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- Cert:
- Running time: 163 minutes
- Year: 2004
- Released: 21st May 2004
- Widescreen Ratio: 2.35:1
- Rating: 8/10
Director:
- Wolfgang Petersen
(Air Force One, Das Boot, Ender’s Game, Enemy Mine, In The Line of Fire, Outbreak, The Perfect Storm, Troy)
Producers:
- Wolfgang Petersen, Diana Rathbun and Colin Wilson
Screenplay:
- David Benioff
(based on the poem “The Iliad” by Homer)
Music:
- James Horner
Cast:
- Achilles: Brad Pitt
Hector: Eric Bana
Paris: Orlando Bloom
Helen: Diane Kruger
Agamemnon: Brian Cox
Odysseus: Sean Bean
Priam: Peter OToole
Briseis: Rose Byrne
Menelaus: Brendan Gleeson
The second movie in 2004s blockbuster slate continues the current resurgence of interest in the Hollywood Sword and Sandal epic. Im really not too familiar with the story of the siege of Troy, and Ive not read the text that this movie is based on, The Iliad by Homer, so, I cant really comment on any changes to the story (other than the more obvious ones) or their affect on the film. Im just going to comment on Troy as I would any other film, rather than how it serves as a cinematic adaptation of Homers text.
Paris, one of Troys two Princes, falls in love with Lady Helen of Sparta who is married to Menelaus, the Spartan King. Against the advice of Hector, Paris brother, the two of them elope and head to Troy, thereby setting into motion a devastating chain of events. Menelaus discovers what Paris has done and asks his brother Agamemnon to go to war with him against Troy, Agamemnon agrees, but for his own reasons. A thousand ships then set sail for Troy and on one of them is Achilles, Agamemnons (and the Worlds) greatest warrior, who, like Agamemnon, has his own particular reasons for going to war.
After the woeful Van Helsing its good to finally see the first decent blockbuster of 2004, a movie that uses its whopping budget to tell an actual story rather than just to string together a series of empty, synthetic and lacklustre set-pieces. It is certainly a handsomely mounted production and it definitely looks like the budget went onto the screen, rather into the pocket of Brad Pitt. The CGI in this movie is impressive and is used subtly in order to service the telling of the story rather than to serve as an end in itself. Seeing here the Spartan fleet closing in on the beach of Troy, it beggars belief that VHs $150 million dollar budget couldnt even render up one convincing boat put to sail.
Like most epic movies, the acting ranges from outstanding all the way down through to under-whelming. The standout performance of the movie goes to Peter OToole, in the one scene he shares with Pitt his performance is almost heartbreaking to watch. The other two performances of note are Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus and Eric Bana as the heroic, noble Hector. Brian Cox, is also very good as Agamemnon, he makes the character thoroughly repugnant, a man driven purely by his greed for more power. Sadly though, this is the kind of villainous role that Cox can play in his sleep, and usually does, it would be nice to see him stretch himself once in a while. Brad Pitt is rather good as Achilles, and certainly has the physicality to make you believe that he is the Worlds greatest warrior. His acting in the quieter, more personal scenes is good but nothing that you havent seen from him before as he relies on his stock bag of tics and expressions. Sean Bean is pretty solid as Odysseus and makes you wonder why he isnt a bigger star. And then there is Orlando Bloom as Paris, Im still unsure as to whether I think this guy is a good actor or not. He seems to have carried his Legolas performance over to this film, slight effeminate and good with a bow and arrow. Both the character of Paris and the actor are not served well by the story, as all it really asks of Paris is just to, essentially, screw everything up that he does.
You may wonder why there are no actresses covered in the above paragraph, this is simply because they are, by and large, given little to do, but what they are given is done well. They are for the most part there simply to tell their men not to do this and that, but once its explained to them that its their duty, grudgingly support them. This hurts the movie particularly with relation to Helen (Diane Kruger) the supposedly amazing woman that set these two lands to war, Diane Kruger sure is beautiful but Im not sure Id want to go to war over her, which is probably why the men, for the most part, really dont. The only female character who comes across as even faintly pro-active is the character of Briseis, played by Rose Byrne.
The script by David Benioff (25th Hour) is for the most part very good. It handles the various relationships and politics of the situation very well. It chooses to do away with any supernatural elements (save for a few lines about Achilles abilities) and truncates the events from a supposed 10 years to what seems like a month at most. This necessary truncation does result in some problems though, most significantly in the romance between Achilles and Breseis, it seems forced, rather than something that grows over time and out of circumstance. In turn that makes Achilles character shift in the latter part of the movie a bit awkward and his motives unconvincing. Theres also not much in the way of chemistry between the two of them, perhaps this is not so much down to acting but rather because the relationship isnt given much of the running time. This really is quite unfortunate given how important it is, in the grander scheme of things, and the events that come of it.
One thing the script does well, is make it very clear why everyone is fighting this war. The movie (to me) is about men, duty, and their capacity to wage war for various reasons. Paris fights for love, Hector for both family and Troy, Menelaus for revenge and wounded pride, Odysseus for duty, Achilles for everlasting glory and Agamemnon for pure greed and power.
Thankfully (due to the above) the battle scenes are very good overall, but their thunder is somewhat stolen because there is little (or nothing) here that we havent already seen in the Rings trilogy. A siege of a great city seems old hat in the wake of Helms Deep and Minas Tirith. For me, the standout fight scene is Hectors genuinely tense one-on-one with Achilles, which contains some of the best weapon based choreography (for a Western film) that Ive seen in years, you can truly believe that its two great warriors going at one another. As you can imagine it is a rather violent and bloody film, but the gore never comes across as too explicit or gratuitous.
As a side note Ill add that Achilles signature kill move is cool and the first fight scene, where he takes out a gargantuan warrior with one swift move, had me grinning from ear to ear. I know these things shouldnt impress me, but they do and I make no apology for it!
Troy is a long movie and at various points I was shifting a little uncomfortably, the long running time doesnt pass as easily as it did for, say, The Return Of The King. It starts out well, the build up to the siege is pretty swift and once it starts the battles are never anything less than interesting. Part of the problem is that it suffers greatly from the loss of a major character towards the movies end, and it never really recovers.
Wolfgang Petersens direction is suitably epic, everyone looks great here and there are lots of sweeping vistas and swooping camera moves over huge fields of action. Again, coming after King does it no favours but I cant knock what Petersen has achieved here, hes done a very good job and has created a grand looking movie.
Overall, I feel Troy can stand proudly next to other recent sword and sandal epics such as Ridley Scotts Gladiator. Its by no means a perfect movie, but it does hold your attention, and with a running time of nigh on three hours thats quite some achievement. The movie does tell a great story, but its mileage for you may very well depend upon your familiarity with Homers text and how you feel about the changes made to it.
Review copyright © Ian Stanley, 2004.
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.