Solid performances and a solid screenplay make this big-budget film a success of epic proportions.
By STEVE PERSALL
Published May 13, 2004
[Photos: Warner Bros.]
Achilles (Brad Pitt, center) leads the charge against Troy. People don’t simply fight and die in the film; they fight and die for clear reasons, which are all conveyed effectively.
The Trojan horse rests inside the walls of Troy. In the film, thousands of people, mostly generated by computer, collide with regularity and brutal intensity
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Helen's face launches 1,000 ships in Wolfgang Petersen's Homeric epic, Troy. Brad Pitt's washboard abs and Orlando Bloom's supposedly perfect nose will sell many more tickets than that.
But Troy doesn't need beefcake to impress. This is a sprawling, brawling epic that, while less emotionally involving than Gladiator, certainly matches that Oscar winner in sword-and-sandal action. A cast of thousands - mostly generated by computer - violently collides, with regularity and brutal intensity. It's a credit to David Benioff's screenplay that the politics and egos remain vivid amid the confusion.
Benioff had a pretty good outline to work with. The Greek poet Homer penned the ultimate account of the fall of Troy to forces led by would-be world conqueror Agamemnon (Brian Cox) and his rebellious warrior Achilles (Pitt). While the dialogue is delivered in contemporary syntax, the words are respectful of the source. Petersen's period research is evident in each costume and weapon. If nothing else, Troy should become a popular tool among students cramming for history exams.
Troy announces its intention to awe from the outset with professorial backstory notes and thousands of Agamemnon's soldiers marching into view, heading to a showdown with the forces of Thessaly, but only one of his men actually will fight. A battle between the two nations' top warriors will settle the dispute. Achilles, feeling rough after a night of wine and women, wins with an athletic death blow, but Agamemnon's displeasure with Achilles is obvious. He's a loose cannon long before the invention of gunpowder.
Across the Aegean Sea, the kingdoms of Troy and Sparta celebrate a peace treaty. Not for long. Troy's young Prince Paris (Bloom) has been bedding Helen of Sparta (Diane Kruger), persuading her to return home with him. Naturally, her husband King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) isn't happy about it. Menelaus calls upon his brother Agamemnon to assist in invading Troy for revenge. Agamemnon sees a chance to expand his empire, even if it means contending with Achilles to do it.
The personal dynamics of Troy keep the action from seeming repetitious. The T-day beach invasion by those 1,000 ships would be just another skirmish if not for Achilles' taunting of Agamemnon in leading the charge, and his mercy at ending the slaughter early. The first assault upon the gates of Troy is preceded by a gripping showdown between Paris and Menelaus, capped by Trojan Prince Hector (Eric Bana) sticking up for his weakling brother one last time. People don't simply fight and die in Troy; they fight and die for clear reasons: jealousy, posterity, even gallantry, all conveyed effectively.
The performances are solid throughout, if viewers overlook the faintly British lilt to everyone's line delivery. Pitt plays that affectation wisely and is so casual about his buff physique that even his peek-a-boo nudity isn't anything to complain about. Somehow he keeps Achilles one step shy of becoming mere window dressing.
Bana is particularly strong, since Hector's role contains the most conflicted emotions and partisan pride. Troy becomes an interesting conflict of our own emotions, with two attractive characters battling to the death, and the more popular one, Pitt, fighting for a side we cannot cheer without reservation.
Kruger does have a face that would excite sailors but her scenes with Bloom have a puppy love tone that doesn't quite match the rest of the film. It's as if Petersen is appealing to a teen audience that mostly isn't allowed to buy tickets for an R-rated movie.
The elders are much better. Cox's brand of haughty menace is perfect for Agamemnon while Peter O'Toole does a nicely regal turn as Priam, the king of Troy. Julie Christie has only one scene as Achilles' mother Thetis but it's a good one. Someone as handsome as Pitt would have to come from someone as beautiful as Christie.
Like any filmmaker spending a reported $175-million, Petersen occasionally overdoes it, staging at least one battle scene too many and quieter, surplus scenes to show he isn't just playing with special effects. The movie could be trimmed by at least 20 minutes. Cutting a few graphic deaths and meaningless sensuality would open the gates to a younger crowd.
Yet there's no doubt that the money is on the screen. Troy may not be high art but it's definitely a pleasurable popcorn flick. At this time of the year, nobody should look a gift horse like that in the mouth.
Grade: B-plus
Director: Wolfgang Petersen Cast: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Brian Cox, Peter O'Toole, Brendan Gleeson, Diane Kruger, Sean Bean, Julie Christie
Screenplay: David Benioff, based on The Iliad by Homer.
