Troy

Troy: It’s Greek to me

By Mark Stokes
5-15-04

Though this review’s title may reek of cheddar, it’s the best way I can describe my impression of Troy. The film’s strength and weakness is that it tries to interpret ancient Greek culture into a blockbuster film.
It did a wonderful job of interpreting the Greeks’ war-lust, ideology and hedonism, but it failed miserably in the storytelling department. Several scenes include well-known, respected actors awkwardly coming out-of-character for a split-second as if wondering, “Where is this plot going?” Though the acting wasn’t bad, the actors seemed to play recycled characters from their past films: Eric Bana was a bearded, brooding Bruce Banner-esque Hector; Brian Cox was a shouting, authoritative Agamemnon; Orlando Bloom was an effeminate, arrow-shooting Paris; Peter O’Toole was a melodramatic, haunted Priam; and Brad Pitt was his usual “I’m a sexy, cool, bad-body” character.
Part of the film’s problem is the timing of its release. While epic, period films are the “in” thing, they’re popular because they’ve been done well so far. While The Passion of the Christ is known for intimate, tight camera angles and The Lord of the Rings series makes use of larger-than-life, landscape-spanning shots, Troy offers nothing new. Not that there’s really much wrong with the film’s cinematography–the problem is that there’s not much right. The camera angles seem two-dimensional and unoriginal. The film has the ethereal wailing soundtrack of Passion, but it adds painful repetition and emotional stagnation. It even blatantly steals Saving Private Ryan’s beach-storming scene.
There are strengths in Troy, though. It seems to effectively capture the themes of Greek culture–even if those themes were repeated ad nauseam, as if the film were created to aid high-schoolers on the big social-studies mid-term.
The hedonism of the Greeks seemed to run throughout the film, but that probably has more to do with director Wolfgang Petersen’s obsession with Pitt’s body than anything else. The culture’s emphasis on sexuality is definitely showcased. Though Troy aims for sensuality and desire, it seems more akin to an Austin Powers running gag as strategically-placed arms and legs–along with quickly-moving camera sweeps–keep partially and near-nude bodies on the screen every 15 minutes. Adding the old James Bond motif of “I hate you; let’s have sex” doesn’t really help the credibility either.
Another theme in Troy deals with the closeness of familial relationships. Though this theme, like the others, is repeated at least six different ways, it’s effective and believable. We actually think that brothers, or cousins, or spouses, or fathers do care when a loved one is slaughtered.
Probably one of Petersen’s most innovative decisions in the film is to include protagonists on both sides of the ring–pitting likeable, yet flawed, heroes against one other. Instead of really fleshing out this idea, though, the director simply split the Greek ideals down the middle and gave half to Hector (Bana) and half to Achilles (Pitt). While Hector embodies the Greek emphasis on honor and patriotism, Achilles’ focus is on living for the moment and making a name for himself. Though these four themes are common in nearly every ancient Greek story, splitting them in half stifles character depth and adds repetitive dialogue. Stereotyping is frowned upon today, but that’s exactly what the director has done, essentially saying “All Spartans seek notoriety” or “Every Trojan is blindly religious.”
While most films dealing with ancient Greece incorporate thunderbolt-chunking gods and mythical claymation creatures, Troy treats the story as actual history, in which the gods are mentioned and revered but never seen. It’s a new approach, and it seems to add more legitimacy to the story.
It also seems to add a one-sided mockery of organized religion as a whole. King Priam (Peter O’Toole) is portrayed as a superstitious old fool, heeding the words of a vindictive prophet rather than listening to Hector’s common sense. Achilles, on the other hand, mocks the gods, calling the Trojans’ devotion “a one-sided romance.” This theme is probably a plea for the separation of church and state, but it also seems that the film uses the same method of “this view is wrong and I’m going to prove it through this one perspective.”
Don’t get me wrong, I’m not against jabs at the church–in many cases they’re necessary wake-up calls–but this seems to go beyond jabs into the realm of axe-grinding.
Many comments made by the story’s various leaders seem to be satirical commentary on Bush’s motives for Operation: Iraqi Freedom. That in itself could’ve been clever, but again, the director’s political axe-to-grind seems to overshadow the story’s plot.
It would be more believable and effective across the board if Peterson presented the pros and cons of each character’s motivation and then let the audience formulate a conclusion on its own. In that way, the story would seem more like reality and less like an insult to the audience’s collective intelligence.
All in all, Troy, rated R for graphic violence and some sexuality/nudity, wasn’t really a bad film. It had some poignant moments of philosophical meanderings on war and religion that seemed to come right out of Proverbs or Ecclesiastes. Its nearly three hours seemed to reek of mediocrity, though. One of the film’s most memorable lines occurs when the manic-depressive Achilles utters, “It never ends,” in reference to the cycle of war. For the first time, I could relate to his character, glancing at my watch in exasperation.