Interesting political parable

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2004)

When I was a Film Major, I groaned inside whenever my classmates attempted to instill political themes into whatever movie was up for discussion. Well, sometimes they could be right. TROY is definitely a movie with a contemporary political subtext.
Growing up I used to read Greek mythology. I grew up believing the Greeks were the good guys, out to rescue the fair Helen from the nefarious Trojans. I also grew up believing that America was always the good guys in any conflict. The invasions of Grenada, Panama, and Iraq sure dispelled that belief, both for me and for a lot of the world.
Watching the movie it struck me fairly quickly that the Greek invaders were symbolizing the US invasion of Iraq. Agamemnon is clearly George Bush Junior, seizing the convenient excuse of Helen's abduction as rationale for the invasion he wants more than anything. Odysseus seems to be Powell, the only one of the Greek kings with any integrity or real intelligence. When Odysseus protests the men still believe the war is being fought to help Menelaeus rescue Helen, Agamemnon coldly replies that the invasion was never about Helen. One can easily imagine Powell being similarly rebuffed by Bush Junior. Agamemnon is obsessed with destroying Troy as a means to increase his power.
Notice how Agamemnon is always accompanied by his two vassal kings, analogous to how Bush Junior rarely acts without Rumsfeld or Cheney.
Achilles then comes to represent the American Fighting Man. He is the one who actually fights, who actually faces danger. But Agamemnon, like Bush, sits back in safety and gathers the glory for himself. When Achilles points out that Agamemnon had done none of the fighting he claims credit for, Agamemnon merely gloats. Achilles is more than willing to commit atrocities but he is also capable of noble acts.
Agamemnon, like Bush Junior, denounces any attempt at negotiation. The one time he does pretend to negotiate, when Paris challenges Menelaeus, Agamemnon intends to break the pact. Again, consider how we now know that Bush had no interest in any negotiation or cooperation with Iraq.
The Trojans have strong religious beliefs. The Greeks, on the other hand, give lip service to the gods and happily desecrate temples to gods they ostensibly worship.
Note that Helen soon moves into the background, almost disappearing from the story of a war that should center on her. Likewise, Osama bin Laden, the reason for the twin invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq, is rarely mentioned.

Is the film anti-American? In some aspects it can be seen thus. After all, even when the Greeks know there is no longer any possibility of reuniting Menelaeus with Helen, they continue their onslaught. Likewise, even after the world knew that Iraq had no connection to 9/11 and that there were no Iraqi "weapons of mass destruction" the US continued their invasion. The film is clearly even more anti-Bush in the form of the homicidal demagogue Agamemnon. That Greek king thought nothing of killing his own daughter to get his fleet underway. Has anyone seen Bush exhibit any real regret at the 700+ American soldiers already killed in his trumped-up war?

Bravo to Wolfgang Petersen and David Beniof for speaking truths that are increasingly hard to say in America.