Originally posted 6/2/04
Troy
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
Writer: David Benioff, inspired by Homer’s The Iliad
Producers: Wolfgang Petersen, Diana Rathbun, Colin Wilson
Stars: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Peter O’Toole, Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson, Saffron Burrows, Rose Byrne
At the beginning of Troy, when the armies of Thessaly take the field opposite the armies of Greek city-states under King Agamemnon (Brian Cox), a little boy in the row in front of me, probably 5-6 years old, asked his dad with burning curiosity – which ones are the good guys?
The father had no easy answer. The closest thing to an answer comes in the movie’s key scene: Agamemnon, who united the Grecian cities by explaining with a smile that there will be less bloodshed all around if they just accept his rule, has been beaten back from his first assault at the impregnable city of Troy.
Their original motive for this war has been rendered tragically moot, and the King is heavy with grief. And yet they have sailed all this way with this massive army; and after all, now he has something new to avenge. For Agamemnon, who understands only power and the perception of it, the reasons keep changing but the goal has always remained the same: Troy must be conquered.
Odysseus (Sean Bean), whose wisdom will in time solve the problem of Troy’s fortress walls, points out that the men will not take well continuing to die in great numbers for shifting purposes. But, Agamemnon rebuts, to leave now is to appear vulnerable. Enemies might be emboldened. The security of all Greece is now at stake, he concludes.
And so we have perhaps the largest war epic in recent memory in which neither side is really the good guys, though each has an equal share of beautiful movie stars in their ranks.
In that scene in the tent, we hear underneath the dialogue awful questions which ring familiar to us today – how did we get to this point, where there seems to be no bloodless end in sight? And are the reasons we are here now enough to demand that so many keep dying? Do we even have a choice?
This is admirable, because The Iliad never was about which side was good or bad. Each side had heroes and cowards, virtues and tragic weaknesses, and each side had Gods urging them on. The point was how particular motives and characteristics under these circumstances created a cataclysm the likes of which still seems unimaginable to us today.
It is also challenging, because it is difficult to feel many emotions except two – excitement at the extraordinary spectacle that unfolds, and sorrow at the misery and pain which seems so needless, yet so tragically inevitable. We have in Troy a curiously remote epic, impressive in many aspects yet not so stirring as we might be accustomed.
As we open, Greece’s powerful neighbor Troy is making peace with long-time rival Sparta, where Agamemnon’s younger brother Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) is King. But as Paris (Orlando Bloom), younger son of Trojan King Priam (Peter O’Toole) makes moony eyes at Menelaus’ wife Helen (Diane Kruger), and the two slip away to admire each other’s well-moisturized skin, we can tell that peace will be short-lived.
Paris’ looks and passion-above-all tunnel vision are intoxicating to Helen – and so she abandons her doubts and is snuck aboard his departing Trojan ship. The young, beautiful couple have no realistic idea of how they are going to get away with it, and Paris’ warrior brother Prince Hector (Eric Bana) realizes with full fury the course his impetuous brother has set for them.
Those with knowledge of this story will be wondering where the Gods are during all of this, since according to myth they played a very active role in Paris and Helen’s courtship. But, perhaps fearing the memory of Clash of the Titans, the filmmakers keep the Gods off-stage. Their existence is hardly a matter of debate to the characters, we just are spared the sight of them up on Mt. Olympus, carrying on their feuds and intervening from time to time.
The decision could also be one of practicality – it is daunting to think of reducing The Iliad to a single movie, and even at over 2½ hours it feels like we are getting the Cliffs Notes version of the story. The war that in Homer’s version took years seems to take, for our purposes, all of about 3 weeks.
Not that we are short on action. Once those 1,000 ships sail we are treated to battles both mammoth and intimate – crowds of thousands clashing with sword and spear, then suddenly (almost absurdly, in one instance) ceasing so two of the big ticket names can go mano-a-mano. The one between Achilles (Brad Pitt) and Hector is a humdinger.
Achilles is the mightiest warrior of his time, he specializes in a nasty trick where he leaps up and sinks his sword down through your shoulder, piercing your heart. He and his Myrmidons are unmatched in combat, and he has devoted his life to achieving the only thing, in his mind, worth achieving – immortality through deeds so astonishing that the world will always remember his name. Even though he is told that sailing for Troy means giving up hope of a family, and spells doom for him, he goes; not for Greece, or the King he despises, but because it holds the glory for which he’s longed.
These are tricky characters, because they are afforded little in the way of modern motivation, and their dialogue sometimes works at cross-purposes. But director Petersen has invested as heavily in talent as he has in effects, and it pays off. Peter O’Toole, one of the last of his generation of brilliant, hell-raising British thespians, has an extraordinary scene with Achilles where he bears the tragedy of the whole war as an extension of a father’s loss, and comes down from his royal station to beg a courtesy from the soldier.
And kudos too for Orlando Bloom, who sheds the heroic, unflappable Legolas and essays a callow youth with no clue how foolish his romantic declarations sound. He shows full colors of petulance and cowardice before finally growing into something more. How boyish and over-matched he appears when he faces off against Menelaus; it takes courage for an up-and-coming heartthrob to commit to showing such weakness. Eric Bana, watching his every action with a mixture of love and dread, finds a way to bring us in to Hector’s torment at having to resolve his conflicting duties into action.
There is little to say on the technical side except that the movie delivers; there is only so much that can be done with swords, spears, and arrows before it grows repetitive. Those vast carpets of men sweeping towards each other are rather jaw-dropping, and Petersen ably flies the camera over them as they brawl. But in the end, it is a transitory excitement, we realize it’s just more potential casualties in a war where heroic deeds occurred, and achieved Achilles’ dream, but heroic purpose was absent.