Durandal
05-15-2004, 03:33 AM
Well, I saw the movie Troy tonight. Here are some thoughts on it.
It was three hours of commercials, previews, and movie....
In the 8th grade, we had a required mythology course. That was the first time I had ever read the Illiad. It was a fantastic book. Since then I have seen several movies and made for TV mini series dealing with the topic as well as attending seminars on the subject at the Universtiy of Cincinnati...I love this tale.
Well, the movie is a bit different. Fiirst, the tale is told from the viewpoint of Achillies. I am not too sure I enjoy the take. The hand to hand rocks. The uniforms and weapons are fairly accurate, though I am NOT seeing a lot of bronze...everything has a sort of steel look to it.
Peter O'Toole played a rocking Priam. Hector was probably the best character of them all. Sean Bean and Eric Bana were fantastic. Brad Pitt was fairly good too. Orlando Bloom was HORRIBLE.
Couple interesting twists...*shrug*
What annoys me is that the movie starts in the middle of the story...sort of as Paris and Hector are visiting the home of Menelaus.
There is no Casandra. There is no decade of stalemate...rather 12 days of fighting and mourning (for Hector). No sacrifice of Agemenom's child to bring the wind to move the mighty navy. All the mythological stuff is hinted at but in a way that sort of makes the whole thing 2 dimensional...rather than your typical Greek and Roman stuff.
All the bad guys were really bad and all the good guys were EXTREMELY honorable...
The whole thing seemed watered down for such an epic. Acting was better than say...Helen of Troy, bu the Helen of Troy was much closer to the original story.
When it comes to mythology, especially Greek and Roman, I tend to be a purist. The originals are best. Translations can be good depending on how they are done.
It was three hours of commercials, previews, and movie....
In the 8th grade, we had a required mythology course. That was the first time I had ever read the Illiad. It was a fantastic book. Since then I have seen several movies and made for TV mini series dealing with the topic as well as attending seminars on the subject at the Universtiy of Cincinnati...I love this tale.
Well, the movie is a bit different. