Troy

Troy was a long movie, a very long movie. There are two kinds of epics. Those that keep you in awe, holding your breath, and the ending sneaks up on you as the time melts away. The other kind drag on and on, feel heavy and plodding, and lead to lots of watch watching. Troy was of the other kind. There were moments of awe, especially early, but it wore off quickly. I can’t decide if it is because we know how the story will end, or because the action and the editing were too slowly paced. Now any epic war film shot with thousands of extras, whether real or computer generated, needs to be seen on the big screen, so this is not a complete condemnation of the film, just prepare to fidget and glance at your watch a few times.

Of course the story of The Iliad is pretty basic. A man steals another man’s wife and so the largest fleet in history sets sail to get her back. A story brimming with testosterone and bruised egos for the ages. There are heroes on both sides, Hector for the Trojans and Achilles and Odysseus for the Greeks. Of course the Greeks win, eventually, with the help of an infamous big horse.

The movie starts slowly; there is a battle in Thessaly which serves mainly to show off Achilles’ fighting prowess and his animosity towards King Agamemnon. As far as an intro goes waking up naked in bed with two women should be a good one, but Brad Pitt comes into the story as a half-awake drunk complainer. Not too impressive, though did I mention the naked Brad Pitt part? Now his arms, those were impressive. Achilles, played by Brad Pitt, is the loose cannon of Greece. He holds allegiance to no king and serves only himself. His Myrmidons are the fiercest warriors as they demonstrate early taking the beach at Troy by themselves. The true heroes of this story are the actors who can rise above the plodding pace of the material. The best of these are Peter O’Toole as the Trojan king Priam, Eric Bana as his son Hector, and Rose Byrne as Briseis Hector’s sister held captive by the Greeks.

Peter O’Toole is the shining star of this film. He rises above the plodding material as Prius the elderly king of Troy who in his age has softened. He prefers peace to war, but he believes that the love of his younger son is a worthy cause for war. One of the most impressive scenes of the film is when Priam sneaks into the Greeks’ camp to beg for the body of his son from his son’s killer Achilles. Priam seems frail and old but still regal and bound by the traditions of his people to seek closure for the life of his son and passage into the next world.

His sons Hector, Eric Bana, and Paris, Orlando Bloom, are as different as can be. Hector, the elder, is responsible, he wants to send Helen back but he loves his brother and does not want to see him killed. He is an honorable man who lives by a simple code, give praise to the gods, be good to your wife, and defend your home. Troy is their home and Hector will lead the army in its great defense. He is the voice of reason in Troy promoting self-defense not aggression and advising sound military strategy. Paris is a lover not a fighter. Though he knows stealing Helen will cause war he follows his heart not his head and thus gives Agamemnon his reason for war. Eric Bana does an admirable job as the steadfast Hector, of course the writing helps as the writers decided to leave out the part where Hector runs away from facing Achilles around the walls of Troy. My friends and I agreed that the best part of this movie was the intercut scene of Pitt and Eric Bana putting on their armor and preparing for battle. Very yummy.

All of the younger characters struggle with their place in the war, Helen bemoans that it is all her fault and she will go back, Paris offers himself is lone combat, Achilles waffles between slaughter and sitting sullen in his tent. The older characters place their fates in the hands of the gods and see the war as an inevitability given the egos involved. Agamemnon wants to conquer all of the Aegean, and Prius believes that his city cannot be taken. It is a stalemate. Were Hector and Odysseus the leaders of their respective armies one would have to wonder if the war would be fought at all and if so how different it would be? But they are servants to masters more stubborn than they.

Now for those who favor Homer’s Iliad, throw the book out the window. Accuracy is not key here. After all this is a Hollywood film and many liberties are taken. First, there are no appearances by any of the gods or goddesses save Achilles’ mother Thetis who warns him that if he goes to Troy he will not return to Greece. Wolfgang Pederson is said to have wanted to avoid the Clash of the Titan’s sort of film and it does simplify things to not have immortal characters popping in and out and arguing over the war like a game of chess up on Mount Olympus. This story is of and about mortals and their travails.

First the sack of Troy seems to take more like two weeks, counting the 12 days off for Hector’s burial, than ten years. I suppose that is ok, the movie seemed long enough as it is. Hector doesn’t run away from Achilles though his brother Paris runs from Menelaus. Achilles does not dress as a woman, he keeps Briseis the slave, and he is not killed until after the sack of Troy. After all where would that leave the filmmakers if Brad Pitt were eliminated