Loosely based upon Homer's The Iliad, it is the tale of the epic battle
for domination of the Aegean by the Greeks and Trojans.
At the end of a Trojan-Greek 'peace mission', Paris ( son of the King of Troy )
returns to home, taking Helen ( lately of Greece, formerly of Sparta )
with him. Her now deserted husband is less than happy, turns to his brother,
Agamemnon ( King of the Greeks ), and off they set, to bring Troy under Greek
control.
Along for the ride is Archilles, for, it would appear, no other reason than he
wants to see his name in print and lights for years to come.
And so it goes. The infamous 'one thousand ships' are launched from Greek
shores, Paris flunks it as a hero, Hector his brother, slays Archilles' cousin,
Archilles slays Hector, and then the Trojans are stupid enough to wheel an
enormous great wooden horse into the centre of Troy and the rest is, as they
say, history.
Brad Pitt was an interesting bit of casting as Achilles. He's obviously had a
bit of a workout and proudly showed his 'abs', and then spoiled it all by
opening his mouth. Orlando Bloom as Paris was as wishy-washy as he was in
Lord of the Rings. Peter O'Toole as the father of Paris and Hector, King
of Troy, managed a few fine moments but was generally far too camp to be
credible and seemed to be going for an oscar for over-acting, hamming it up,
and the year's award for eyes-a-poppin'. A hard-core of brusk Celtic
actors held it all together, but for some reason I kept expecting Brian Blessed
to walk round the corner any moment in his Flash Gordon role as
leader of the Hawkmen.
All-in, it was pretty weak stuff, sun, sea and sandals with a few fights thrown
in, but it's all pretty tedious these days anyway, the Matrix,
Gladiator and even Kill Bill have sewn the 'fight' genre up
pretty well. If there's ever a fight in a film which isn't some choreographed
Tai-Kwan-Do variant masterclass, then that will be worth writing home about.
In the meantime we are left to congratulate Troy on its incredible CGI
which was brilliantly realistic and well integrated, ponder on why Hector's
baby had such a big head, why the film got an "R" (18) rating in the US, and
try to work out where the incidental music / soundtrack had been used before -
Black Hawk Down ?
More Adventures of Hercules than epic masterpiece, Troy was pretty
lightweight, but enjoyable enough. Peterson did a remarkable job in creating a
realistic and believable setting for Troy, but the poor script and some
so-so acting let it down. Rather a shame considering the excellent quality of
the source material upon which it is based.
