A real stinker - how NOT to adapt a film

Rating: 2/10 (7 February 2005)

I am a big fan of both historic costume drama films, and the Iliad, so I was curious about Troy as soon as I heard about it. Then came the reviews, followed by the bad word of mouth. So I avoided it in the theaters, and waited until it came out as a rental.
Man I am glad I didn't pay $10 for this turkey. This was awful, not boring, not trite or predictable. It just plain stank. The dialog was wooden, and you could see the actors just giving up and not caring anymore. The balance and wealth of characters in the Illiad was stripped down to cardboard caricatures.
I don't mind a retelling or new interpretation of the tales, Naomi Wolf's Cassandra is a great example of how a new classic can be rebuilt from the old, but I don't understand the choices behind Troy. It's like Shakespeare, you have a ready built screenplay for you. You actually have it easy.
Instead, the makers of this film had to alter it and experiment, but not in any cohesive way. Achilles is played as a cynical glory hound, and Agememnon a political manipulator. Great ideas (not original but hey- it's a movie), but they are executed in such a poor fashion, that it's ludicrous. "Realism"? , as the previous reviewer attests, well, realism if you like cliché filled dialog. Realism stripped of the powerfully emotional personal moments that abound in the Iliad. Strip the gods from the Iliad, and you still have many great moments, some of the best in all literature, but even these were ripped asunder, and made into corny scenes with silly music.
the film's attempt to make any statements, artistic or otherwise, are never sustained. We could have had a story arc with Acilles and Patroclus dying in his own quest for glory. Nope. Hector fighting a rush to barbarity. Nope.
The film has 2 redeeming features- Sean Been as Odysuess, a small king having to play along with the big fish, and the scene where Hector chooses his bond of brotherhood over the rites of combat. But that's it.
If you are in the mood for a sand and sandals epic, save your money and go watch Gladiator again.