Rated R » Grade: A-
Chicago, IL -
Before screening Warner Bros’ frame opener “Troy,” I had to remind myself that the picture is loosely based on Homer’s “The Iliad,” one of the most beloved epics of all time. So inured are the constructs of Homer’s extensive poem they can be found in our household vernacular: “Trojan Horse,” “The face that launched one thousand ships,” and “Achilles’ Heel” are verbal phrases which have risen above their literal translations to suggest deceit, beauty and mortality respectively; and they are rightly primary themes for this new picture. But it’s difficult to separate this film from its breeding at the hands of its casting director – Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, and the inestimable Peter O’Toole return to the big screen in one of the most expensive epic films ever produced. But is “Troy” as strong thematically? The answer to that question, according to this critic, is a definitive yes.
The plot is well known: Paris, Prince of Troy (Bloom) on the eve of a peace treaty with rival Greek King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), spirits away Menelaus’ wife Helen (Diane Kruger), setting off a Greek-Trojan war. Menelaus joins forces with his powerful brother/king Agamemnon (Brian Cox), who raises an army to assault and conquer the high walls of Troy – a feat reputed to be impossible. One of the Greek kings pressed into service for the attack is Odysseus (whose trials returning from this war are chronicled in Homer’s “The Odyssey”) – and Odysseus in turn convinces the famed warrior Achilles (Pitt) to seek fame in the battle. On the Trojan side stands Paris, his brother Hector (Bana), and their father/king Priam (O’Toole) – and the battle for Troy rages for the bulk of the film.
It’s a popular misconception that “The Iliad” details the battle through to the famed hollow horse and the fall of Troy; in fact, Homer’s poem follows the tale to its sixtieth percentile (and describing the cutoff might ruin the plot – although with Homer’s works so widely read, the outcome of this film should not surprise anyone.) Nobody knows who Homer was; and we will also never know on what grounds his choice to not follow the war to its final battles was made; yet if I had to guess, I would suggest that battles, like wars themselves, are not unique to their nature. It is the passions of the human condition which create them – and those passions are as inescapable,and as compelling, as death itself.
They are on brilliant display in Wolfgang Peterson’s film; and they are the best part of it. Writer David Benioff has managed to cull, from hundreds of characters and countless lines, the central four causes of war: power, glory, honor and love. He does not stay true to Homer in the complexities of the bard’s analysis of these motives, for that would be impossible. Instead, Benioff departs from Homer’s characterizations and assigns these passions to individuals: power to Agamemnon, glory to Achilles, honor to Hector, and love to Paris. Is it tragic that the love between one man and one woman can have led to this bloody strife? No more tragic than the blindness of power, or the arrogance of glory, or the inevitable doom of honor.
Benioff’s most interesting choice, however, is in the conspicuous absence of the gods; if you return back to Homer’s poem (upon which the credits do claim the picture was based), the immortals play as vital a role in the fates of this human war as do the mortals who fight it. Zeus and his compatriots cause the war, abandon it, return to it, fight each other in the process, and trifle with death – everything you would expect from good old mythology. In “Troy,” they literally never appear. Such a deliberate omission will certainly be cause for discussion; but filmmaking, like life itself, is about making choices. Benioff’s did not rile me; taken as a version of historical events, his filmis as probable as any account of a war which happened more than two thousand years ago.
Ultimately, however, the hallmark of this film is that of its action-adventure genre. Pitt plays Achilles with sufficient pomposity that it’s difficult not to both hate and love him (he also shows more skin in this flick than in any prior, and yes, it’s very pretty, and yes, you’ll see plenty of his ass.) It’s also difficult to not wonder, incidentally, if Pitt was merely typecast; this self-love is just too familiar, it would seem. Orlando Bloom acquits himself decently, but ultimately Paris is both a coward and a fighter. Peter O’Toole, looking wizened but sprightly still, plays a King more beholden to the gods, alas, than to the counsel of his own son. And Eric Bana truly comes into his own with “Troy,” having shed his green skin for a serious, contemplative role worth his determination – and he’ll fixate you as a result.
The balance between the four is delicately played – don’t be surprised if you feel your allegiances manipulated periodically while watching the play unfold; it may be since “Das Boot” that Peterson has so fiercely sculpted a film. There’s plenty of gore; tremendous action sequences – less assisted by CGI than you would expect in this day; and a tremendous passion to the performances he culled from his cast. The only slight disappointment was the music of James Horner; it seemed more grandiose than appropriate, as if this film required a cadre of French horns to induce legacy.
