and then turns into Legolas. Amazingly I felt the best acting turn came from a most unexpected source, Sean Bean, playing the cunning and scheming Ulysses. You will recognise a host of the actors filling minor roles
as most are British and familiar from soaps and detective dramas.
Despite all the hype around this film, and the superb set pieces and visual imagery this film is a massive disappointment, and a wasted opportunity to produce a truly impressive piece of film history.
JOS
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Reproduced below is an open letter addressed to the Screenwriter, which I think speaks for itself.
Dear Mr. Benioff
I've just come out of Mr. Petersen's movie that you scripted and am finding it a little hard to breathe.
Here we have fantastic visuals, done with great love of detail - to see Troy in such pictures, those walls, to see the thousand ships sail! We have great casting and acting - I'm floored by Eric Bana's Hector, love Peter O' Toole's Priam, and am astonished that I could be shown a new kind of Helen! We even get intelligent and moving dialogues, providing a (until the advent of the Horse, anyway) believable Achilles, an anti-war message (the best line: Helen's "I don't want a hero") and a new racy-realistic view of the story, with little time for interfering gods.
But where's the plot of the oldest story ever written? Who in Hades' name killed Homer's plot?
I understand that even a 3-hour movie can't do justice to a 10-YEAR (not 2-WEEK) war, and I did really like the added battle scene in which Achilles first appears. But what happened to the word and trick play between Odysseus and Achilles? Where IS Odysseus, except in a few short supporting scenes? What happened to Achilles' great sense of honour, that would NEVER have allowed him to go with the Horse ruse?
And even if you argue that it's all a fantasy anyway - what about honouring the Homeric story line? A movie years in the making can't pass this story on with basic cornerstones (e.g. Agamemnon/Menelaos victorious) intact?
If at least in the closing credits, it'd said "inspired by Homer's Iliad - go and read it, it's even better!"
Why does this movie make me never want to see a film based on a book again, OR never read a book again for fear of spoiling cinema visits, both of which I love? (Although it's likely to be the former.) You've written good stuff before, and now we get a mushy ending with an avenging priestess. This film had so much promise, overwhelming images, grand acting effort - but it stumbled over it's weak heel of a plot in the end.
Perhaps I'm being too German about this: After all WE rediscovered the site of the city; OUR guy directed the most opulent movie about it ever made! How could it go this awry? I think I'm going to sit here for a while and wait for my sense of Homer to return...
Sincerely
/KB
April 13th (o bad-omened day!)
Berlin, FRG
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