A Brilliant Cast And A Bold Screenwriter.Thank God There's No Gods!!

Rating: 9/10 (16 April 2010)

Oh,how terrible this movie could have turned out,had it stayed faithful to The Illiad.It' s a timeless classic,I like it but it's a story that relies and focus so much on the Gods that the humans in the story pretty much don't control their own destinies.A faithful adaptation would've made it look like...you know it would be beyond silly to watch.Luckily,talented writer Benioff(25th Hour and Brothers)had the balls to create a blasphemy....to many of you,not me.
However,pay attention to details.Like the words seen directly after the Warner Bros.Logo....INSPIRED by The Illiad.Not based on.Inspired by...
The gods are honored and spoken of,most people fear and praise them,one man has clearly been raised to believe and honor the gods but who's experiences of life and war has made him skeptical to say the least(Hector) and one man who believes they exist but who,you know...basically urinates on them(Achilles)...so the gods are completely absent, which makes Troy a story about humans, power, love, greed.loyalty and revenge.A "this is what the Trojan war Might've looked like.",approach...bold,indeed.
Now I must admit,Petersen is no Scorsese in my book.Poseidon,Outbreak and The perfect Storm confirms that.But he did a great job here.Troy is epic in the best sense of the word!Not just long as the word basically means but it's larger then life,beautiful,realistic violence and just impressive from art direction to costume design(Its only Oscar nomination)to camera-work.
The two armies are MASSIVE and the CGI here is very effective and simple,turning 200 men into about 20 000.Massive and so is the battles,we have 2 extremely realistic and intense duels between main characters,the editing's really good,the Cinematography:beautiful ,And man,the cast...mind-blowing.
Eric Bana as Hector:No Oscarnomination?Insane!!Bana is brilliant as the prince who wants peace,knows his side is wrong,but fights for his beloved country. Fearless,emotional,respectable,tragic;Bana gives Hector a range of emotions.He's the show-stealer...Peter O'Tooole as Priam,the naive but humble King Of Troy who puts all his faith in the sun-God Apollo:His best performance in a very long time,delivering the sometimes clunky dialog in a way that makes it sound poetic.
Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus:Too little screen-time,but Gleeson makes him very memorable.You sympathize with this humiliated and furious king,and we applaud when he gets a little taste of revenge.Had Gleeson been cast today,now that he has become somewhat of a leading man against all odds(Fat.Ugly.Ginger.Irish.Old....but so beyond talented,great actor and Hollywood has finally realized that),Menelaus would no doubt have been an even more fascinating character.
Sean Bean as Odysseus:Sly, intelligent, charismatic, diplomatic...Bean portrays the king of Ithaka with style and ease.Saffron Burrows as Andromache,Hectors wife:So beautiful,natural and passionate.Bloom makes us despise the cowardly Paris,which means he did a good job.Diane Kruger as Helen is not that hot or extremely talented but Brian Cox do alright as Agamemnon,chewing the scenery in a sometimes very enjoyable and a few times over-the-top way.
Pitt however is the Achilles heel...incredibly fierce and intense in the action-scenes but he handles the dialog like he's on General Hospital. He doesn't quite get us to care about Achilles but bonus-points to the screenwriter for giving us a Good guy or Bad guy-dilemma...it's up to you to decide who to root for.Paris or Menelaus.Hector or Achilles.Greece or Troy.Except for Agamemnon,there's no black or white,no evil against good.Both sides do wrong for very different reasons,so does the characters.WHAT other epic offers you this intriguing dilemma?Everybody thinks they're right in a war.Magic.Extrastars for that alone.
On the downside,Troy gets a bit rushed in the end when it's time to sum things up and the fate of certain characters become something it's hard to really care about cause of exactly that quick pace.The score is not really fitting for big parts of the film,a bit too cheerful,outdated and doesn't always fit the mood.However,that is forgiven when Hector goes toe to toe with Achilles..Less is more has never been more true when it comes to movie-scores.
Anyhow.Just see this movie! For its,intensity,amazing scenery,great plot(THANK YOU,HOMER.I MEAN IT),uncompromising brutality and the acting of Bana,Gleeson,O'Toole and Bean especially.It's not a masterpiece,but it comes pretty close.