And without a doubt that is what Peterson was ultimately after in the filming of “Troy”: legacy. Like Achilles, the film’s creative team set out to capture that most elusive of trophies: immortality. It’s not impossible, but it’s unlikely. Far more likely is the booty targeted by Warner Bros. in the wake of the film’s May 14th opening: the boxoffice.
And if you ask me, “Troy” deserves to sack it.
The plot is well known: Paris, Prince of Troy (Bloom) on the eve of a peace treaty with rival Greek King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), spirits away Menelaus’ wife Helen (Diane Kruger), setting off a Greek-Trojan war. Menelaus joins forces with his powerful brother/king Agamemnon (Brian Cox), who raises an army to assault and conquer the high walls of Troy – a feat reputed to be impossible. One of the Greek kings pressed into service for the attack is Odysseus (whose trials returning from this war are chronicled in Homer’s “The Odyssey”) – and Odysseus in turn convinces the famed warrior Achilles (Pitt) to seek fame in the battle. On the Trojan side stands Paris, his brother Hector (Bana), and their father/king Priam (O’Toole) – and the battle for Troy rages for the bulk of the film.
It’s a popular misconception that “The Iliad” details the battle through to the famed hollow horse and the fall of Troy; in fact, Homer’s poem follows the tale to its sixtieth percentile (and describing the cutoff might ruin the plot – although with Homer’s works so widely read, the outcome of this film should not surprise anyone.) Nobody knows who Homer was; and we will also never know on what grounds his choice to not follow the war to its final battles was made; yet if I had to guess, I would suggest that battles, like wars themselves, are not unique to their nature. It is the passions of the human condition which create them – and those passions are as inescapable,and as compelling, as death itself.
They are on brilliant display in Wolfgang Peterson’s film; and they are the best part of it. Writer David Benioff has managed to cull, from hundreds of characters and countless lines, the central four causes of war: power, glory, honor and love. He does not stay true to Homer in the complexities of the bard’s analysis of these motives, for that would be impossible. Instead, Benioff departs from Homer’s characterizations and assigns these passions to individuals: power to Agamemnon, glory to Achilles, honor to Hector, and love to Paris. Is it tragic that the love between one man and one woman can have led to this bloody strife? No more tragic than the blindness of power, or the arrogance of glory, or the inevitable doom of honor.
Benioff’s most interesting choice, however, is in the conspicuous absence of the gods; if you return back to Homer’s poem (upon which the credits do claim the picture was based), the immortals play as vital a role in the fates of this human war as do the mortals who fight it. Zeus and his compatriots cause the war, abandon it, return to it, fight each other in the process, and trifle with death – everything you would expect from good old mythology. In “Troy,” they literally never appear. Such a deliberate omission will certainly be cause for discussion; but filmmaking, like life itself, is about making choices. Benioff’s did not rile me; taken as a version of historical events, his filmis as probable as any account of a war which happened more than two thousand years ago.
Ultimately, however, the hallmark of this film is that of its action-adventure genre. Pitt plays Achilles with sufficient pomposity that it’s difficult not to both hate and love him (he also shows more skin in this flick than in any prior, and yes, it’s very pretty, and yes, you’ll see plenty of his ass.) It’s also difficult to not wonder, incidentally, if Pitt was merely typecast; this self-love is just too familiar, it would seem. Orlando Bloom acquits himself decently, but ultimately Paris is both a coward and a fighter. Peter O’Toole, looking wizened but sprightly still, plays a King more beholden to the gods, alas, than to the counsel of his own son. And Eric Bana truly comes into his own with “Troy,” having shed his green skin for a serious, contemplative role worth his determination – and he’ll fixate you as a result.
The balance between the four is delicately played – don’t be surprised if you feel your allegiances manipulated periodically while watching the play unfold; it may be since “Das Boot” that Peterson has so fiercely sculpted a film. There’s plenty of gore; tremendous action sequences – less assisted by CGI than you would expect in this day; and a tremendous passion to the performances he culled from his cast. The only slight disappointment was the music of James Horner; it seemed more grandiose than appropriate, as if this film required a cadre of French horns to induce legacy.
And without a doubt that is what Peterson was ultimately after in the filming of “Troy”: legacy. Like Achilles, the film’s creative team set out to capture that most elusive of trophies: immortality. It’s not impossible, but it’s unlikely. Far more likely is the booty targeted by Warner Bros. in the wake of the film’s May 14th opening: the boxoffice.
And if you ask me, “Troy” deserves to sack it.
