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TROY / Malcontent's Mark: B
May 14th, 2004
Achilles: Brad Pitt
Paris: Orlando Bloom
Hector: Eric Bana
Agamemnon: Brian Cox
Priam: Peter O'Toole
Directed by Wolfgang Peterson.
Written by David Benioff.
Rated R.
Troy hews a lot closer to the Homer’s The Iliad than I expected, yet it's also
more Hollywood than I expected.
In Homer’s epic poem, the Greeks wage a war against the Trojans because Paris,
the Prince of Troy, runs off with Helen, the wife of Menelaus, the King of
Sparta. Menelaus goes to his brother Agamemnon, King of the Mycenaeans, for
help. Agamemnon decides to defend the honor of his brother by uniting the
tribes of Greece and waging war against Troy. All of these elements remain
intact in this big-budget movie version of the story. But in this post-9/11
depiction, Agamemnon also trumps the supposed treachery of Troy as an excuse to
attack the foreign nation.
Director Wolfgang Peterson wisely chose to make Troy a historically accurate depiction of The Iliad. Whenever you have characters in togas, there’s a high potential for going camp. Also, in a bold move, he doesn’t choose sides – there are no clearly defined protagonists or antagonists. It really doesn’t matter what side a character is fighting for. Peterson simply presents flawed humans caught up in a war.
Screenwriter David Benioff has been pegged with opprobrium for Troy's stilted dialogue. I actually found the dialogue appropriately ironic, especially when all the characters seems know they're in a Hollywood version of the The Iliad. It's the dialogue's delivery from certain actors, particularly Brad Pitt, that makes the writing seem flawed.
Though Pitt has the physical presence to fill the role, he employs the same tics and mannerisms that he used in Fight Club and Ocean’s 11. So with Pitt acting more like Pitt than what we might imagine the mythological Greek hero Achilles would act like, it’s sometimes difficult to take his portrayal of Achilles seriously.
But Troy also stars the great Peter O’Toole and the talented fresh faces of Orlando Bloom and Eric Bana - all of which portray Trojans. All three are inspired casting choices for their particular roles. However, in a movie with no good guys or a bad guys, I ended up rooting for the Trojans simply because they had the better actors.
At the end of the battle, at the end of the movie, you are simply left with
the
futility of war. So in a way, Peterson’s Troy is more a political
movie than a Greek myth. I just rather it more resemble Greek myth than
Hollywood commodity.
Copyright (c) 2003
Bryan Stumpf.
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