Troy, A Movie Review A Literary Article |
This film, directed by Wolfgang Peterson with a screenplay by David Benioff, bombed at the box office despite a quality cast. Most critics praised the acting, but deplored the liberal artistic license employed by Benioff. I thought the photography excellent and the editing professional, but the music was atrociously bad. The lighting for the night action sequences was quite well done and the mock-up of Troy very believable as an unconquerable bastion. But, no matter how sincere the efforts of the actors, and there are some notably excellent portrayals, the screenwriter fails to convince the audience with his version of the events. That, in and of itself, is incredibly ironic because of the myth of Troy as stated in Homer's epic, The Iliad. The story presents the reader with the same kind of problem as Plato's description of Atlantis. We simply don't know if the author is revealing fact or creating fiction. The Iliad would have remained a fantasy but for the fanatical efforts of one man, Heinrich Schliemann, the father of archeology. Most of his life was devoted to proving that the epic was true, not fiction. What he did was unearth the ruins of an ancient city, Hiissarlik, on the western shore of Turkey. He used a scientific method, the first to do so, and virtually defined what archeology should be. Until his excavations in 1871 through 1879, archeologists were thought of simply as treasure hunters. Unfortunately, he has many detractors who cast him as a greedy opportunist, only interested in fame. Schliemann defrauded the Ottomans who governed the area and smuggled large caches of gold and jewels to Germany where he proclaimed the finding of Troy, offering his artifacts as proof. He donated the finds to a Berlin museum which was later ransacked by the Russians in WWII. They have since permitted investigators to examine the finds with inconclusive results. Ergo, Schliemann may have found Troy, but the proof is unconvincing. However, science is notably silent about the issue, creating an enigma for historians. The archeological institution does not want to call the man who founded their institution a fraud. Therefore, if Troy was real, then the Odyssey was equally real with its legendary monsters. We still don't know that Troy was a fact, but the scientific establishment refuses to call the whole thing an ingenious deception. Consequently, a screenplay should not divert what could be truth and erroneously depict the author's words. It simply is not the same as using poetic license in film based on a known work of fiction like The Lord of the Rings. There are many overt mistakes in this film. I believe the critics, after assessing how many inaccuracies were presented, universally said, "No way!" The king of Mycenae, Agamemnon, was asked by his brother, Menelaus, King of Sparta, to make war on Troy to recover his abducted wife, Helen, seduced by Paris. It is interesting that Schliemann also uncovered Mycenae in Greece. Until then, no one believed it was real and the controversy took on a new dimension. But Homer's war was a ten-year siege in which Menelaus recovered his wife after Paris was killed. Agamemnon was murdered by his wife, Clytemnestra, and her lover, Aigisthus, after he returned victorious from Troy. She did that because her husband, in order to unify the Greeks and beseech the gods for a victory, sacrificed his daughter, Iphegenia. Those are Homer's account of the war and its aftermath. I would also suggest that if Troy was sacked, as it must have been, there could not have existed hordes of gold there for Schliemann to find unless he was excavating the ruins of an altogether different civilization that built itself upon the ashen residue. Be that as it may, some of the performances are worthy of remembrance. I particularly liked Peter O'Toole's rendition of King Priam. His acting is almost always a joy to witness. Also praiseworthy were Brad Pitt as Achilles, with some notably provocative dialogue and outstanding action sequences; Eric Bana played a convincing Hector to the hilt; Orlando Bloom, though somewhat too effeminate for the role, comes through at certain moments, especially his killing of Achilles. Unfortunately, the sequence showing his duel with Menelaus was poorly written, totally alien to the story, and ineffectively portrayed. Sean Bean plays a very believable Odysseus, most of his actions in parallel with Homer. I thought Rose Byrne did well as Briseis, but she was not a Trojan, rather a Mycenaen virgin brought along to please Achilles, another variant of the story. The battle scenes were spectacular for certain and the famous sequence with the wooden horse seemed realistically done. I have to agree with the critics on this one, however. This story in particular is the kind that one should not vary because the verdict on its veracity is still out. Yes, I can appreciate the attempt to reduce the impact to a 15 day war, but my mind is so ingrained with Homer's description that it cannot accept the alterations of the screenplay as anything but crude manipulation concentrating on gore rather than the gigantic efforts and motivations the Greeks must have endured. Thumbs down, I'm sorry to say. W. A. Rieser |
