Troy (15) Review

Helen of Troy, she of the face that launched a thousand ships, has company in Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy. Brad Pitt, who I always considered to be a little too much of a “pretty-boy”, is growing up, getting older, maturing, and it looks good on him. Looking well-tanned and quite buff, Pitt stars as Achilles, one of the most famous warriors of all time, in this summer blockbuster. But is Brad’s pretty face and studly body enough to carry the film? Not to worry, there’s so much more to Troy than at first meets the eye!

In case you’ve forgotten the Iliad, let me give a very brief recap to refresh your memory. Paris (Orlando Bloom) falls for Helen (Diane Kruger). Helen is the Queen of Sparta, married to King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), much older than the beautiful Helen, and not a particularly pleasant man. Helen runs off to the walled city of Troy with Paris and his brother, Hector (Eric Bana). Menelaus asks his brother, King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) to help him avenge his honour. The ever greedy and power hungry Agamemnon agrees, wanting to seize Troy, where King Priam (Peter O’Toole) rules, and thus take over the Aegean. Achilles is called upon to help the Greeks defeat Troy. Achilles, who seems to fight only to have immortality, to know that always his name will be known as a magnificent warrior.

Pitt gives a pretty convincing performance as Achilles. With a range of emotions that I honestly thought might be beyond him, he played the warrior well. Not that its an Academy Award performance, but he did a commendable job. The supporting cast of this movie is superb. Eric Bana plays Hector with a convincing nobility and an honesty of character that was completely believable. Orlando Bloom did a good job playing the cowardly Paris, definitely giving more depth to his acting resume. Brian Cox as Agamemnon was superb, a greedy, power-hungry, uncaring and ferocious man. Peter O’Toole ruled his scenes with a true nobility and grace that brought out the best in Pitt in one very moving scene in the film, which may seem a bit of a surprise in such a summer spectacle as Troy.

Wolfgang Petersen (The Perfect Storm) directs this movie perfectly. This is an enormous movie, awe-inspiring, elaborate, and realistic looking. You really do feel like you’re watching 50,000 soldiers, shields and spears and swords clanging and crashing, battles elaborately done, heaving bodies, shields, swords, all crashing and slashing, blood and gore and all. Yes, this movie does have the expected amount of violence and bloodshed required for so many huge battle scenes.

But there is more to the movie than battle scenes. There are touching love scenes with Achilles and Briseis (Rose Byrne), Paris’ cousin who has been taken prisoner, as well as tender moments with Paris and Helen. There are intimate moments between family and friends, powerful moments without any battle scenes at all, and a story that moves along quite well.

The movie runs over two and a half hours, and I have to admit, when I heard that I wondered just what I had gotten myself into. But I really didn’t find that the movie dragged all that much. It seemed to move along quite well without losing steam; the storyline made sense, and the transitions from scene to scene went seamlessly, without any really abrupt, jarring changes. The script was written by David Benioff (who also wrote Spike Lee’s 25th Hour), and although there was some dialogue that seemed hokey, it didn’t hurt the film that much.

I did find that the Gods of Greek mythology didn’t play much part in this film, being reduced more to little extras, and either revered by some or looked upon with cynicism by others. I didn’t find that to be a problem with the film, just something that I noticed.

What did my companions think of the film? I took my son (twelve) and my brother to the sneak preview tonight. My brother really enjoyed the movie, and didn’t seem to feel it dragged at all. My son was bouncing in his seat, alternating between hoping the love scenes would end soon (which they did), to thoroughly enjoying the rest of the storyline and the battle scenes and one on one fights throughout the film. I really enjoyed the movie. There’s something for chicks and adventure movie lovers in this flick. We all recommend it!