Film Review: Troy (2004)
Certain sections of world’s public were recently appalled with the results of survey suggesting that one fifth of US Zoomers didn’t believe that Holocaust had ever happened. A long debates can be held about reasons for that, but most of them would revolve about little or no knowledge of history, with often perception of distant past being framed by Hollywood films that sacrifice facts for the sake of entertainment, ideology or both. One such example is the way ancient European history was treated in Troy, 2004 epic directed by Wolfgang Petersen.
The film is based on the ancient Greek myths about the Trojan War, most famously described in Iliad, 8th Century epic poem attributed to Homer, the very first major works of Western literature. The plot beings around 1200 BC when the ancient Greece is patchwork of city-states that are currently becoming united by Agamemnon (played by Brian Cox), King of Mycenae, who, in doing so, used services of Achilles (played by Brad Pitt), Greece’s greatest warrior. A delegation from Troy, rich city-state on the eastern coast of Aegean Sea, have come to Greece to negotiate trade deal. Young and dashing prince Paris (played by Orlando Bloom) seduces Helen (played by Diane Kruger), wife of Menelaus (played by Brendan Gleeson), King of Sparta and Agamemnon’s brother and takes her with him to Troy. This insult is an excuse for Agamemnon to call for all-Greek war against Troy, to which Achilles joins. Greek army lands near the city and Achilles captures temple and its beautiful priestess Briseis (played by Rose Byrne). She is, however, taken as prize by Agamemnon, which angers Achilles who refuses to fight any more. Because of that, Greeks aren’t able to advance and suffer terribly when confronted by Trojans and their champion Hector (played by Eric Bana), son of King Priam (played by Peter O’Toole). Achilles’ cousin Patroclus (played by Garrett Hedlund) decides to take his armour and fight Hector.
Obviously inspired by grand success of Gladiator, a film that showed that “sword and sandal” subgenre of historical epics can find its audience in 21st Century, Troy was one of the most ambitious productions of its time, coinciding with Oliver Stone’s similarly themed Alexander. With nearly 200 million US$ of budget, it was one of the one of the most expensive Hollywood films until that time and director Wolfgang Petersen, undeterred with difficulties and series of minor and disasters that prolonged the shoot, did good job in showing all those resources on screen. Troy, helped by major sets, hundreds of extras and CGI, effectively recreates Bronze Age Aegean world and features some of the most spectacular combat scenes seen at the time. All that effort wasn’t in vain, at least initially. Reviews were mostly positive, but the audience flocked to the theatres, turning Troy in one of the big hits of its time. Much of the credit for that should go to Brad Pitt, who was at the height of his popularity of its time. He had worked on his physique well, trained hard to play demanding combat scenes and even appeared nude in scenes that would attract his female fan base. The rest of the cast also did decent job, even when their roles were thankless, like relatively unknown German actress Diane Kruger in the role of a woman whose face famously “launched thousand ships”. Kruger didn’t have much to do with her role, but, thanks to Troy, she became genuine international star. Same can be said for Australian actress Rose Byrne, who would also become big Hollywood star in next decade.
All that spectacle, however, did little to hide serious problems with Troy. Some of the flaws were unavoidable, due to film being mainstream Hollywood production, and, as such, constrained by MPAA censorship standards, with “R” rating, in notoriously hypocritical fashion, allowing for plenty of violence and gore but preventing displays of female nudity, although the sex and dispute over women was one of the main themes of the source material. At the end of the day the main problem for Troy was script by David Benioff, which took rather interesting approach. Instead of following Homer and other Classical sources, the film tried to give quasi-historical and, at least seemingly, more historic depiction of Trojan War. Gods and supernatural elements were removed, but that apparently wasn’t enough for Benioff, who not only oversimplified characters, their motivations and moral alignments, but actually changed their ultimate fate. This not only made this film intolerable sacrilege for anyone with the benefits of Classical education, but actually made those characters weak and one-dimensional.
Troy, despite its initial success, failed to become classic or particularly well-remembered piece of the genre. Bad opinion about the film was expressed almost instantly by Peter O’Toole, who stormed from the premiere and Pitt later expressed his own reservations about the whole endeavour. Even Petersen admitted some of the flaws, at least judging by 2007 Director’s Cut which added thirty minutes of material, with more nudity and graphic violence. At least some lessons of Troy were learned by Benioff, who would few years later become creator of another, although fictional, epic in the form of Game of Thrones.
RATING: 4/10 (+)
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