Troy
I enjoyed Troy more than The Return of the King. I know, I live in shame. How could I, a medium level Tolkien fan, who almost read Unfinished Tales — well, I swear I picked it up — choose a big hollywood extravaganza with Brad Pitt and my least favourite Australian comedian ever over some cool story about hobbits and love and hobbit love? Mostly, it’s just freshness. But there are other factors.
Slow motion was a big part of it. As I’ve previously complained, slo mo was a big part of almost every scene towards the end of the Lord of the Rings trilogy. I wasn’t a huge fan in Fellowship when Sam was drowning in oh-so-dramatic fashion, and I was plain sick of it when every single character wandered into Frodo’s bedroom as if through treacle in Return. In Troy, slow motion is used for one element only — Achilles’ god-like speed and accuracy. It’s used sparingly, and well.
Troy also — as far as I understand it — isn’t particularly hung up on the source material. Of course, I wouldn’t know, as for once I’m one of the unwashed hordes who don’t know the original story very well (though I get extra geek points for all my knowledge coming from Doctor Who and the Myth Makers). But the end of this film felt like… well, the end of a film, and not a bunch of otherwise excellent filmmakers over-sentimentalising every scene they could find simply because they loved them so.
But enough with the comparisons. There’s lots of good stuff on display in Troy. Eric Bana and Peter O’Toole do marvellous work as the two more sensible Trojans — Hector and Priam. I had no problem with Bana’s accent, which may have wavered a bit in the scene on the boat but seemed otherwise consistent to me. Priam’s pleading scene with Achilles was also a gem. Brad Pitt I had no problem with, though I’ve heard a lot of complaints. It was risky to give him a part that involved a spot of staring into space, since he seems to have some kind of himbo reputation going, I’m not sure why.
Orlando Bloom did an alright job as Paris, but sadly I will always think of him now as a complete weed and coward. Shame. Rose Byrne’s Briseis was adorable, Diane Kruger’s Helen was simply gorgeous in a pop star kind of way (which works for me — clearly this is what would’ve happened to Britney Spears had she been born a shade earlier). The big prize for me though, goes to Brian Cox’s Agamemnon. Almost every scene of his ended up hilarious, and yet he still felt threatening on some level.
The action was also very nicely handled. I like a well-choreographed, consistent and clearly presented fight, and that’s what we get in the final duel of the piece. I was on the edge of my seat — though it must again be stressed that I wasn’t entirely sure who was going to win, either, which helped.
Ultimately, the film is a good story, told well and simply (if not accurately — but I’m past caring about such things). Even if it has got its overly cliched touches, and a few moments of cheese. It’s about good but flawed people trying their hardest to work against the machinery of history. Oh, and a petulant demi-god. But they’re fun too.
571
Shannon
May 21st, 2004 at 9:05 pm
So long as they credited ‘inspired by’ and not ‘based on’ Illiad, I think they have all the license to stray that they want.
I thoroughly enjoyed this review, Tom. =) I dont think its too far of a leap to draw comparison to Return of the King, blockbuster.. fantasy.. I cant think of anything else from recent release that would be in Troy’s category. However, I am still gobsmacked that you hold Troy above Return. (I would be italisising but we know how that ended last time). And I say YOU, rather PEOPLE because I know where lord of the rings stands for you. Or I THOUGHT I did.
Perhpas knowing the story of Illiad puts a damper on the films enjoyment? Though surely you knew that the horse was coming, and that Troy was about to burn.. ? No? I dont know, I just thought the larger plot points of Illiad were one of those things that everybody just kind of KNOWS even if they haven’t read the book.
Tom
May 22nd, 2004 at 3:26 am
I knew the horse was there, and that the city would burn, but I didn’t know which members of the Trojan royal family would survive. Or whether Achilles would.
On a side note: Just how many L’s are in ‘Illiad’? There was only one in the credits to the movie (I thought). But I’ve seen a lot of 2 L’s about recently.
Shannon
May 22nd, 2004 at 4:32 am
Depends what takes your fancy I guess. Its a translation from the ancient greek so I think you’re safe going either way. Most of the academics who write their monotonous thesis’ on Homer seem to use a double L, at least it seems that way to me. But it all blurs into one with that I there so who knows.
Shannon
May 22nd, 2004 at 4:34 am
And by the by, so you didn’t know the whole ‘Achilles heel’ thing? His weakness? How he can be KILLED? “Everybody has their Achilles heel”, no?
