Legend without the myth

Rating: 5/10 (6 March 2011)

I find it amusing that people criticise this movie as historically inaccurate. Of course it is, like an old-fashioned John Ford Cowboys and Indians movie that inspires schoolyard kids to reprise the mythic purity and simplicity of the theme. I mean, steel cuts into flesh with an added sound effect of a knife sharpener, like Stars Wars explosions make noise in airless space? Okay, we accept this is a fable, all the more reasons to treat it as such. But director Petersen also took out the mythological element that made the story more real for ancient listeners of the tale (which is interesting, since it can be argued that his other "realistic" films – Das Boot, Enemy Mine – are structured like myths). Myth for the Greeks (who didn't yet exist as such at the time of Troy nor even in Homer's day) would have been seen as enhancing the story, not making it less realistic, as one might expect from a modern perspective. In the original, gods and goddesses weave in and out of the plot, sometimes favouring one side and then the other. Homer's audience would have understood: the achievements of men count for little faced with the power and caprices of the supernatural and all it stood for. People who thought otherwise were guilty of hubris. The problem for the modern spectator is that the lack of myth is supposed to make the story more real. In fact, it means it depends entirely on the psychological dimension, so it is easy to judge this movie. Is the action sufficiently motivated by the scripted emotions conveyed by the actors? The answer of course is no. The actors are good, but their emotional depth seems misplaced since we are not provided with any real clues to account for the force of these emotions driving them to a ten year long murderous frenzy. In fact, the movie reduces the war to cupidity, greed and schoolboy notions of honour and masculinity (by the "Greeks"; the Trojans are in fact more complex psychologically because they are defending their homeland from the imperialist invaders). But the decision to motivate the action prosaically leaves Petersen in a bind, and so the photography, costumes, montage and even the score to a certain extent become "mythic", with old-fashioned long shots (now undoubtedly aided by CGI) to show the epic proportions of the battles, loving shots of the "eternal Aegean", of "sad" sunsets signalling death, of mighty walls, choreographed balletic duels, and so on. Myth and its richness are thus reduced to things – armour details, dramatic lighting – and plays no role in the human. This could have been a great film. As it stands, it is a great failure. You read Homer once, you never forget it. You could watch this film 20 times and even admire its technical prowess, but it is in the end forgettable.