FIRST GLIMPSE OF TROY
I was in my 5th standard at school when we were introduced to the story of Helen of Troy-’The face that launched a thousand ships’. To make the characters come to life a very imaginative teacher got us to pile the class furniture in the centre of the classroom. The furniture represented Troy and had strategically placed fellow students waving rulers and creating mayhem. I was Achilles, albeit a chubby example of the great hero. Hector was not a particular friend of mine and he was slimmer and fleet of foot. The idea was to chase him around the walls of Troy and dispatch him with my sword (ruler). This was easier said than done and despite us doing numerous dashes around the classroom, Hector seemed to have the upper hand, until a friend of mine on the Trojan wall stuck out a leg and tripped him and I could then deliver the coup de grace. You can imagine I never quite forgot the story after that.
It was therefore a pleasure to revisit the battlefield decades later a la popcorn and widescreen.
TROY-THE MOVIE
My colleagues have enumerated the facts of the movie far better than I ever could. However, the story of the Iliad is one of the great Greek epics of the blind poet Homer, matched by the Odyssey which takes the character of Sean Benn, further, (he plays Ulysses or Odysseus). Achilles of course, is invincible having been dipped in a river held only by his heel by his mother. This however makes him vulnerable at the point that was not submerged-The Achilles Heel.
Brad Pitt’s Achilles, is dark and menacing, arrogant and fearsome yet tender , caring and capable of showing real emotion . The part where Priam begs him for the body of his son, is outstanding.
The fights are glorious, a great deal of attention has been paid to costume and weapons and the depictions are true to the pictures on greek vases, urns and shields, that I had the good fortune to see in a trip to a museum in Boulogne.
Hector is played to perfection by Eric Bana-longing only to be a good Trojan and true prince, he is dragged into a war that goes against his noble principles, he foresees the destruction to follow and is afraid for Troy and for his family. Filial affection and his reputation as a warrior gain the upper hand and at every step towards his end, he conveys the control that he exercises. Never foolhardy he even prepares the escape route to be taken by his family and the surviving Trojans before the bitter end. A tragic figure who for me equalled and maybe ?surpassed even the character of Achilles.
Orlando Bloom-remember him in the RINGS? is ineffectual in this and I feel, a little hard done by, when a duel with Menelaus results in public humiliation in front of the woman he loves. In the RINGS he is a warrior and I daresay a heartthrob, however in this movie we have Menelaus bawling out to Helen atop the towers of Troy-’You left me for this?!’
In the end it is Odysseus who cleverly plans the Greek victory.
Very Very watchable.
Beware of Greeks bearing gifts-Beware of gifts bearing Greeks.