Though it deviates much from the Iliad/myth, Troy is still a very good epic movie

Rating: 10/10 (15 May 2004)

Spoilers!! I'm a lover of the Iliad. Achilles has been my favorite hero since I was in primary school and was learning about our myths for the first time. I didn't expect/demand, however, from a Hollywood blockbuster to be a class on the Homeric epics. So I'll initially quote my comments on this movie judging it on its own merits and not as an adaptation of the Iliad. Some of my friends, Iliad purists, told me "don't go and see this Hollywood trash". I'm glad I didn't take their advice, because "Troy" definitely is not trash.
I saw "Troy" yesterday, May 14, in my small city's one of the two theaters, which the audience is usually reluctant to fill, since people prefer to wait for a while and rent a DVD to see a movie in the comfort of their home. Since it was the early afternoon Friday screening (people still at work or resting home) I thought my company and I would be alone in an empty theater. I was wrong. The theater was full.
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The story, though it deviates much from the myth, is still compelling and captivating. Thankfully in Benioff's version of Trojan War the violent battles don't overshadow the human drama. On the contrary, the human factor is emphasized and there is an admirable balance between action and emotion. There are many moments in the story where the culmination of the action and emotion makes the audience hold its breath, sigh, or cheer and clap (equally in support of the Greeks and the Trojans, depending on the case). It's an absorbing story.
The cast is overall excellent and delivers wonderful performances. Brad Pitt carries the movie on his wide shoulders. He shines with an outstanding performance. Visually he's male perfection, as "godlike" Achilles was, fair-haired, exceptionally beautiful, with the body of a classical ancient Greek sculpture. Pitt renders masterly all the subtle nuances of his complex character. His Achilles is convincingly fearless, powerful in the battle (and not only in the battle), violent, proud, arrogant, thirsty for eternal glory, tameless spirit unwilling to submit to any power (not even that of the gods), but he's also thoughtful and wise in his own way, with his own code of honor, brave enough to admit his mistakes, capable of feeling/offering love or admiring and praising the enemy when it's worth it, noble, generous, compassionate, and humane at the end. Pitt's fine acting ability makes us feel with Achilles' emotions, his doubts, his grief, his anger, his regrets. Pitt's Achilles is so amazingly complex and fascinating, that you can't do anything but hate him and admire/love him at the same time. He's so solid and imposing, that when he eventually falls you think that what falls is the pillar of the Greek side.
Eric Bana is very good, too. He has the much easier task to portray Hector, a one-dimensional character that can be portrayed comparatively more easily than Achilles. Bana's Hector is a noble, brave prince, a lovely family man. There is nothing negative in this character (unlike the Homeric Hector who has some serious flaws). He is the Trojan equivalent of Achilles, an equally powerful and admirable man for Achilles to fight with. When they duel, you wish they could win both of them. But tie isn't an admissible result in such a duel. And when finally Hector falls, you think that what falls is the pillar of the Trojan side. Orlando Bloom is decently good as coward Paris. He makes us not really hate him (because in the movie -unlike in the Iliad- he has the "noble motive of true love" that purifies him in a way in our eyes and justifies his actions) but rather feel pity for the coward, weak, small fry he is. Peter O' Toole is great as always. And all the other actors do a very good job with their supporting roles. Brian Cox is outstanding as villainous Agamemnon. He's so convincing, that all at once I heard my friend next me whisper "Oh! The mother f*cker!" (though he knows that Homeric Agamemnon wasn't a villain). The weakest performances come from Diane Kruger and Garrett Hedlund. Kruger is a very beautiful woman, indeed, but she recites her lines quite unconvincingly. As for Hedlund, I just wish they had selected someone else in his place (poor Patroclus!)
The film has a decent pace. But as a viewer who is familiar with the Iliad, where sometimes a single event of the movie is described extensively in more than 800 verses in more than one rhapsodies, I caught myself wanting some scenes to last more and when they came to an end I was wondering: "That was it? Is it already over?" Of course I know it would be impossible for the script to present more extensively some events, because something like that it would increase prohibitively the duration of the movie.
