Ain't history grand?

Rating: 5/10 (25 January 2005)

Or so Wolfgang would have us believe, even with his diminution of the larger than life characters of the Iliad. The theory being, let the characters act like every day "joes" from As the World Turns but make the sets ever so grand. As for the accuracy of the epic as written by "Homer," why bother? Hollywood can do it better. Never mind that Achilles' lover was Patroclus, not his cousin, which would better explain why Achilles' anger at his loss was white hot and his grief inconsolable.
Pitt looks good, if not believable. What's with all the self psychoanalyzing? This isn't Ibsen. It's Homer. Gods are gods and men are men. Even demi-gods don't go through life analyzing themselves. They just do what they want. They're heroes, after all.
The sets were nice--- very deMillean. But the dialogue??? Surely if they could do a fair job of Sienkiewicz's Quo Vadis, someone could have done better with Homer's Iliad. In fact, although I translated all of my Homer from Latin (never took Greek), I'm sure that even Cliff's notes did better.
It's strange that a story that has been revered and admired for almost 3000 years still isn't good enough for the maven scriptwriters and directors of Hollywood. However, I hazard a guess this movie will not be remembered for 30 years, let alone 3000.
After watching this movie a second time, I have to admire Pitt more. His Achilles is Homeric in many respects...more than the screenplay. But what is striking is his performance in the battle scenes. He exhibits incredible grace or was this something they could do with special effects? I know now what I want, 7 years later. I want HBO to attack the Iliad with the same gusto they produced Rome. The Iliad needs far more time for character development than 2+ hours. It would make a wonderful 10 segment story and could be treated with the respect it deserves. Not this comic book synopsis (which is grossly inaccurate.)