Troy: "HECTOR!!"

 

Right time for another post as we are now into June and I can't believe we are already nearly done with the first half of 2015.  So this post will be on the historical epic war film, Troy starring Brad Pitt in the role of Achilles.  So let's suit up, get those swords ready and have a look at this un....

So the story begins with prince Hector of Troy (Eric Bana) and his younger brother Paris (Orlando Bloom) signing a peace treaty with Menelaus (Brendan Gleason) the king of Sparta and celebrate the end of a long bloody war.  Paris however has been having a secret love affair with Menelaus's young and beautiful wife, Helen of Sparta (Diane Kruger) and he smuggles her aboard their homebound ship much to the anger of Hector who says this could lead to war between Troy and Greece.  Menelaus is outraged to find his wife missing and then goes to see his older brother, the ruthless King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) and asks for his help to take Troy over, who agrees as he has been wanting to conquer Troy for a long time so he can take control of the Aegean sea.  One of the Greek kings, Odysseus (Sean Bean) pays a visit to the legendary Greek warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) asking him to join the fight, however Achilles is initially reluctant as he despises Agamemnon and dislikes his ways.  Achilles however soon changes his mind after he speaks to his mother, Thetis (Julie Christie) who tells him that if he goes to fight his name will be remembered throughout the ages but he will die in the war.

Meanwhile in Troy, King Priam (Peter O'Toole) greets Hector and Paris even though he is initially dismayed at Helen's presence he welcomes her and allows her to stay as he realises if they sent her home then Paris would likely follow her and be killed so instead decides that the Trojans should engage the Greeks in battle.  The Greeks arrive soon after and take the beach, mainly with the help of Achilles and his Myrmidons (warriors who trained and served under Achilles) who also travels along with his cousin Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund).  Achilles and his men soon sack the temple of Apollo and are then confronted by Hector and his Trojan troops  but Achilles tells Hector to go and return to the city, which he does.  Achilles later claims a Trojan priestess, Briseis (Rose Byrne) but Agamemnon takes her from Achilles out of spite which angers Achilles who then refuses to help Agamemnon continue their fight against Troy.

The next day the Trojans and Greeks meet outside the walls of Troy and Hector and Paris face Agamemnon and Menelaus and Hector remains defiant against Agamemnon's wishes to call on Troy's army whenever he wishes.  Paris however offers to take on Menelaus in combat for the right to take Helen to end the war, which Menelaus appears to agree with but quietly tells Agamemnon to attack after he has killed Paris.  Paris and Menelaus then engage in combat but Menelaus quickly overpowers him and as he is about to kill Paris, Paris runs back to Hector who kills Menelaus, after this Agamemnon engages his army in battle with the Trojans but they are overwhelmed by the Trojan's defences and are forced to retreat.  Agamemenon later is forced to try and make peace with Achilles at the insistance of two of his fellow Kings, Odysseus and Nestor (John Shrapnel).  Agamemnon however has given Briseis to the men who attempt to rape her but are stopped by Achilles who rescues her and takes her back to his tent where they fall for one another.

The next day Achilles continues to refuse to fight for Agamemnon despite Odysseus's best efforts, but during the following night the Trojans launch an attack on the Greeks using fireballs.  The Trojans however are buoyed by the appearance of Achilles who engages in hand to hand combat with Hector only to have his throat cut.  Hector however on removing his opponent's helmet discovers it is Patroclus and not Achilles and out of mercy kills him to end his suffering.  As a result of this Achilles is enraged and then goes to face Hector in combat himself, which after an even start soon goes the way of Achilles who wears down Hector and kills him.  King Priam then discreetly visits Achilles at night and asks that he allow him to take Hector's body back and that he give his son the proper burial rites and rituals, which out of respect, Achilles agrees to which means for 12 days no Greek will attack Troy.  However during this time the Greeks use this time to create a large wooden horse, which would soon leads to the film's dramatic climax.....

As a historical epic war film, Troy is very entertaining and it largely succeeds in telling the story of Homer's Illiad, which narrated the story of the 10 year Trojan war.  The film itself is visually stunning and made an impressive scale which is understandable given its 175 million dollar budget.  Troy was however in addition to its original theatrical release also had a director's cut as well which clocked in at 196 minutes, which was 34 minutes longer than the theatrical release which expands on certain scenes particularly the battle scenes and the sacking of Troy, although I would say my preference would be the original cut myself.

