Troy
Cast
Brad Pitt....Achilles
Orlando Bloom....?
Rater #1
7/10. I found this to be a good but long long movie. Brad Pitt's character was an interesting one and Orlando Bloom seemed to be portrayed as a weakling. I don't really understand the R rating because Cold Mountain had more blood, gore, nudity, etc. than Troy yet they both got R ratings. It was a good movie and should be seen by all if they're old enough to understand what's happening
Even though I grabbed these from imdb.com, I still noticed the differences.
Spoilers Ahead!
Changes were made to keep the plot simple. According to the Illiad (that inspired the movie), Paris was killed during the war. Helen then married Paris' brother, Deiphobus, who was also killed. After the Greeks captured Troy, Helen and Menelaus were reunited and returned to Sparta. In the film, Menelaus is slain by Hector, while Helen escapes Troy with Andromache, Aeneas, and the other Trojan refugees.
Note the following divergences from Homer's account of the war: - The movie suggests that Troy was sacked about a month after the Greeks landed; Homer's "Illiad" has the siege lasting over ten years. - Menelaus was not slain by Hector; he outlived him and was one of the soldiers in the Trojan Horse. He was eventually reunited with Helen and they apparently lived a happy life until his death in Sparta many years later. - Agamemnon was not killed by Briseis at Troy; he survived and returned home only to be killed by his wife Clytaemnestra and her lover Aegisthus. - Patroclus was not Achilles cousin he was just a close friend. - Achilles was killed by a single arrow shot by Paris, way before the Greeks built the horse. - Priam was killed by Neoptolemos, son of Achilles. - Patrokles was deadly wounded by Euphorbos and Hector then cut his throat. - Ajax was not killed by Hector, instead he committed suicide, after slaughtering a flock of sheep, which in a bout of madness he mistook for the Greeks that had refused him the armor of the dead Achilles. - Paris died of a poisoned arrow shot by Philoket. - Astyanax, son of Hector, was thrown to his death from the walls of Troy by the victorious Greeks. - Andromache, wife of Hector, was taken as a slave by Neoptolemos. - Aeneas was a son in law to King Priam and the second in command of the Trojan forces. So Paris asking him his name at the end of the movie is rather strange.
Rater #2
8/10. Epics are scarce now. We have a few wanna-be epics (like Master and Commander; I'm not counting the Lord of the Rings movies because, well, I don't feel that they are), but nothing substantial. And although we won't be able to get another Ben-Hur or The Ten Commandments, we have great ones coming out this summer. Troy is one of them. It clocks in a little over two-and-a-half hours, but has all of the makings of an epic-characters, plot, excitement.
Based off Homer's The Iliad, sans most of the polytheism, Troy begins with Achilles (Brad Pitt) killing the opposing army's strongest man in one blow of the sword. Then the Greek army, led by Agamemnon (Brian Cox), goes to invade Troy and enlarge the Greek empire even more. However, Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) sends the army there because Paris (Orlando Bloom) captured his wife Helen (Diane Kruger) and took her to Troy. Now the two armies (Agamemnon's and Achilles's, since Achilles does not fight for Agamemnon) go to fight against the Trojan army.
What really sold me about the movie was not the great acting (for the most part), or the action scenes, but the technical aspects. The locations were beautiful, as were all of the sets. I see where most of the famed $200 million went. Also, the cinematography was amazing-the things that could be done with the camera were very surprising. I was also surprised that the editing was not too choppy, which showed me that director Wolfgang Petersen did not want to make this for the MTV generation-this could be something that could live on for a long time.
I had mixed feelings on David Benioff's (25th Hour) script. Mostly, it kept the movie exciting, even during the parts others felt were boring, and it seemed to move the movie along. It was well-written and seemed plausible. However, there was one thing that really irked me. That was one scene in which Achilles was crying. I can understand how a normal person would cry in that situation, but Achilles is a tough-as-nails guy! It's like seeing James Bond cry. It just discredits the whole thing.
Despite others, I felt that Pitt was very good in his role-he seemed to get this part down well. He obviously put a lot of time into his role. Eric Bana, as Hector, did a great job, too. But now I must come to Orlando Bloom. I've always felt he was over-exposed for no reason, and Troy backs that up. When saying his lines, it seems like he wasn't doing anything with them. I was convinced that he was talking like English was a foreign language. His character did nothing for me-he was almost as annoying as Johnny Depp's character in Secret Window. He knows nothing of life, yet he forces the destruction of everyone around him. I wish someone had defenestrated him. As for the "old men talking" (there's a quote in the film saying, "War is young men dying and old men talking"), all of them were good but not memorable.
The fighting scenes were amazing. All of those extras, everything so exact. It's a shame that this film has been getting mediocre reviews. Those $200 million well-spent will go to waste.
Rated R for graphic violence and some sexuality/nudity.
Running time: N/A minutes
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