THEY ALL HAVE THEIR LIVES TO SACRIFICE

Rating: 6/10 (26 May 2004)

Troy is a wonder of animation cinema age.In movie,there is a great work of creating cities,battle scenes.I'm not complaining it.Because if this is the war of all times,this is the only way to be like it.This is a movie which you always want more.
But in spite of great animation work,Troy is not a classic unlike Ben-Hur,Lord of the Rings,or Gladiator.There are a lot of points I like to see but when you make mistakes in main things,there is no matter for the things deep in core.I think Petersen forgot some points for glorifying the heroism in audience as he tries to make a great movie.
The most beautiful thing for the movie is the philosophy and the drama surrounding it.This movie is not just a story,it tries to be deserving of the structure of the novel,Iliad, and tell something about the nature of human and politics.Glory by Achilles,politics by Agamemnon,conscience and responsibility by Hector,passion by all of them.By this side,movie gains a deep and strong structure which everyone get something to think,especially about what is going on in today's world.
The second advantage of the movie is the great cast.Every actor is a legend like the characters they play.There are a lot of 'many-talked' actors but I think the greatest performances are from Peter O'Toole and Brian Cox.By their amazing performance,they nearly make the movie their own acting challenge.Especially Brain Cox,by his acting show,he throw away everyone playing with him,no matter if they are million dollar worth Brad Pitt or Eric Bana.As I said the cast is the biggest reason to watch this movie,except one...
The biggest disappointment for me is Brad Pitt.There are 3 ways to make a movie like this.First,you take a legendary director so there can be actors with normal star statue,like Gladiator.Or the tittle is a legend so there can be normal star statue actors or director,like Lord of the Rings.Troy goes with the third way,a normal star statue director so there have to be super star actor.And I don't think there is anyone who suits Achilles in mind better than Brad Pitt among super stars like Tom Cruise,Johnny Deep,Keanu Reeves.I thought I wouldn't say this in a hundred years bu I understand that the only super star to play Achilles is Charles Heston in all cinema history.I may not appreciate his personality but he has the face of these characters.Brad Pitt is one of the actors I like watch most but he is just a baby-face for this one and the watcher can't take seriously when he talks about politics,glory...
Another factor about this fact is there is too much nudity in this movie.No matter if there is love or women,this movie tells a man tale.Telling their fights and sacrifices.And as you wait for to see another character,man or woman,naked you can't focus on their heroism,dying for what they live for.The biggest problem of the movie is this,as all the main characters going down to die,watcher can't ask in mind 'Why did these man die?,Why did they sacrifice their lives?'.Gladiator was very good about this,because it told a man's tale in a man way.Because no matter if it is a man way,it has the same impact on man and woman audience.If there were less nudity and woman,the empathy for audience would be easier.
Another thing is a main theme for the music.In total music is very good but it lacks of a main theme which represents the emotions both of the movie and the audience.We saw how it worked well in Last of the Mohicans,Star Wars,or Lord of the Rings.Because of this absence,the feeling,that makes the watchers feel as one in the case of glorifying emotions,can't work well.This is another reason why we can't respond against the deaths of the characters in the way it must be.This absence is also felt in the battle scenes.
Like theme music,the dialogs are missing,too.There are a lot of spoken words but few is to be remembered.Most speeches are parts of the dialogs but there are few of them to carry the weight of the movie in the mind of audience.Because it is these kind of dialogs which symbolize all the meaning of the movie for the watcher.When you talk about the story,they are the words which you use to give the impression in your mind,like 'You shall unite or you shall fall' in Lord of the Rings or 'May the force be with you' in Star Wars.
In the second half of the movie,I think there is a problem to make the story going on.Because there are no nearly no drama but a lot of battles.One finishes and one begins.This is a good for a simple action movie but in this kind of movies,there must be an one and only battle which audience can see what they all can see.But even the fight of Hector and Achilles can't satisfy this need.So,I think,in most of the watcher,that's why there is a feeling that something's missing in action.
Shooting the battle scenes is another thing.The fight of Hector and Achilles is legendary for cinema history, and we feel why they are the biggest warriors of all times.But in other scenes,there are something lost which this scene has:Wide-angle shoots.The shots are taken in the scenes with close angles so we see what's going on inside the battle instead of watching glory and mighty of war.Then in some scenes,Petersen is like to forget the all war and focus on small stagings inside it,like the fight between the Hector and the huge guy in the second battle.Most of the time it is good and makes the audience fell like they are not just watching an animation wonder.But this time these stagings take so long.
There are great work on creating the city of Troy in building it and animating it, but this movie can't reflect the mighty and greatness of it as we feel for Gondor in Lord of the Rings.The reason is we see a few of city of its big time than we see in burning it down by Greeks.All we witness is the large size of the walls surrounding it.
Troy is a good movie but unfortunately it won't be in much of the one's top 10 movie lists,I think.The reason is not the things it has but the missing parts of them.Petersen take the characters out of 'more than human' category and represent them as they are all like normal ones inside to make them suitable for the mind of the audience.But he forgets something suitable for the heart.But no matter if it is liked or not by the big masses,it will be a main brick in the cinema history.