Wonderful movie The Troy



 The movie "Troy" is loosely based on Homer's epic poem, "The Iliad." It recounts the Trojan War as the city of Troy is besieged by a Greek army led by Menelaus of Sparta and Agamemnon of Mycenae. However, the film takes liberties with the original story, sidestepping the existence of Greek gods and reducing the heroes to action movie clichés.

The movie begins with the young Trojan prince, Paris (Orlando Bloom), seducing the queen of Sparta, Helen (Diane Kruger). This act of lust leads to the Trojan War as Menelaus, and Agamemnon lead the Greek army to attack Troy. Helen's husband, Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), is understandably angry and so is Paris's brother, Hector (Eric Bana). Hector reminds his brother that it is counterproductive to leave a king's castle with his wife, especially after visiting on a peace mission.



The movie fails to explain why Helen would leave with Paris after only a few nights. She tells him that she wants a man she can grow old with, not a hero. This sentiment is out of place in Greek myth, where heroes are not introspective or conflicted. Achilles (Brad Pitt), the greatest warrior of all time, is portrayed as a moping warrior with his own band of fighters, carrying out a separate diplomatic policy.

Achilles believes that Agamemnon is a poor leader with bad strategy and doesn't get worked up until his beloved cousin Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund) is killed in battle. Patroclus wears Achilles's helmet and armor to fool the enemy, and until the helmet is removed, everyone thinks Achilles has been slain. However, the movie completely forgets about the 100,000 men in hand-to-hand combat and focuses on the Patroclus battle scene, where everyone stands around like during a playground fight.



While Brad Pitt is a good actor and a handsome man, he does not inhabit the Achilles character comfortably. Charlton Heston and Victor Mature carried off sword-and-sandal epics by being filmed by a camera down around their knees while they intoned quasi-formal prose in a heroic baritone. Pitt's modern, nuanced, introspective portrayal of Achilles brings complexity to a role where it is not required.

Director Wolfgang Petersen treats Achilles and the other characters as if they were human, instead of the larger-than-life creations of Greek myth. This approach miscalculates because what happens in Greek myth cannot happen between psychologically plausible characters. The point of myth is to tell stories that are beyond the realm of human experience. Great films like Michael Cacoyannis' "Elektra," about the murder of Agamemnon after the Trojan War, use a stark dramatic approach that is deliberately stylized.

The best scene in the movie has Peter O'Toole creating an island of drama and emotion in the middle of all that plodding dialogue. He plays old King Priam of Troy, who ventures outside his walls and into the enemy camp at night, surprising Achilles in his tent. Achilles has defeated Priam's son Hector in hand-to-hand combat before the walls of Troy and dragged his body back to camp behind his chariot. Priam asks that the body be returned for proper preparation and burial. This scene is given the time and attention it needs to build its mood, and we believe it when Achilles tells Priam, "You're a far better king than the one who leads this army."



The Greek cities themselves are clichéd representations from old Hollywood epics. The convention that whenever a battle of great drama takes place, all the important characters have box seats for it remains intact. When Achilles battles Hector before the walls of Troy