Jackson
May 23rd, 2004 at 2:04 am
Come on, everybody dies eventually. Follow any character long enough they will die, most films stop before then. Obviously Tom knew that. Achilles could quite have easily survived the Trojan war and been killed in his ankle years later. In that case he wouldn’t have been killed in the film.
Tom
May 23rd, 2004 at 7:42 am
According to the sensibly named Dr Weevil, “Only ignorant undergraduates spell it ‘Illiad’ with a double L.”
And Jackson has a point – knowing Achilles has a weakness means that he’ll probably die from it when he does but not necessarily that he’ll die any time soon.
Shannon
May 24th, 2004 at 2:09 am
The penguin edition has one L. I’m convinced.
And the only famous text that Achilles really appears in is Iliad. He’s in some of the homeric hymns and things but.. meh. Anyway somehow before I had read Iliad I still kind of knew the major plot points, and that was one of them. One of those ‘i dont know where or why i acquired this knowledge but its in there in the ‘facts’ section’, random general knowledge stuff. Guess im just a freak though. What else is new.
Tom
May 24th, 2004 at 8:41 pm
I’d like to know where the confusion with Ls arose from.
Having some vague sense that Achilles was going to die made me just a little hopeful that Hector might get lucky. But we all know how that turned out.
Shannon
May 25th, 2004 at 3:05 am
I think it just came from translating the ancient greek cahracters into our alphabet. The sound is ‘llll’ so how do you spell that? I doubt there is any greater mystery to it than that.I think we all kind of wished Hector would get lucky. I was kind of wishing the titanic wouldn’t sink, and that Juliet would wake up before Romeo poisoned himself. Life’s a bitch like that.
Andy
June 3rd, 2004 at 6:48 am
So would you say he’s better as Paris or Legolas?
So they did they have the prophecy about Achilles dying at Troy?
Tom
June 3rd, 2004 at 7:14 am
Some lady told him he wouldn’t come back, yes.
Legolas was better, but he’s just a better character. It’s hard to say whether someone was a better useless prat than cool elf.
Shannon
June 3rd, 2004 at 8:20 am
Neither, he’s better as that fop in Pirates of the Caribbean.
Andy
June 5th, 2004 at 9:33 am
I happened to be at the British Museum in London last week and they spell it Iliad. I hear Odysseus didn’t get much a part.
Tom
June 5th, 2004 at 10:15 am
He got to do a bit… and he was played by Sean Bean…
Perhaps he’ll get more of a run in the sequel.
Shannon
June 5th, 2004 at 8:25 pm
Excuse me?? Sequel???
Tom
June 5th, 2004 at 8:42 pm
And there I was thinking I was making a clever joke. Isn’t the ‘sequel’ to the Iliad The Odyssey, with Odysseus as the main character?
Not that they’ll do it I wouldn’t think. Especially since of course some people who are supposed to be alive are dead.
Shannon
June 5th, 2004 at 9:08 pm
Oh, right. Yes. And at first I thought you meant that but then I remembered you saying ‘Huh?’ to everything else book-related and figured it must have been the film geek in you talking. If not for my stupidity that would have been outstanding wit, Thomas. Bravo, and er.. sorry.
Andy
June 9th, 2004 at 11:38 am
I thought it was a funny joke and I’m not just saying that to get my name on the index of comments page.
Tom
June 9th, 2004 at 12:52 pm
Who would?
Shannon
June 22nd, 2004 at 9:15 pm
Not me thats for sure. Nor come in 2 weeks later on an old, old joke. Nope.
Pauline Xhyra
November 2nd, 2004 at 11:01 am
I LOVE YOU BRAD PITT…I wanna see you for realz… this movie is great!
Tom
November 6th, 2004 at 3:08 pm
And I want to see Diane Kruger for realz. But let’s face it, it’s just not going to happen.
Andy
November 7th, 2004 at 10:12 am
I once saw Julia Stiles and Hugh Jackman for realz. Don’t give up hope, it could happen.
julie
March 2nd, 2005 at 7:55 am
brad pitt….no words can describe how is beautiful…..
Jack
March 3rd, 2005 at 9:43 pm
When did you see them Andy? I wanna see them too
Tom
March 9th, 2005 at 2:07 am
Andy’s such a name-dropper. Don’t encourage him.
I once met Napoleon.