"Honour the gods, love your women, and defend your country!"
Hello everyone!
Time for yet annother movie review and since we're doing a history streak, let's go to the last that aired on one of our channels here (well, ok, technically the last one was The Last Samurai, but since I've already done that review, I'm counting this as last).
Troy is another one of those oldies-goldies in the sense that Hollywood doesn't (or almost doesn't) generally produce movies that are beyond 90 minutes long anymore. I don't know why - probably has something to do with the fact that audiences have become pretty spoiled. If they don't get what they believe they paid for in an hour or so, they think they've been cheated. Whatever happened to patience is a virtue?
Troy is around 160 minutes (the cinematic cut that is) of pure movie joy if that's what you came to watch, which, if you bought a ticked back in 2004, you did.
I do have to make a disclaimer here, however: if you went to see it for Brad Pitt, good for you, you can have at that reason. Me, I prefer some Eric Bana.
So let's dig in, shall we?
As before, the links to all previous historic movie blogs can be found at the bottom of this page.
When it comes to the story about Troy, the city-state which, according to Homer, defied the mighty Greeks under Agamemnon and ended up itself destroyed, there's been so many adaptations your head may start spining.
But that's ok - this is one of those stories that deserves so many!
In fact, I myself have seen at least two others, but I may only do a review of the 2003 movie Helen of Troy, in which Sienna Guillory plays the fatal Helen.
In any event, however, the story, as given by the poet Homer, goes like this: the Trojan prince Paris won the hand of the most beautiful woman in existence after proclaiming Aphrodite, goddess of love and beauty, the most beautiful among the Greek goddesses (needless to say, he didn't make any fans with the rest, who were NOT on the Trojan side during the war afterwards). So with Aphrodite's help, he stole Helen from her husband Menelaus, king of Sparta, who then ran off to his brother Agamemnon and big brother rallied the Greeks to go and get her back. Historically, the face of Helen was the 'face that launched a thousand ships', according to how many ships actually came to Troy. It was a story of gods and heroes trying to best and defeat each other, and it lasted for ten years before Hector was slain, and Achilles fell, and Odysseus finally came up with his trick of the wooden horse with which the Greeks managed to infiltrate the previously-unreachable citadel (with some help from the gods singing lullabies up top) and get Helen back. On that note, we actually see Helen with Menelaus again, though I'm not sure if it's in the Odyssey or in the Aeneid, but in one of those. Anyway, after Troy fell, the age of heroes sort of came to an end, as well, seeing as most of them died during that war anyway.
Now, in the movie, we actually follow three separate storylines vowen into one final masterpiece, and these are the stories of the Trojan princes, Hector and Paris (brothers), the story of Achilles and later on Briseis, and finally the story of Odysseus, Agamemnon & Co trying to defeat Troy.
The movie actually begins with Agamemnon sweeping through Greece and uniting the warring city-states into one nation, with a little help from one Achilles (Brad Pitt, natch) who keeps defeating the champions sent against him. In the meantime he also manages to sleep with anything that looks remotely female and insult the king whenever he has the chance.
Afterwards, the king's brother Menelaus is back in his own fiefdom, Sparta, welcoming his neighbours the Trojans, Hector and Paris, who are apparently there to negotiate a peace deal between the two regions, because, as Menelaus says, he prefers peace to war. He doesn't want to fight! Let them drink to peace!
Side-note: for the history week theme, a commercial aired on TV here where the scene of Hector lifting his cup and toasting 'To peace!' cuts right to Agamemnon laughing his head off at the incredulity of that statement. Priceless.
But Hector knows something's not right, because he's seen Queen Helen remove herself upstairs - and he's seen his little brother Paris following after the woman. Now, unwilling to cause a scene, he doesn't follow, but neither is he happy when, on the ship back to Troy, Paris explains that he brought Helen along because she's unhappy, he loves her, she would have drowned herself instead of lived with Menelaus any longer, and he loooooooves her.