Performance wise Troy is also largely quite impressive with most of the cast on excellent form starting with Brad Pitt who excels at playing the muscular role of Achilles and he effortlessly handles the film intense action scenes.  And even though Brad's accent seems to go on a bit of a walkabout at times between being English and American he still effectively delivers his dialogue.  Brad's highlights in the film which include the scene near the start of the film where he confronts a giant Thessalian warrior champion, Boagrius (Nathan Jones) whom he takes out with one swing of his sword and he then goes over to the Thessalian army and shouts "IS THERE NO ONE ELSE??!!" and is met with a stoney silence.  Another good scene comes when Achilles meets reluctantly with Agamemnon who goads him by bringing in Briseis and Achilles yells "You sack of wine!  Before my time is done I will look down on your corpse and smile!".  Then there is the scene where Achilles confronts Hector in battle after he arrives in his chariot he yells out "HECTOR!" repeatedly until Hector comes down to face him.  And in the scene Achilles starts by removing his helmet and says "Now YOU know who you are fighting!" and he continues on by saying "You won't have eyes tonight; you won't have ears or a tongue. You will wander the underworld blind, deaf, and dumb, and all the dead will know: This is Hector. The fool who thought he killed Achilles!".  Brad also shows Achilles charimastic and arrogant side well especially in his first scene where he is awoken by a young boy messanger (who I could swear was a girl!) who tells him that Agememnon has requested  him to do battle.  And in the scene the young boy says to Achilles "That Thessalian, he's the biggest man I've ever seen!  I wouldn't want to fight him" and Achilles says "And that is why no one will remember your name". 

Eric Bana is also very good in his role as Hector, the brave and heroic prize warrior of Troy who get's embroiled in war with Greece.  Bana also has some good moments such as the scene where Paris reveals to him that he smuggled Helen onboard their ship and Hector angrily says to Paris "You say you're willing to die for love but you know nothing about dying and you know nothing about love!".  And in the scene Paris also says to Hector "I'm not asking you to fight this battle" and Hector angrily says "You already have!".  Another good scene for Bana is Hector's fight scene with Achilles were Hector starts off by saying to Achilles saying " I've seen this moment in my dreams. I'll make a pact with you. With the gods as our witnesses, let us pledge that the winner will allow the loser all the proper funeral rituals" and Achilles defiantly says "There are no pacts between lions and men!".  And lastly there is the scene where Hector faces Agamemnon and tells him "You want me to look upon your army and tremble? Well I see them. I see 50,000 men brought here to fight for one man's greed!".  And as Aga warns him that his mercy has its limits Hector angrily says "And I've seen the limits of your mercy and I tell you now, no son of Troy will ever submit to a foreign ruler!".

As for the other cast members, Diane Kruger is excellent in her role as Helen of Troy/Sparta who engages in an extremely costly love affair with Paris.  Kruger also has some good moments in the film which include the scene where Paris sneaks in and meets with Helen near the start of the film and he tells her not to be afraid of her husband Menelaus and she says "I'm not afraid of dying, I'm afraid of tomorrow. I'm afraid of watching you sail away and knowing you'll never come back".  And then later there is the scene where Paris tries to offer an alternative to Helen to try and prevent the Greeks going to war with Troy.  And he naively says regarding Menelaus "Then I will walk right up to your husband and tell him that your mine!" and Helen kisses him and says "You are very young my love".  Orlando Bloom however is the weak link in the cast here as Paris and while he isn't a terrible actor, this ranks as another one of Bloom's pretty bland performances and there is nothing too interesting from him here.     

Brian Cox is also excellent as the ruthless and power hungry king Agamemnon who is determined to conquer Troy.  Cox also has quite a few highlights in the film which include the scene where Aga (call him that for short!) meets with Achilles and taunts him by bringing Briseis in front of him and saying to Achilles "Mighty Achilles, silenced by a slave girl. Tonight I'll have her give me a bath, and then, who knows?!".  Another good scene is when Aga confronts Hector and Paris outside the city walls of Troy and he says to them "I have two wishes. If you grant them, no more of your people need die. First, you must give Helen back to my brother. Second, Troy must submit to my command, to fight for me whenever I call".  And as Hector defies Aga's wishes, Aga evilly says to him "Then every son of Troy shall die!".

