Dec 24, 2005 08:09 AM
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(Updated Dec 24, 2005 08:56 AM)
If ever you are a sucker for big spectacles and Greek mythology (as I am) ,this is your movie. This has everything, Hundreds of ships ... hundred of thousands of perfectly attired warriors .... gory battles .... people risking an entire civilization for the love of a woman ..... it's all there.
Troy is based on the immortal Greek epic by Homer, ''The Iliad''. The story starts with the pallid Paris, the young prince of Troy, seducing away Helen, the wife of Menelaus, a Greek King. Menelaus, with the help of his brother Agamemnon, attacks Troy to get back Helen. Agamemnon seeks the help of Achilles and his Myrmidons, without whom he knows he cannot capture the impregnable Troy.
As the movie progresses, Paris is clearly seen to be a coward ruled more by his hormones than his brains. Hector, his older brother, on the other hand is depicted as a great warrior and a person with his head firmly on his shoulder. Hector tries his best to make the best of the situation with a very superstitious father, the old and weak Priam, who ignores military strategy and prefers to listen to the advice of his priests.
Agamemnon, launches a thousand ships to attack Troy and get back Helen (hence the expression ''A face that launched a thousand ships'' !). The battle scenes are superbly picturised. The fierceness of the warriors is brought out magnificently. Watch out for Ajax and his huge battering ram and also Achilles' side thrust with his divine sword.
The movie also filled up huge gaps from the epic. The famous one-on-one fights depicted in epics always bring up questions. Will the warriors in a fierce battle stop to watch great warriors fight and die ? Do the gods really envy us ? Can the most hated enemies both fear and respect each other ? Can an enemy be forgiven, will he repent ? These questions always popped up in my mind when I watched or listened to the Mahabharata, another great epic. These emotions are shown, albiet a little too flashily, in this rendition of the epic. Wish I could go into detail, but I don't want to give away the finer details of the plot and a magnificent one at that.
The warriors are, of course, larger than life, they always are .... but they are also shown as conflicted. Hector fights on with the full knowledge that he is fighting to defend wrong (much like Bhishma in the Mahabharata). Achilles, the Greek, also knows he fights for the wrong man, Agamemnon, who is a cruel and brutish lout. Afficianados of Greek mythology will know that Agamemnon, deceived and cruelly slaughtered his own daughter as sacrifice to gain favor with the gods.
The cons are that this movie totally sidesteps the existence of Greek gods. In the Iliad, the gods more than the humans, decide the course of battle. Some of the remarkable departures from the epic include
Paris not getting killed.
Hector's wife and son escaping. In the book they are not ... they are, as cruel as it may seem, sold into slavery.
Terrible as the destruction of Troy is shown in the movie, it pales in comparison to the cruelty and barbarity as depicted in the Iliad.
The actual war is supposed to have lasted 10 years or more. This one hardly lasts a month.
Cassandra, the seeress, who plays a central character in the epic is totally absent in the movie version .... And lots more.... It would not be fair of me to give out more details, just that movie-goers who are put off by incorrect picturizations will not like it at all.
The performances are awesome with Brad Pitt shining as Achilles, Eric bana as Hector is probably the best of all. Sean Bean as Odysseus is great as the oily and crafty Greek king who ultimately has the idea of the Trojan horse. Orlando Bloom as the cowardly and lovestruck prince is also good.
All in all, this movie will be liked by guys who are suckers for action movies (like me). Movie watchers with finer tastes (like me, too !!) will hate it....
