Lotus666
06-08-09, 08:49 PM
As posted originally by TB...I did some net searching and turned this up in "Cached"...
Well, our all-quality viewing of 2004 had to come to a screeching end at some point and Troy earns at least that accolade. And precious few others.
SYNOPSIS
Loosely based on Homer's Iliad and Greek Mythology, we have four principle characters in our tale. Achilles (Brad Pitt), an arrogant warrior representing Agamemnon’s Empire, in it purely for the glory of writing his name in history and certainly not the morality. Hector (Eric Bana), a well rounded character who loves his city of Troy and his wife in equal measure. Paris (Orlando Bloom), Hector’s brother, still wet behind the ears, without any battle experience but plenty with the ladies, and Agamemnon (Brian Cox) whom is effectively an egomaniac bent on complete military domination of the immediate geography.
The film opens up well enough and gets down to the meat and potatoes of the tale in pretty short order. Hector and Paris are overseas, cementing a peace treaty with Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, which takes unfortunate overtones when Paris beds Helen, his wife, and then in a moment of supreme youthful foolishness steals her away to Troy. Hector knows nothing of this until they are half-way to Troy, and quite quickly realises that any of his options leads to a world of hurt.
Achilles is portrayed as certainly arrogant, almost narcissistic (which probably didn’t require too much acting from Mr. Pitt). He doesn’t respect Agamemnon, but simply fights for the glory of war. He’s setup as the best thing since white sliced, with only Hector in even the same fighting ballpark. So obviously, when Agamemnon comes to the aid of his brother to recapture Helen, and seeing a fantastic excuse to lay siege to Troy and complete his military mastery, Achilles is along for the ride.
1000 ships take off for Troy and eventually make land. Achilles and his own personal regiment sweep all before them, raid a temple, kill the priests and steal away a young virgin priestess – whom also happens to be Hector and Paris’s cousin, Polydora. The army of Agamemnon then attacks Troy itself, without Achilles, who is feeling unappreciated at the time, with spectacularly bad results. Paris challenges Menelaus to a one on one to avoid large-scale bloodshed, loses but is saved from the final fatal blow by Hector. All hell breaks loose in a nice set piece, but the end result is that a city enclosed by high walls has archers aplenty and these do tend to dice up infantry quite nicely and with speed. Agamemnon retreats.
Jumping across an act or two, Achilles turns on the Pitt charm on Polydora (flexes a few muscles, prevents her from being raped by the army of Agamemnon) and beds her with a couple of minutes of real screen time. This potential raping business puts Achilles off Agamemnon permanently and he wants out, over the sea and far away. So, let’s bring in yet another plot contrivance! Achilles has his own cousin, whom he has been training in the way of the warrior and is eager for first battle. Said cousin takes off with a blade into battle, dressed as Achilles and is slain by Hector – who believed it was Achilles. This obviously draws the bad boy back into the fight, which results in a fine one on one duel with Hector outside the gates of Troy. Hector loses and Achilles legs it off with the body on the back of a chariot.
Curiously, the venerable old King of Troy (Peter O’Toole) then turns up in Achilles tent and begs for his son back to bury properly. Setting aside the disbelief of the old King just sneaking out for a chat across an exposed sandy beach, the dialogue is similarly poor – but results in the King not only taking back the body of Hector but also Polydora whom has reservations about a long-term future with a man who has just slain her first cousin. Funny that. Achilles then grants 12 days of mourning for Troy as befitting a Royal Burial, something which vexes Agamemnon.
But lo! These 12 days are not to waste. It’s just enough time for Odysseus (Sean Bean) to come up with a cunning plan to build a wooden horse, with enough room for 20 finest men together with kitchen and cleaning facilities. The people of Troy wonder where everyone is after the 12 days have passed, only to find the beach abandoned (apparently due to a plague from the Gods) but the said horse waiting for them. Paris seems to be getting wiser now he’s First (and only) Son and wants it burnt, but the sun-worshippers see it as an offering to Poseidon and therefore it should be displayed prominently in Troy, and left completely unguarded. The King agrees and in the horse comes, surrounded by cheering crowds.
Odysseus and Achilles then exit the horse in the dead of night, open the gates and the Greeks rush the city and effectively raise it to the ground. Achilles then goes off in search of Polydora. Agamemnon, being the only real villain in this tale, then cements his Bad Guy status by finding Polydora first and promises untold sexual and other pleasures for her back in the motherland. With untold slight of hand, Polydora then produces a fairly substantial knife from an unobvious hiding place and into the neck of Agamemnon it goes. Achilles turns up just in time to sort out the guards, instantly woos the woman who’s city is being burnt to the ground back with the legendary Pitt talents, but is tragically shot through the heel by Paris, but then more effectively three times in the chest just to make sure of the job.
