*** (out of ****)
Starring Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean, Brian Cox, Diane Kruger, Brendan Gleeson, Rose Byrne, and Peter O’Toole
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen & written by David Benioff, inspired by “The Iliad” by some blind Greek
2004
163 min R
“Troy” is a movie like “The Last Samurai” that we can admire more for its reach than its grasp. At a time when summer blockbusters are expected to be “rah-rah let’s hear it for our side!” affairs, here is a maze of conflicting morality and ethics, sneaking into the “our side’s right, your side’s wrong” May multiplex like, well, a Trojan horse. Compare “Troy” to most movies of its size—in which your species or ethnicity determines whether you will be wholly, unambiguously good or wholly, unambiguously evil, and some piece of enchanted jewelry is required before you can show any inner turmoil—and you’ll start to understand why I admire it. Even if it is flawed.
Screenwriter David Benioff (“25th Hour”), hard at work on his Paul Shrader merit badge, and director Wolfgang Petersen (“Air Force One”) have taken many liberties with “The Iliad,” but that’s fine with me. A movie’s first allegiance is not to its source material, but to being a good movie. “Troy” uses many of the events and characters of “The Iliad” as a springboard for a fable on the futility of combat and revenge. War in “Troy” is not honorable, poetic, or glorious, but a place of broken promises and concealed motives, where good men are tricked by the powerful into dying for evil causes, in the guise of honor.
Unpleasantness develops between Sparta and Troy when Helen (Diane Kruger), the queen of Sparta, is seduced and brought to Troy by Paris, its prince (Orlando Bloom of “Lord of the Rings” and “Black Hawk Down”). Menelaos, the king of Sparta (Brendan Gleeson, “Gangs of New York”) understandably wants his wife back, and his power-hungry elder brother King Agamemnon (Brian Cox, “Braveheart”) sees this as a perfect opportunity to conquer Troy, which would give him a monopoly of all the Greek spaces on the board. To this end he brings along the greatest warrior of all, Achilles (Brad Pitt, “Seven”), who may have met his match with the elder brother of Paris, Hektor (Eric Bana, in a role very similar to his part in “Black Hawk Down”). Peter O’Toole also shows up as King Priam of Troy. Armies are raised and bloodshed and hilarity ensue. Well, not the hilarity part, although Achilles does make a crack about Odysseus (Sean Bean, “Lord of the Rings”) being a slow sailor.
There’s plenty of tactics, armor, and fighting in “Troy,” but the movie is more concerned with the motivations and flaws of these men. Achilles is obsessed with achieving so much glory in battle that his name will live forever. As a nice revisionist touch, he is almost aware that if you kill enough people you’ll be forced on undergrad English students three millennia later. But this is a conflicted, disillusioned Achilles, aware that he fights only for the glory and not because he believes in any man’s foolish cause, and he is haunted by his ambition’s absurd cost in lives. Listen carefully as he is offered a chance to battle the champion of Thessaly to decide who shall rule it. Achilles has no faith in the cause of conquest, but a battle of champions, regardless of the outcome, would spare two armies from a bloody fray, and send living men home to their wives and children. Achilles’ fighting has been orchestrated with the utmost care and looks nothing at all like kung-fu, but shows a man so much in his peak, so much in control, that he is taunting everyone he faces with his calm precision. (The filmmakers invented a ballet-inspired fighting style just for Pitt.)
His opposite is the movie’s most sympathetic character, Hektor, who fights only for the defense of his homeland and his reckless brother. At one point he outlines his moral code: love your wife, fear the gods, and protect your home. But he breaks his code when he cannot send Paris and Helen back to Sparta for certain death, even if it would save Troy. Perhaps this is his tragic flaw, or perhaps his flaw is that he thinks the sword can bring about change for the better. His fate is sealed because war belongs not to the good but to the strong. Eric Bana’s large and puppy-sad eyes, on his wife and infant son one moment, on his beloved country the next, give “Troy” about twice as much heart as it would otherwise have.
Page two of "Troy." Back to home.