Deciding that King Priam, that would be daddy-o, might be better suited for this conundrum (and unwilling to send Paris to his death) Hector bring Helen to Troy, knowing full-well what will happen.
And indeed, while the Trojans welcome a new princess (and we enjoy some cute scenes between Eric Bana, Saffron Burrows and the child playing their son), Menelaus has run flat-out to his brother, who's beyond pleased Helen went to Troy. This is exactly the excuse he needs to launch a war!
Gotta love obliging women.
So Odysseus goes a-courting Achilles, who's busy teaching his cousin Patroclus how to fight, but he manages to convince the man far enough that said man ignores the warning of his mother (if you go and fight boy you gonna die) and takes his Myrmidons to Troy (think Greek Special Forces, and truth be told the filmmakers did a really good job in showing the differences between the fighting styles, because Achilles fights like a war machine, methodical and precise, while everyone else just hacks about).
Here follow the different narratives: the Greeks are initially successful in gaining the beach for a campsite, but Troy's walls are literally unbreakable (I know they said something similar for the Titanic, but supposedly those walls were built by the sea god Poseidon once upon a time) and so they're going to be sittnig there for a bit.
Meanwhile, under Hector's lead, the Troyans keep gaining victory - aside from the small matter of losing Briseis, Hector and Paris's cousin, who ends up with Achilles. Then she's taken by Agamemnon and Achilles pouts and refuses to fight, so the Trojans keep on winning.
Oh, also, Paris challenges Menelaus to a duel (because nobody tells him that ain't smart) and almost dies, though luckily Hector's there to kill Menelaus instead.
In any event, then it's bashing and more bashing while Achilles mopes, until a Trojan attack on the beach (against Hector's advice, mind you) brings the Greeks together and the Myrmidons head into battle. Hector duels and defeats their leader, but - gasp - it's not Achilles!
Patroclus, his cousin, went and got himself killed, and so instead of going home (because he'd fallen in love with Briseis, realised wars are pointless, and wanted to leave) Achilles ends up gunning for retribution against Hector. Hector, being the smart cookie that he is, knows he's about to die and shows Andromache a secret tunnel that leads under the city and to freedom, knowing that if he falls, Troy won't be far behind.
He does, in fact, fall, and wouldn't even get a proper burial if not for Priam sneaking into the Greek camp to beg for his son's body. Achilles grants him the appropriate twelve mourning days, and sends his Myrmidons home without him as the war starts to wind down.
Odysseus finally makes his grand play with the wooden horse, which, despite Paris's idea of burning it (he finally found some of Hector's wisdom somewhere in Helen's skirts) ends up in Troy, and this leads to the sack of the city as the warriors hidden inside open the gates to the Greek army. While Andromache and Helen take as many Trojans to the tunnel as possible, Paris goes for Briseis, who had time to kill Agamemnon and reunite with Achilles before Paris kills Achilles with his bow and arrows (someone reminded him he played Legolas not too long ago). Then, as the Trojan survivors make for Mount Ida, Odysseus burns Achilles' body, and narrates the movie to its end.
Having a fairly high rating on IMDB, I honestly can't complain much over this movie. I mean, sure, were some things done purely for movie purposes? Obviously. But the CORE of the story remained intact (more or less), and Troy did fall in the end.
I can't say I was really partial to Achilles and Briseis, or Pairs and Helen, but that's probably because I was SUPER partial to Hector and Andromache, and they sort of eclipsed everyone else for me. Eric and Saffron really did a superb job with their roles, especially Saffron portraying the grief-stricken, but noble woman who knows what's inevitable and knows she can't fight it.
Some of the cast are old-timers at historic movies which was also enjoyable, and I was impressed by the way that the director didn't just shy off from showing blood all about. Too often these films will try and cut those scenes out and then you don't have the proper feel for it being historic at all.
History is ugly and bloody and considerably bloodier than anything ever shown on film. Movies, after all, will always simply be movies.
But damn, some of them are really good!
xx
*images and video not mine
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