Achilles falls over in tragic pose, Paris and Polydora leg it off through some secret passages, Sean Bean gives us some end-narrative whilst the body of Achilles is burnt in the captured city of Troy, and that concludes our cinematic viewing.
ANALYSIS
Well, the movie starts off very promisingly. Then starts to run out of pace after the first beach landing. The initial attack on Troy just about keeps up the momentum, but then it’s lost completely. I wanted it over about 20 minutes before the final credits, mainly in part due to Hector being killed 40 minutes before the end and having to endure the drivel from the King of Troy and Achilles afterwards.
You see, perhaps not surprisingly, the best part of this film was Eric Bana. He does play a storming part as Hector and delivers a nicely rounded character, whom has all the honour, courage and sense of priorities which Achilles lacks. Paris is similarly well portrayed – out of his depth, but one forced to quickly mature – by Orlando Bloom and, as they play brothers, we have two characters in a number of scenes which really do make their parts of the movie hum along nicely. When all the dust settles, this film will be remembed simply as the mainstream breakout role for Bana.
Brad Pitt as Achilles either delivers a masterstroke of acting or a pretty damn poor performance depending on if you believe Achilles was meant to be portrayed as a completely unsympathetic anti-hero. I suspect this wasn’t the intention. Sean Bean tries vainly to bring some depth to the Greek line-up, not helped by Agamemnon being played by Brian Cox as an insane megalomaniac one minute and a complete buffoon, in effective thrall to Achilles, the next.
Given the above character dynamics, you can perhaps see why the film peaks at the wrong time with the fight between Hector and Achilles. Beautifully choreographed, it removes Bana from the stage and the real heart of the film goes with him. Not that they were that much to begin with – the director appears to have produced (even with 200 million dollars) a very bland, tepid affair. There’s also no attempt to paint either side as the Bad Guy, until the end of the film when Agamemnon appears to have been nominated as a the traditional end of film sacrifice.
All in all, this was a disappointment. The film was overlong, and already bastardises the original Iliad, so a bit more in the name of plot and pacing wouldn’t have really gone astray. It’s not as if it’s close to people’s hearts – if we can lose the Scouring of the Shire with artistic success, then we damn well can toss this one to the adventurous script writer. The overwhelming feeling at the end was – so what?
Final score: 6 out of 10.
However, remove Sean Bean or Orlando Bloom and it would be a five. Remove Eric Bana and it would be a four.
Well, our all-quality viewing of 2004 had to come to a screeching end at some point and Troy earns at least that accolade. And precious few others.
SYNOPSIS
Loosely based on Homer's Iliad and Greek Mythology, we have four principle characters in our tale. Achilles (Brad Pitt), an arrogant warrior representing Agamemnon’s Empire, in it purely for the glory of writing his name in history and certainly not the morality. Hector (Eric Bana), a well rounded character who loves his city of Troy and his wife in equal measure. Paris (Orlando Bloom), Hector’s brother, still wet behind the ears, without any battle experience but plenty with the ladies, and Agamemnon (Brian Cox) whom is effectively an egomaniac bent on complete military domination of the immediate geography.
The film opens up well enough and gets down to the meat and potatoes of the tale in pretty short order. Hector and Paris are overseas, cementing a peace treaty with Menelaus, brother of Agamemnon, which takes unfortunate overtones when Paris beds Helen, his wife, and then in a moment of supreme youthful foolishness steals her away to Troy. Hector knows nothing of this until they are half-way to Troy, and quite quickly realises that any of his options leads to a world of hurt.
Achilles is portrayed as certainly arrogant, almost narcissistic (which probably didn’t require too much acting from Mr. Pitt). He doesn’t respect Agamemnon, but simply fights for the glory of war. He’s setup as the best thing since white sliced, with only Hector in even the same fighting ballpark. So obviously, when Agamemnon comes to the aid of his brother to recapture Helen, and seeing a fantastic excuse to lay siege to Troy and complete his military mastery, Achilles is along for the ride.
1000 ships take off for Troy and eventually make land. Achilles and his own personal regiment sweep all before them, raid a temple, kill the priests and steal away a young virgin priestess – whom also happens to be Hector and Paris’s cousin, Polydora. The army of Agamemnon then attacks Troy itself, without Achilles, who is feeling unappreciated at the time, with spectacularly bad results. Paris challenges Menelaus to a one on one to avoid large-scale bloodshed, loses but is saved from the final fatal blow by Hector. All hell breaks loose in a nice set piece, but the end result is that a city enclosed by high walls has archers aplenty and these do tend to dice up infantry quite nicely and with speed. Agamemnon retreats.
