Fateful struggles

Rating: 6/10 (19 August 2018)

Have always been fascinated by Greek mythology and the Trojan War, and Homer's 'Iliad' is a major example as to why. Also love and appreciate many film epics, of which there are numerous classics, and they were the main reasons in my interest in seeing 'Troy' (another being that it was the film of choice at the friend/family weekly film night).
'Troy' had a lot going for it. A talented cast, it is hard to go wrong with Brian Cox, Sean Bean, James Cosmo, Eric Bana, Brendan Gleeson and Peter O'Toole, a more than capable director in Wolfgang Petersen (though he seemed a curious choice on paper) and a fine composer in James Horner. Will admit to not being completely sure about Brad Pitt, in terms of physicality and whether he had the complexity and presence for a character as complex as Achilles, and Orlando Bloom at first. The reviews for 'Troy' were very mixed and still are, some like and even love it and have been very passionate in their defence and others dislike it intensely and are just as passionate in their criticism. My opinion is somewhere in between, leaning towards moderately liked, there are many strengths that have been mentioned and for me some big weak points, so can see both sides of the debate very clearly.
Starting with the positives, 'Troy' looks great. The setting and production look very handsome, evocative and imposing in scale. All beautifully photographed and the editing flows and is at least coherent. Worried that Petersen would struggle with the bigger and bolder approach his directing would need than the claustrophobic approach impressively brought to 'Das Boot', actually he does well in this regard.
Particularly in the action sequences, which are exciting and tremendously well staged, showing the passion that was missing in some of the drama. James Horner's score is nowhere near one of his best or most inspired, the rushed composition process does show, but it does have its rousing, beautiful and haunting parts.
Most of the cast acquits themselves well. Brad Pitt was better than expected as Achilles, not always comfortable but the charisma and passion is definitely there. Eric Bana excels, providing a noble and sympathetic Hector and have no qualms with Sean Bean who has some of the script's better lines. Brian Cox brings relish and steely intensity, while Brendan Gleeson is a powerful presence in a role that in lesser hands would have been incredibly bland. Likewise with luminous Rose Byrne. James Cosmo is as ever reliable, while Peter O'Toole is perfectly cast, on an emotional level he and Bana are the most believable.
Not all the cast fare well, though only two really didn't do much for me. Orlando Bloom is a very characterless Paris, even for a character written as a coward there was nothing interesting about the character and got nothing out of Bloom on a performance level. Diane Kruger has a non-entity role and some of the script's worst lines, and she made the character even blander by bringing absolutely nothing and looking completely lost and even out of place.
Would have liked more passion and deeper characterisation, did like that the film didn't try to take sides or make the characters too black and white but the complexity of some of the characters is lost. The romantic elements fare the worst, whereas the action was exciting and passionate the romantic elements were pure soap opera with no chemistry let alone emotion. It is here where Petersen's direction became static.
Am not going to go into detail about how many inaccuracies and dumbing down there are in order to be kind to the film, but a lot of the dialogue is more cornball and soapy than thought-provoking or natural. The pace is uneven, there is urgency and purpose when needed but in more intimate moments the film does go dead. Am not going to criticise the film massively for being overlong, there are much longer epics out there on film (many classics), though it did feel at times there wasn't enough content and that the film tended to be too on the surface and not have enough substance so for a two and a half hour film some of it felt on the thin side.
Overall, somewhat of a mixed to moderately liked view here where both sides are understandable. 6/10 Bethany Cox