Shooting the Breeze: Troy: Another great epic
Everyone should know the plot of the Iliad from classics at school. First things first though - Troy is a good film.
It's perhaps a little short of greatness as a movie - Gladiator edges it for completeness in this genre - as some of the direction made it appear less epic than it perhaps could have been.
Several themes thread their way through this film. A dual love story is there to bring in the female contingent (although I'm sure Brad Pitt and Orlando Bloom have had something to do with its initial success) while the commentary on the rules of war, honour among combatants and their motivations and a rough sketch of political ambition reflects similarities which can be seen in the world today.
I'd simplify the film down to a political war epic with two warriors (Achilles and Hector) taking centre stage. The 2 hour 43 minute film simply flew by as we saw a quickly plotted set-up move seamlessly into into the battles that would lead up into the climax.
Eric Bana makes a tremendously noble Hector while Brad Pitt acquits himself well as glory-hunting Achilles despite reports of his difficulty with the RSC English which was adopted by the production.
The experienced actors also lent great support to the film. Brian Cox chewed up the scenery as a perfectly hissable egotistical and power mad King Agamemnon while veteran star Peter O'Toole, who knows a thing or two about epics, was perfect as King Priam, the father of Hector and Paris.
Perhaps less successful was Orlando Bloom, who perhaps played Paris a little too well as a lover, not a fighter, while Diane Kruger was given little to do as Helen except simper.
The film is topped and tailed by the excellent Sean Bean who, as the cunning Odysseus (architect of the Trojan Horse which finished Troy off according to the Odyssey), also serves as the narrator. His story following the Trojan War is well documented in the Odyssey - a story well worth filming if Troy does well enough to warrant a 'sequel'.
Troy follows the new tradition of sword and sandal epics drawn from classic (and well known) sources which was given new life by Gladiator and given fresh pace by the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Those films are good even though they deviated from the historical source material to varying degrees - in most cases making the better choice for the film.
The film deserves a strong 7 out of 10 and is well worth watching although Iliad purists may wish to suspend their disbelief a little more than the rest of the cinema audience. Taking a step back to appreciate the changes they made to make the film play better to an audience unfamiliar with the classics has largely worked although a couple of major plot elements have been altered to suit the story within the movie itself.