The costumes and set are impressive and represent convincingly and realistic (to the best of one's ability) the ancient world of that era, subsidizing the film's ambience. The score is absolutely functional at times, making the viewer shudder, but in some other scenes one feels that it should be a little more intense and "epical". Petersen directs with steady hand and his direction sometimes takes off and become exciting, but not throughout the whole movie.
In conclusion Troy is a very good, absorbing, entertaining movie with top-notch performances and a compelling story, and with the help of a little more inspired direction it could be a masterpiece. Despite the almost three hours I spent in the theater's uncomfortable sit, when it finished I found out that I just wanted to last more. And I'm going to see it for the second time tomorrow, because I have to wait too long until it's released on DVD, so that I can enjoy it again.
That's all I would say about the movie if I had never read the Iliad, that masterpiece of the world literature. But since I have read it I can't do anything but criticize some points of Benioff's "adaptation", some deviations of the myth that really hurt. Unlike some Iliad purists, I don't really bother for alterations to the events' sequence or for inventing or omitting characters or for inventing events non-existent in the poem, so long as the message and the substance of the myth remains immutable. But I do bother as a Greek for falsifying the characters of the Greek heroes'. For instance:
I don't bother if Agamemnon is killed by Briseis in Troy (he's killed anyway in the myth by Aegisthus and his wife Clytaemnistra after he's back home). But I do bother if they portray Agamemnon as a demon and an unscrupulous villain without any virtues, concerning only over his power. Something like that doesn't render Homer's spirit.
I don't bother if Patroclus is portrayed as Achilles' young cousin and not as Achilles' dearest friend. But I do bother for portraying Patroclus as a young frivolous brat who needs Achilles' babysitting and cheats Achilles by stealing his armor without his permission in order to be glorified in the battlefield. Something like that doesn't render Homer's spirit, who depicts Patroclus as a brave hero who is distressed by the sufferings/defeat of the Greeks and desires to help them, and eventually helps them with Achilles' permission, since his (Achilles') anger gradually blows over.
I don't bother if Achilles lives to see the Trojan horse and is killed during the fall of Troy (in the myth is killed much earlier and the Trojan horse is invented by cunning Odysseus because the Greeks aren't able to defeat Trojans in the battle without Achilles' help). But I do bother if they include only that brutal scene of Achilles dragging Hector's corpse around the walls of Troy, without pointing out that earlier Hector was trying to undress Patroclus' corpse from its armor, cut his head, fix it on a stake and give his rest body as food to the dogs of Troy. (In the myth Hector would have accomplished his intentions if the Greeks hadn't fought bravely to protect Patroclus' body). Something like that doesn't render Homer's spirit, doesn't show that what is actually savage/brute is the war, and makes Achilles (who is my favorite hero) look like the uncivilized savage and Hector look like the tragic noble prince.
All in all they have portrayed the most of the Greeks as a little more villainous and the most of the Trojans as a little more nobles than they really were. And that disappoints me as a Greek, and, furthermore it weakens the original story. One of the reasons that the Iliad is the mother of all stories is that it throws off the hackneyed pattern of "the good guys versus the bad guys" and depicts "good but flawed guys versus good but flawed guys". There isn't black-or-white in the Iliad, but the things are a little more complicated in the poem, just like in the real life. And Benioff should have realized that his story the most close it would have been to the original myth the most advantage would have gained.

Thankfully my beloved Achilles is the character they falsified less. They have portrayed him a little more arrogant than he really was, a little impious (towards Apollo) -he isn't impious in the Iliad- and concerning only over his glory in this war (in the Iliad he fights not only for his glory but for honor, too, for king Menelaus' insulted honor namely). Aside from that, he's the complex, interesting, amazing character who has always fascinated me in the Iliad. I love Troy's Achilles almost as I love the Homeric one.
In conclusion I would say that, though it deviates a lot from the Iliad/true myth, Troy is still a very good epic movie. Go and see it, you'll have a nice time for about 2.40 absorbing hours, which pass in a blink of the eyes. But after you leave the theater go and read the Iliad. It's worthwhile. You'll be connected with the magnificent and timeless qualities of the Homeric universe.