A gorgeously precise rendering of the most humanly flawed tale of all time.

Rating: 10/10 (12 May 2004)

The Illiad being one of my favorite works of all time, I was dismayed when I originally heard about Troy. There's no way, I thought, they could capture everything, there's no way 95% of the story will translate to screen.
Thank god, then, that David Benioff was not trying to rewrite the Illiad for the screen. His goal (and his accomplishment) was far more complex: turning the myth into a history, giving us the "real" story of the doomed city of Troy.
Troy is an achievement, and while I think Wolfgang Peterson is wonderfully talented, I think what made this work was the team he made with Benioff, and the dedication of the actors. Troy transports you. I sat in the theatre in absolute awe of what had been accomplished, scenes I had been imagining since my childhood being played out in front of my eyes in spare yet rich detail. There are no extraneous words or scenes in the screenplay, and the direction is deliberate and precise.
The breakout star here, if he wasn't already on his way, is Eric Bana, as Prince Hector, Achilles' Trojan counterpart. His Hector is at once confident and conflicted, pure and weak of heart, soulful, passionate and unrelentingly brutal. Bana is stripped bare, he's thrown the whole of himself into this, and his huge presence is more than just his build. He's larger than life and humble at the same time. He's managed to take a character written as the most pure, the most self-sacrificing with the most to lose, and made him unbearably human, as flawed as the rest of them, the rest of us, but overcoming it with a minute-to-minute internal struggle that's written all over Bana's open, mobile face. It's worth seeing again for his performance alone, and for the chemistry that he sparks with every other actor.
I will attempt to assuage some fears about Troy that I've been hearing since the moment rumors about the script and the casting started:
1. No Gods: This is a history. This is not a retelling. And in the oral tradition of the time of the original telling of the story, Benioff and Peterson have made this THEIR telling. They made the decision to take out the gods, but they did not take out the spirit of the gods, they didn't take out the faith of the times or the people. Yes, we all loved Clash of the Titans, but Troy is years better than men in togas presiding over claymation beasts.
2. Brad Pitt: A friend of mine said when the movie was announced, "I have no ideas for casting except no Ben Affleck and no Brad Pitt." We were all, I think, a little shocked to hear about Brad's casting, because no matter how good he was in Seven and in 12 Monkeys, we all do just see him as his character in True Romance, right? Rest assured, he's no Kevin Costner-in-Robin Hood. Brad makes one of his finest turns as Achilles. Maybe not the best performance of the movie, but Brad committed himself to this role. Spending hours researching and training , throwing himself into Achilles with a dedication I have to respect. He does a fine job, and after the shock of actually seeing him for the first time, he blends into this new world that you suddenly find yourself believing in.
3. Patroclus: The love bond between Patroclus and Achilles, sadly, has been played down I assume because of the unfortunate general public reaction to an "action hero" being anything other than 100% straight. I did feel like this detracted from the story, because while those of us who know their original relationship will be able to see it there (a deft bit of screenwriting and directing, as well as some excellent acting by Garret Hedlund), viewers who don't know this story inside and out will wonder at Achilles' motivations for his final choices, as "cousin" just doesn't have the same ring to it as "brother", "partner", or "lover" (depending on how, exactly you've chosen to read their relationship in Homer's tale.

Orlando Bloom has a great turn as Paris, and has possibly the hardest role in the film: making an audience feel for who is possibly the least loved character in the history of literature. His Paris is no longer the self-centered coward of the myth, but is what's inside all of us, the desperate struggle for life and happiness, torn between what he knows is right for his world and the simple life he wants.
His performance and Benioff's crafting of his character is beautifully echoed in Saffron Burrows' portrayal of Andromache, Hector's wife and mother of his young son, who begs Hector to choose her, to choose life, over his love of his family and his country, his all-consuming honor. Her honesty and her complete lack of guile is heartbreaking, and it makes her story with Hector one of the most tragic in a sea of tragedy.
All in all, I found Troy to be more than I possibly could have hoped for, living up to my every expectation for a story I've been dreaming about since I was nine. It's unpretentious and raw, precise and unrelenting. It's a beautiful rendering of love, hate, honor and fellowship, and the choices we have to make as individuals when faced with options too big for one person. Homer would be proud.