So, happy belated 4th of July to all you folks out there. Hope it was fun for you. Zach and I went camping over in Mojave National Park. Yes, we're the crazy people who went camping in the desert in July, but it really wasn't as bad as all that (actually cooler than here on post, since it's at a higher elevation!). Once again, I have pictures forthcoming of our fun trip. I should be getting them up this week, along with the pictures from Vegas a few weeks ago. Zach's working late this week, so I actually get time on the computer all to myself, without anyone pestering! Huzzah!
Anyway, since it's Movie Monday, time for the What We're Watching list to be updated :) So, after a string of some pretty good movies, we had one that was only OK. This week's movie: Troy.
According to the blurb on Netflix, the movie is based on the Illiad. You all know the story - Trojan War, epic heroes, Odysseus and his wooden horse, Achilles and his snit with Agamemnon, and that whole heel thing. Calling the movie "based on" the Illiad would be a stretch - "inspired by" is probably better terminology.
The casting was pretty well done. Orlando Bloom can strike me as too much of a pretty boy sometimes, but here he played Paris. Pretty Boy is called for. Brian Cox was Agamemnon, and let's face it - I've loved his voice since the Sharpe's series on BBC. The whole suppressed power, sort of purring voice. The kind of voice you just let read - give him a phone book, a dictionary, whatever. That kind of voice. Even better in a soft Irish accent, a la his character in Sharpe's, but unfortunately, Irish was not called for here. :( Peter O'Toole was Priam - very nice in the pained, dignified old monarch role. Sean Bean was Odysseus (Ulysses on the Netflix DVD slip - VERY WRONG!! That's the Roman name!!!!!! Yes I am a dork...) That casting made me happy. I like Sean Bean (again, since the Sharpe's series), and somehow he ends up getting cast as a villain a lot in American movies - National Treasure, Patriot Games, even in Fellowship of the Ring he was Boromir! Seeing him as a beloved good guy was a nice change. The actor that surprised me was Eric Bana, playing Hector. He was actually very much as I would have pictured Hector - a little brooding, responsible, dutiful, heroic, kind... Good choice there.
My biggest gripe with the cast was Brad Pitt as Achilles. He just grated on me for some reason. I realize that Achilles is in a snit through most of the story anyway, but even before the war started, in the preliminary scenes, Achilles just squinted and pouted and killed people in battle. Maybe Brad Pitt is one of those actors who just don't work in period pieces. You know, those actors that look wonderful in certain eras (mostly 20th century), but put them in say, Jane Austen's England, or Ancient Greece, or Tudor England, and it just doesn't work. They just belong in a certain setting and it doesn't work for them otherwise. Maybe that's why I didn't like him in it - too modern-American sounding and acting to gel with the ancient battle. At any rate, he was definitely the one that didn't seem to fit as well in the setting. Oh, and Helen definitely wasn't pretty enough to launch a thousand ships. Pretty, yes, but not as beautiful as she could have been - personally, Andromache was prettier.
The directing was alright. There were some things that were very nicely handled, and some that irked me. The music choice got a little old after a while. The director really like the wailing wordless mournful female-voiced songs in the background. It was very effective in the sacking of Troy scenes, but it needs to be used a bit more sparingly than what was done here. As far as the filming went, it was beautifully shot. Nice and epic, and the CG effects were not overpowering.
The casting was pretty well done. Orlando Bloom can strike me as too much of a pretty boy sometimes, but here he played Paris. Pretty Boy is called for. Brian Cox was Agamemnon, and let's face it - I've loved his voice since the Sharpe's series on BBC. The whole suppressed power, sort of purring voice. The kind of voice you just let read - give him a phone book, a dictionary, whatever. That kind of voice. Even better in a soft Irish accent, a la his character in Sharpe's, but unfortunately, Irish was not called for here. :( Peter O'Toole was Priam - very nice in the pained, dignified old monarch role. Sean Bean was Odysseus (Ulysses on the Netflix DVD slip - VERY WRONG!! That's the Roman name!!!!!! Yes I am a dork...) That casting made me happy. I like Sean Bean (again, since the Sharpe's series), and somehow he ends up getting cast as a villain a lot in American movies - National Treasure, Patriot Games, even in Fellowship of the Ring he was Boromir! Seeing him as a beloved good guy was a nice change. The actor that surprised me was Eric Bana, playing Hector. He was actually very much as I would have pictured Hector - a little brooding, responsible, dutiful, heroic, kind... Good choice there.
