Troy

What's the Plot?

Ancient Greece. The two Prince's of Troy - Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom) - are at the court of King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), celebrating a newly-forged peace between their two countries. However, this peace will be short-lived as Paris has fallen in love with Menelaus' wife: Helen (Diane Kruger), Queen of Sparta, and she too with him. When Paris spirits her away with him back to Troy, it is an insult that cannot be suffered. So Menelaus turns to his brother Agamemnon (Brian Cox), the King of the Mycenaean's, who in turn unites all the massive tribes of Greece to steal Helen back from Troy. In truth, Agamemnon wants to conquer Troy to add it to his already-vast empire. But the walls of Troy have never been breached and it's King, Priam (Peter O'Toole), intends it to stay that way. He may have his mighty warrior in the shape of his eldest son, Hector, but the Greeks have Achilles (Brad Pitt) - believed to be the greatest warrior alive. Arrogant, rebellious and apparently invincible, Achilles has no allegiance to Agamemnon, but fights under his banner for his own goal: eternal renown and his name spoken throughout the ages to come. As these two great nations prepare to wage war, it's key players will fight for very different reasons, but which will prove strong enough to power it's bearer to victory: honour, love, power or immortality ?

The Review

At 163 minutes, director Wolfgang Peterson's Troy is a definite stab at the re-invention of the "epic." Since the success of Gladiator, audiences have been waiting for something to try to cash in on the success of the "sandals & sword" genre. Troy is that stab, and, although not that successful, it is not that bad overall. The main problem is that to most cinema-go'ers, Troy will feel like an amalgamation of Gladiator and the recent Star Wars: Episode's 1 and 2: the theme of "skirts, sandals and swords" mixed with "clunky dialogue and heavy-presenced CGI." This mix wouldn't normally be a problem, except for the following: the other two listed films at least had characters that the audiences actually cared for. Troy's nearest character to Gladiator's Maximus is not Pitt's Achilles, but Bana's Hector, who even has a speech reminiscent of Russell Crowe's before the conquering of the German's.

But even he has so little screen time amongst the many-and-diverse plot-lines, that he cannot become an anchor for a "hero-wanting" audience. The main character is Pitt's Achilles but it seems that the whole film wants us to believe that he was not sired by the Gods, but that he just wants to be a God: hence his all-consuming quest for his name to live on in the history books. Therefore, his wanton-greed and self-envy makes him a hard character to emphasise with, even after his inevitable "Hollywood" change-of-heart episode. With him the main lead, who else is there to like and root for ? Cox's Agamemnon is a true historical "bastard" who does get his just dessert's (although not in the true "stand-up-and-cheer" sense of the film ideal), but even though Pitt's Achilles hates him so, his character is not so clean-cut to be able to make a substantial difference between the two to cheer for.

That, linked with the feel of "male-macho" posturing throughout the entire film (anyone who wants to see Pitt, Bana and Bloom's torso's all oiled-up, buffed-up and on display at every conceivable moment will love it), leaves Troy feeling like one of it's central characters: lovely to look at but leaves you with the distinct impression that it's only skin deep. It's battle scenes, despite reminding the audience of camera work from The Lord Of The Rings and even the Omah beach landing scene from Saving Private Ryan, is impressive, but yet again, less is more, with the head-to-head between Achilles and Hector being the most nail-biting out of the lot. In a way, Troy is a good film if you are willing to overlook it's flaws, but if you can't, or won't, then you're set for a very long 163 minutes indeed.

STEVE'S SCORES