Jumping across an act or two, Achilles turns on the Pitt charm on Polydora (flexes a few muscles, prevents her from being raped by the army of Agamemnon) and beds her with a couple of minutes of real screen time. This potential raping business puts Achilles off Agamemnon permanently and he wants out, over the sea and far away. So, let’s bring in yet another plot contrivance! Achilles has his own cousin, whom he has been training in the way of the warrior and is eager for first battle. Said cousin takes off with a blade into battle, dressed as Achilles and is slain by Hector – who believed it was Achilles. This obviously draws the bad boy back into the fight, which results in a fine one on one duel with Hector outside the gates of Troy. Hector loses and Achilles legs it off with the body on the back of a chariot.
Curiously, the venerable old King of Troy (Peter O’Toole) then turns up in Achilles tent and begs for his son back to bury properly. Setting aside the disbelief of the old King just sneaking out for a chat across an exposed sandy beach, the dialogue is similarly poor – but results in the King not only taking back the body of Hector but also Polydora whom has reservations about a long-term future with a man who has just slain her first cousin. Funny that. Achilles then grants 12 days of mourning for Troy as befitting a Royal Burial, something which vexes Agamemnon.
But lo! These 12 days are not to waste. It’s just enough time for Odysseus (Sean Bean) to come up with a cunning plan to build a wooden horse, with enough room for 20 finest men together with kitchen and cleaning facilities. The people of Troy wonder where everyone is after the 12 days have passed, only to find the beach abandoned (apparently due to a plague from the Gods) but the said horse waiting for them. Paris seems to be getting wiser now he’s First (and only) Son and wants it burnt, but the sun-worshippers see it as an offering to Poseidon and therefore it should be displayed prominently in Troy, and left completely unguarded. The King agrees and in the horse comes, surrounded by cheering crowds.
Odysseus and Achilles then exit the horse in the dead of night, open the gates and the Greeks rush the city and effectively raise it to the ground. Achilles then goes off in search of Polydora. Agamemnon, being the only real villain in this tale, then cements his Bad Guy status by finding Polydora first and promises untold sexual and other pleasures for her back in the motherland. With untold slight of hand, Polydora then produces a fairly substantial knife from an unobvious hiding place and into the neck of Agamemnon it goes. Achilles turns up just in time to sort out the guards, instantly woos the woman who’s city is being burnt to the ground back with the legendary Pitt talents, but is tragically shot through the heel by Paris, but then more effectively three times in the chest just to make sure of the job.
Achilles falls over in tragic pose, Paris and Polydora leg it off through some secret passages, Sean Bean gives us some end-narrative whilst the body of Achilles is burnt in the captured city of Troy, and that concludes our cinematic viewing.
ANALYSIS
Well, the movie starts off very promisingly. Then starts to run out of pace after the first beach landing. The initial attack on Troy just about keeps up the momentum, but then it’s lost completely. I wanted it over about 20 minutes before the final credits, mainly in part due to Hector being killed 40 minutes before the end and having to endure the drivel from the King of Troy and Achilles afterwards.
You see, perhaps not surprisingly, the best part of this film was Eric Bana. He does play a storming part as Hector and delivers a nicely rounded character, whom has all the honour, courage and sense of priorities which Achilles lacks. Paris is similarly well portrayed – out of his depth, but one forced to quickly mature – by Orlando Bloom and, as they play brothers, we have two characters in a number of scenes which really do make their parts of the movie hum along nicely. When all the dust settles, this film will be remembed simply as the mainstream breakout role for Bana.
Brad Pitt as Achilles either delivers a masterstroke of acting or a pretty damn poor performance depending on if you believe Achilles was meant to be portrayed as a completely unsympathetic anti-hero. I suspect this wasn’t the intention. Sean Bean tries vainly to bring some depth to the Greek line-up, not helped by Agamemnon being played by Brian Cox as an insane megalomaniac one minute and a complete buffoon, in effective thrall to Achilles, the next.
Given the above character dynamics, you can perhaps see why the film peaks at the wrong time with the fight between Hector and Achilles. Beautifully choreographed, it removes Bana from the stage and the real heart of the film goes with him. Not that they were that much to begin with – the director appears to have produced (even with 200 million dollars) a very bland, tepid affair. There’s also no attempt to paint either side as the Bad Guy, until the end of the film when Agamemnon appears to have been nominated as a the traditional end of film sacrifice.
All in all, this was a disappointment. The film was overlong, and already bastardises the original Iliad, so a bit more in the name of plot and pacing wouldn’t have really gone astray. It’s not as if it’s close to people’s hearts – if we can lose the Scouring of the Shire with artistic success, then we damn well can toss this one to the adventurous script writer. The overwhelming feeling at the end was – so what?
Final score: 6 out of 10.
However, remove Sean Bean or Orlando Bloom and it would be a five. Remove Eric Bana and it would be a four.