My biggest gripe with the cast was Brad Pitt as Achilles. He just grated on me for some reason. I realize that Achilles is in a snit through most of the story anyway, but even before the war started, in the preliminary scenes, Achilles just squinted and pouted and killed people in battle. Maybe Brad Pitt is one of those actors who just don't work in period pieces. You know, those actors that look wonderful in certain eras (mostly 20th century), but put them in say, Jane Austen's England, or Ancient Greece, or Tudor England, and it just doesn't work. They just belong in a certain setting and it doesn't work for them otherwise. Maybe that's why I didn't like him in it - too modern-American sounding and acting to gel with the ancient battle. At any rate, he was definitely the one that didn't seem to fit as well in the setting. Oh, and Helen definitely wasn't pretty enough to launch a thousand ships. Pretty, yes, but not as beautiful as she could have been - personally, Andromache was prettier.
The directing was alright. There were some things that were very nicely handled, and some that irked me. The music choice got a little old after a while. The director really like the wailing wordless mournful female-voiced songs in the background. It was very effective in the sacking of Troy scenes, but it needs to be used a bit more sparingly than what was done here. As far as the filming went, it was beautifully shot. Nice and epic, and the CG effects were not overpowering.
My biggest gripe overall was playing fast and loose with the original mythology!! I do like some movies that play with the mythology (Clash of the Titans, Disney's Hercules), but even in those, the major discrepancies irk me. I know that may sound very silly, but I took 6 years of Latin, and have always loved mythology. Must have been that little series of books we had on our shelves as kids, covering a bunch of the Greco-Roman myths. The stories are so good to begin with - they've lasted for 1000s of years, for crying out loud! They don't need Hollywood's re-editing to make them 'more entertaining.'
Some of my grievances with their separation from the original material are smaller, but some are major. For instance... THE TROJAN WAR WAS 10 YEARS!!!! It was a frickin' siege! The Illiad begins after 9 years of besieging the city of Troy. In the movie, the war seems to last about 3 weeks, from the landing on the beaches to the wooden horse and the sacking of Troy. I realize that filming a 9 year siege isn't possible for the filming or for keeping audiences entertained, but some little note at the bottom of the screen would have been nice.
Some of the more minor grievances...
Some of my grievances with their separation from the original material are smaller, but some are major. For instance... THE TROJAN WAR WAS 10 YEARS!!!! It was a frickin' siege! The Illiad begins after 9 years of besieging the city of Troy. In the movie, the war seems to last about 3 weeks, from the landing on the beaches to the wooden horse and the sacking of Troy. I realize that filming a 9 year siege isn't possible for the filming or for keeping audiences entertained, but some little note at the bottom of the screen would have been nice.
Some of the more minor grievances...
- Aeneas (who makes a brief appearance during the sacking of Troy scenes) was about 18, a youth. In the Aeneid, he's in his 30s or early 40s - his SON was a youth. He's mentioned as one of the heroes who fought valiantly during the battles, and the teenager who made his cameo in Troy was certainly not old enough to be fighting. At least they got that he was helping his father escape too...
- Menelaus does not die at Troy, but returns to Sparta with Helen. A nice movie scene (particularly emphasizing how much a coward Paris was, which is accurate) but still, he didn't die.
- Agamemnon did not die in Troy. I know that makes for a nice just-rewards scene in the movie, but really, he did make it home from Troy (where he was killed by his wife and her lover, but that's another story).
- Achilles did not die during the sacking of Troy, but in battle before the wooden horse was built. There was actually another tiff amongst the Greeks over who would get his armor and shield. He was indeed killed by Paris, and the whole arrow-in-the-heel story, but there was no running through the streets looking for Briseis, no Paris killing Achilles in front of her, etc. Again, makes for good movie, but irks the classicist.
- Likewise, if Achilles died before Troy was sacked, so did Paris.... except in this movie. I always particularly liked Paris' death, as it seemed he deserved it so much, for all the trouble he caused. In case you didn't know, he was shot by a poisoned arrow, then tried to go back to his wife, a nymph, who had medicine to cure it. Because he had abandoned her to run off with Helen (and then forgot her for 10 years until he needed her again), she refused, and so he died. Frankly, he deserved it. But, killing Orlando Bloom as a shmuck on-screen probably wouldn't have gone over too well with the fangirl population.
- I did like the Trojan horse. Very ominous and foreboding looking (made from the black wood of the ships). However, I missed Laocoon getting crushed by the serpents sent by Athena because he doubted that the horse was genuine. The movie overall, avoided the gods-and-goddesses aspect of the story. That's alright, I suppose - just a different interpretation of the story (also keeps it a bit simpler for the big screen). I missed some of those aspects, like why Achilles was invincible, but it wasn't as distracting to me as the 9 years of siege being glossed over.
1 comment:
Yeah it's a different story with the gods left out. I'm just getting into some of these old stories--I've been reading a translation of the Iliad by Samuel Butler, and after reading your post here I just noticed it uses all Roman names!
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