Convining and dramatic

Rating: Null/10 (14 May 2004)

It falls victim to all the usual flaws with hollywood epics. The soundtrack is too intrusive, the mix of accents can be offputting, the liberties taken with the source material grate. Some of the dialogue is incredibly naff, and some of the long deep gazes into space to portray a sense of gravitas are crude.
But for all that the story is just so strong that it carries the movie. There are some truly exceptional scenes that rival any epic from ben hur to the passion of christ. it also has far more fascinating characters and events than anything in Gladiator, to which i guess everyone will compare it. For the record this is the better movie. The relationship between king agememnon (brilliantly played by Bryan Cox) and Achilles is 100% convincing and equally as captivating to watch. Equally, the tactical manouvers and mistakes made by each army are gripping and exciting. Helen of troy succesfully carries the weight of burden of her actions but orlando bloom is utterly out of his depth in a role that needed a much defter touch (and why the hell, when his star is in ascendance would he take a role opposite Brad pitt? madness).
Of course, it is achilles that is the main draw, and for me i cant think of a role more suited to Brad Pitt nor an actor more suited to the role. And he chews it up and spits it out with relish. he is a magnet on the screen. Graceful, pensive and heart pounding. Unfortunately the camera loves him a little bit too much and sometimes lingers on him for what seems like farcical amounts of time. Almost like a brylcreem advert or something.
technically there are flourishes of absolute genius alongside utter hamfistedness. Getting pretty bored of mass swordfights these days, and troys battles are nothing we havent seen before. The one on one fights however are shockingly brutal and fantastically well shot. Again, far outsstripping anything seen in gladiator. Unfortunately, the emotional peak of the movie has been placed right on top of a reel change, which seems incredulous and stupid, as it breaks the flow of the action terribly. Other technical probs include some dreadful ADR (for which, strangely, brad pitt always seems to be a victim. one wonders if he has real trouble saying his lines), some tacky cliched string arrangements on the soundtrack and some very hokey dialogue. Fortunately, theres also some tremendous dialogue, some wonderfully subtle music (the drums on the hector/achilles fight) and some really well handled build ups to the more dramatic moments.
Overall, I found the movie fascinating. it never lulled for its 3 hour length, and the story is utterly absorbing. There are occasional embarrassing faux sentiments and some cliched dialogue and hammy delivery, but isnt that the case with every Hollywood epic? This one is better than most.
7/10