TROY (2004)

Cast
Brad Pitt as Achilles
Orlando Bloom as Paris
Eric Bana as Hector
Diane Kruger as Helen
Sean Bean as Odysseus
Brian Cox as Agamemnon
Peter O'Toole as Priam
Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus
Saffron Burrows as Andreomache
"Troy" is based on the epic poem The Iliad by Homer, according to the credits.
Homer's estate should sue. The movie sidesteps the existence of the Greek gods,
turns its heroes into action movie cliches and demonstrates that we're getting
tired of computer-generated armies. Better a couple of hundred sweaty warriors
than two masses of 50,000 men marching toward one another across a sea of special
effects.
The movie recounts the legend of the Trojan War, as the fortress city is attacked
by a Greek army led by Menelaus of Sparta and Agamemnon of Mycenae. The war has
become necessary because of the lust of the young Trojan prince named Paris
(Orlando Bloom), who while during a peace mission to Sparta, seduces the citystate's queen, Helen (Diane Kruger).
This action understandably annoys Helen's husband, Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson),
not to mention Paris' brother Hector (Eric Bana), who points out, quite
correctly, that when you visit a king on a peace mission, it is counterproductive
to leave with his wife.
What the movie doesn't explain is why Helen would leave with Paris after an
acquaintanceship of a few nights. Is it because her loins throb with passion for
a hero? No, because she tells him: "I don't want a hero. I want a man I can grow
old with." Not in Greek myth, you don't. If you believe Helen of Troy could
actually tell Paris anything remotely like that, you will probably also agree
that the second night he slipped into her boudoir, she told him, "Last night was
a mistake."
The seduction of Helen is the curtain-raiser for the main story, which involves
vast Greek armies laying siege to the impenetrable city. Chief among their
leaders is Achilles, said to be the greatest warrior of all time, but played by
Brad Pitt as if he doesn't believe it. If Achilles was anything, he was a man who
believed his own press releases. Heroes are not introspective in Greek drama,
they do not have second thoughts, and they are not conflicted.
Achilles is all of these things. He mopes on the flanks of the Greek army with
his own independent band of fighters, carrying out a separate diplomatic policy,
kind of like Ollie North. He thinks Agamemnon is a poor leader with bad strategy
and doesn't really get worked up until his beloved cousin Patroclus (Garrett
Hedlund) is killed in battle.
Patroclus, who looks a little like Achilles, wears his helmet and armor to fool
the enemy, and until the helmet is removed everyone thinks that Achilles has been
slain. So dramatic is that development that the movie shows perhaps 100,000 men
in hand-to-hand combat, and then completely forgets them in order to focus on the

Patroclus battle scene, with everybody standing around like during a fight on the
playground.
Pitt is a good actor and a handsome man, and he worked out for six months to get
buff for the role, but Achilles is not a character he inhabits comfortably. Say
what you will about Charlton Heston and Victor Mature, but one good way to carry
off a sword-and-sandal epic is to be filmed by a camera down around your knees,
while you intone quasi-formal prose in a heroic baritone. Pitt is modern,
nuanced, introspective; he brings complexity to a role where it is not required.
By treating Achilles and the other characters as if they were human, instead of
the larger-than-life creations of Greek myth, director Wolfgang Petersen
miscalculates. What happens in Greek myth cannot happen between psychologically
plausible characters. That's the whole point of myth. Great films like Michael
Cacoyannis' "Elektra," about the murder of Agamemnon after the Trojan War, know
that and use a stark dramatic approach that is deliberately stylized. Of course,
"Elektra" wouldn't work for a multiplex audience, but then maybe it shouldn't.
The best scene in the movie has Peter O'Toole creating an island of drama and
emotion in the middle of all that plodding dialogue. He plays old King Priam of
Troy, who at night ventures outside his walls and into the enemy camp, surprising
Achilles in his tent. Achilles has defeated Priam's son Hector in hand-to-hand
combat before the walls of Troy, and dragged his body back to camp behind his
chariot. Now Priam asks that the body be returned for proper preparation and
burial. This scene is given the time and attention it needs to build its mood,
and we believe it when Achilles tells Priam, "You're a far better king than the
one who leads this army." O'Toole's presence is a reminder of "Lawrence of
Arabia" (1962), which I saw again two weeks ago, and which proved that patience
with dialogue and character is more important than action in making war movies
work.
As for the Greek cities themselves, a cliche from the old Hollywood epics has
remained intact. This is the convention that whenever a battle of great drama
takes place, all the important characters have box seats for it. When Achilles
battles Hector before the walls of Troy, for example, Priam and his family have a
sort of viewing stand right at the front of the palace, and we get the usual
crowd reaction shots, some of them awkward closeups of actresses told to look
grieved.
In a way, "Troy" resembles "The Alamo." Both are about fortresses under siege.
Both are defeated because of faulty night watchmen. The Mexicans sneak up on the
Alamo undetected, and absolutely nobody is awake to see the Greeks climbing out
of the Trojan Horse. One difference between the two movies is that Billy Bob
Thornton and the other "Alamo" actors are given evocative dialogue, and deliver
it well, while "Troy" provides dialogue that probably cannot be delivered well
because it would sound even sillier that way.