Sean Bean is also quite good in his role as the wise King Odysseus, the only man whom Achilles will listen to.  Bean has some good scenes as well such as the scene where Odysseus and Nestor try to persuade Agamemnon to get Achilles back on their side to help them take Troy and as Aga complains "Achilles only fights for himself!" Odysseus says " I don't care about the man's alliegence, I care about his ability to win battles!".  Another good scene comes when Odysseus visits Achilles near the start of the film and Achilles throws his spear into a tree quite near him and Odysseus smiles saying "Your reptuation for hospitality is fast becoming legend!" and tries to persuade Achilles to fight for Greece again in taking Troy he says "This war will never be forgotten, nor will the heroes who fight in it".

And the last few I will quickly mention Rose Byrne who is good in her role as the priestess, Briseis who falls in love with Achilles and Saffron Burrows is also pretty good (and pretty) in the part of Hector's wife, Andromache.  Then there is Peter O'Toole who provides a solid if somewhat hammy performance as King Priam and there is an amusing scene in the director's cut (or rather unintentionally so!) where Priam faints in shock after witnessing Achilles kill his son Hector.  O'Toole also has some good lines in the film as well such as in the scene where Paris brings Helen home and Priam greets her and says "I have heard rumors of your beauty. And for once, the gossip is right!".

And last of all is Brendan Gleason who is great in his role as King Menelaus who is out for revenge after his wife, Helen, leaves him for Paris.  And Gleason also has some good moments especially the scene where Menelaus fights with Paris and in the scene before they fight Menelaus says to Paris "I accept your challenge and tonight I shall drink to your bones!".  And after Menelaus effectively defeats Paris and is about to kill him he teases him by saying "See the crowes, they've never tasted prince before!".  And Paris suddenly get's up and runs away leaving Menelaus disgusted, he shouts up at Helen "IS THIS WHAT YOU LEFT ME FOR???!!!".

Finally moving onto the director, Wolfgang Petersen who does a fine job in keeping the story moving along despite the film's length it never really lags too much (although the director's cut is just a bit too long at nearly 3 hours and 20 minutes!).  Petersen also confidently handles the film's epic and bloody battle scenes very well as they well staged and Achilles and Hector's fight is also well done.  The film also features a pretty good score by James Horner although it does appear he has nicked the odd moment or two from Maurice Jarre's Lawrence of Arabia score here and there!

As for Troy's flaws.... its not quite a perfect film of course and there are some niggles. For a start the film's dialogue at times is pretty cringeworthy for an epic you do get some almost obligatory cheesy lines for the actors to chew on and here Troy is no exception!  And there are a few wopppers here and there but the worst one comes from Eric Bana when he tells his wife sadly that he must face Achilles and he says "I want live in peace, grow old and I want to see my boy grow and watch him chase the girls!".  And another cracker comes from Orlando Bloom when Paris says to his father King Priam "You are such a great King because the way you love all your lands.  And that is the way in which I love Helen!".  Achhhh shut it!

Another issue I had with the film was more to do with the director's cut which does add some rather unecessary moments here and there I also felt the sacking of Troy was suddenly made far more graphically violent which I found a bit off-putting.  Some of the film's battle scenes in the director's cut were also made a bit more bloody and violent than necessary in certain moments as well.  And yes as I previously mentioned the director's cut in general is just a bit too long!  I was also a little disppointed in a way by how the fight scene ultimately ended between Achilles and Hector where Achilles doesn't even get as much as a scratch (except on his armour) against Hector and I was hoping he would have sustained some sort of injury to make the battle that bit more even than it was.  However Achilles ultimaltey met his own demise at his heel as we all know!   

And now for the film's biggest flaw, well for me anyway, which comes in the scene when the Trojans launch an attack on the beach by firing large fireballs at the Greeks.  And earlier in the film Achilles had a fallout with Agamemnon and as a result refused to fight for him.  OK.  So that in mind when the big fireballs are rolling down on the beech and all the men are screaming and flailing about and there is lot of noise, Achilles does not ONCE bother to step out of his tent to find out what is going on!!!  And he doesn't step outside until the next morning only by then to find that there are quite a few casualties including his cousin Patroclus.  Now if I were Achilles, the greatest warrior of all time and there was all that commotion going on I think I would even take a peak outside just to see what the hell was going on!   And for me it remains the silliest part of the film which makes little sense especially as many Greek soldiers died as a result as well as Patroclus and if Achilles had bothered his selfish ass to go outside and fight then he might have prevented Patroclus's death and ultimately wouldn't have needed to fought and killed Hector.  But hey that's allegedy how the story went, but personally I think its just a daft scene. 

Anyway all that aside Troy is still a very entertaining and at times exciting epic war film which while its not out and out classic its still well worth checking out.

And on that note I shall leave yee there.