Troy (2-Disc Special Edition - Director's Cut) [DVD] [2004]

Wanted to see this film for ages and had opportunity. So easy to purchase through Amazon Prime

This film has already recieved very mixed reviews from both professionals and average joes loke myself, so heres my two pence worth.Did this film live up to all expectations??? Well er no!!Was it a good film ??? Definantly and I think that is where the problem lies. Being an ancient history nut when this film was first given the go ahead I was extremely excited. In recent years we have finally gone away from the "cop buddy buddy" and the one man aginst fifty terroist's age of the eighties and nineties with films such as Gladiator and Last Samuri paving the way for films such as Troy and the upcoming Alexander and I for one could not be happier.Then came the casting news and the budget release and finaly that awesome Trailer and I was practically drooling and that was the problem. I expected it to trash Gladiator in style and even give the LOTR trilogy a run for its money which of course set it up to fail in some ways.So first the negatives, being a film score collector with Gems such as Gladiator, Last of the Mohicans and the brilliant King Arthur in my collection I was mildly disapointed with this one, It felt rushed and hearing all the rumours of composer changes it showed!!! Maybe once again because of the above mentioned scores (although I had not of course purchased Arthur yet) I had set my sights too high but using Lisa Gerard in Gladiator was inspired but in Troy it was plainly repetitive and out of place.Next the acting, the best performances most definantly came from the smaller parts, with the exception of Eric Bana I felt that the main parts were either wooden (Bloom and Kruger) or one dimensional (Pitt) the under characters though were thesps of great class and it showed!!!!Peter O'toole really showing his worldwide class especially in the tent scene with Achilles, Brian Cox dripping malice and hunger for power, Brendan Gleason also classy with his small part and of course one of the most underrated British actors Sean Bean, extremely under used in this film but very impressive all the same, would love to see him back in a version of Homer's "Odeysey"The battles were awesome especialy liked how as according to Warfare of that age the Champions and Leaders of opposing armies always sought each other out in the clash of battle with their armies backing away allowing one on one action and this Film had mnany examples. (Achilles and Thesalian champion, Paris and Menalaus, Hector and Ajax etc etc) Of course there was also the "main event" fight between Hector and Achilles which was without a doubt one of the best duels I have seen put to film!!! On that note I must also state that with the reputation of Achilles being the greatest warrior of all time, this image was also portrayed thrillingly (In particuler Achilles storming of the beach and the Temple of Apollo almost single handedly)I also really liked how in this film no army were truly honourable and no army truly evil and both dripping with testosterone and the desire for glory and honour in a "war that will be remembered through the ages" The hint that these two powers were in that age the only rivals to each other and that the "stealing of Helen" was the inevitable kick start that gave Agemennon the chance to finally move aginst the Trojans was In my humble opinion very simply yet very effectively done. Although it probably leviated towards the Trojans as the "good guys" each army had their fair share of major characters with no real push toward making someone out and out evil (with the possible exception of Cox's Agemmennon)Instead it really concentrated toward each army with their camaradery and patriotism and fighting for "honour, glory and the man next to you" Watch Ajax exhorting his ship of men to join Achilles and his Mermidons fighting on the beach or The Trojan commander geeing up his lads for their inevitable final fight in Priam,s palace seconds before the door is smashed in. (note the relationship between Ajax, Achilles and Odeysus in the Greek force and Hector and his General (James Cosmos) for the Trojans making it in some cases almost difficult who to root for.All in all i think this film is well worth the money Amazon will charge for it in October. Just a quick note though, do not sit in your Front room expecting Cinema history but do expect a damn good epic film!!

I liked all the action, the production values are great and the performances are pretty good, but at no point could I sympathise with the motives or actions of Paris as portrayed by Orlando Bloom. Frankly I was glad to see Troy burn and just wish that I'd see Paris' head whipped off by Achilles. oh and this is not a faithful depiction of the Iliad

Criticisms of the script and acting apart, many objections to Wolfgang Peterson's epic centre around its supposed lack of faithfulness to Homer's Iliad. Menelaus wsn't killed by Hector, Achilles never entered Troy and Agamemnon wasn't killed there...etc. etc. etc. Excuse me? The Iliad doesn't cover the fate of Achilles, and it doesn't even describe the famous Trojan Horse. In fact, it ends with Priam beseeching Achilles to return the body of Hector. The rest of the story as we know it comes from later Greek and Roman storytellers. So any story about Troy which includes the Horse couldn't exactly be faithful to Homer, could it? And any film-maker who omitted the Horse would have been accused of missing out one of the key themes of the Trojan war. Homer's epic may or may not have been inspired by events which really took place, but it certainly wasn't supposed to be regarded as factual history, and there are many variations in Greek and Roman myth about some of the key characters and events of the Trojan War. So let's stop being so damned precious about it all. For me, the plot lines which saw Menelaus killed by Hector ( a very fine performance by Eric Bana), and Achilles and Agamemnon dying in Troy itself, was much more dramatically satisfying than seeing Achilles killed before the sack of Troy and Agamemnon just toddling off back to Mycenae (where according to Greek myth, he got his come-uppance anyway as he was killed by his wife's lover). To be honest, I had read so many negative reports about Troy that I wasn't especially interested in seeing it; but when I did eventually watch it I was pleasantly surprised. I've never been a great fan of Brad Pitt, having seen him turn in some rather wooden performances, and (perhaps unjustly) I've tended to regard him as just another Hollywood `pretty boy'. But (unlike some reviewers, who are of course entitled to their opinions) I found his portrayal of Achilles to be convincing and actually pretty impressive. Brian Cox was equally impressive as Agamemnon, who I've always thought of as a bit of a bully-boy, while Sean Bean played Odysseus as a man who is doing his best but is not quite sure exactly what he's fighting for, and is wondering whether he'll ever get home to Ithaca (he does, of course, but that's another story). Peter O'Toole is as always impeccable as Priam; Orlando Bloom is a bit wet as Paris, but then Paris is a rather wet character, who only finds his backbone when it's too late. So the script's not Shakespeare, but then few epic scripts are. So what? It's the broad sweep of the story that grips here, not the dialogue (which to be fair, wasn't that bad). Some reviewers found the romance between Achilles and Briseis unconvincing, but I don't see why; in the Iliad one of the reasons why Achilles refuses to fight is because he loves Briseis, taken from him by Agamemnon. Other reviewers have sneered at the fact that Patroclus is described as Achilles's cousin; nudge, nudge: we all know what their real relationship was, don't we? Well actually, no: none of the sources is very clear on this and the Achilles-Patroclus thing has generally been interpreted by scholars according to the prevailing culture of their time. You can therefore read into it whatever you like. One reviewer found the acrobatic fight scenes (which I found very impressive) implausible because the bronze armour worn by the Greeks would have made such acrobatics impossible. Not so: a fit medieval knight in full plate armour could run, jump, do press-ups (I've seen this done), vault on his horse and even swim, so I can't imagine that the breastplate, greaves and helmet of a Greek warrior would prove too discommoding to a bit of beefcake like Achilles... I actually enjoyed Troy very much, and ended up wanting to see it again (I will when I have a few hours spare!). It's not an absolutely wonderful film (hence 4 stars rather than 5) but it's very watchable - and is that not the whole point of such films?