Cheyan Ichel C. Fernandez

8 B Environmentalist

APAN MOVIE REPORT (REACTION PAPER):

TrOy

I don't want a hero. I want a man I can grow old with. Yan ang sabi
ni Helen of Sparta kay Prince Persia ng Troy. Kung iisiping mabuti, iisa lang ang
punot dulo ng labanang Trojan, Pagmamahal. Pagmamahal na umudyok kay Prince
Persia at Queen Helen upang magtanan. Dahil sa pagmamahal na iyon, nagbunga ang
pinakadakilang digmaan sa Sinaunang Gresya. Ang Trojan War, na naikakabit sa
aming aralin sa Apan. Nagsaliksik ako tungkol dito at mas nakadagadag pa sa aking
nalalaman. Ayon sa Greek Mythology Ang mga simulain ng digmaan (ayon sa Iliad) ay
ang kasal ni Haring Peleus at ng nereid (nimpa ng dagat) na si Thetis.
Inanyayahan nila ang halos lahat ng mga diyos para sa kanilang kasal. Subalit
hindi nilan inimbitahan si Eris, ang diyos ng sigalutan. Nagalit si Eris at
naghagis siya ng isang gintong mansanas sa piling ng mga panauhin kung saan
nakasulat ang "Para sa Pinakamaganda". Nasalo ng mga diyosang sina Hera, Athena,
at Aphrodite nang magkakasabay at nag-away hinggil sa king sino ang pinakamaganda
sa kanilang tatlo. Nag-alok ang bawat isa sa tatlong mga diyos nang mga handog
para kay Paris upang makapamili mula sa kanila ang hinandugan. Inalok ni Hera ang
lahat ng Asya. Inalok ni Athena ang pagkakaroon ni Paris ng karunungan. At inalok
namin ni Aphrodite ang pag-ibig mula sa pinakamagandang babae. Ibinigay ni Paris
ang mansanas kay Aphrodite. Sa katotohanan, hindi naisip ni Aphrodite na ang
pinakamagandang babaeng si Helen na Reyna ng Isparta, ay mayroon nang asawa sa
ngalan ni Haring Menelaus ng Isparta. Subalit ginawa ni Aphrodite na tudlain ng
isang gintong pana ng kaniyang anak na si Eros si Helen upang umibig kay Paris.
Pagkaraan, ang magkaparis na sina Paris at Helen ay lumisan upang marating ang
Troya. Nagpahayag ng digmaan si Menelaus, ang asawa ni Helen, laban sa Troya
upang makuhang muli ang kaniyang reynang si Helen. Dito nagsimula ang Digmaang
Troya. Si Achilles ang isa sa pinakamagiting na mga bayani ng digmaang ito, na
ang isa pa ay si Hector.
Para sa akin, nakatutulong ang pagpapanuod nito sa mga kabataang katulad namin,
upang mas mapalawak pa ang aming nalalaman at mas madami pa kaming matututunan.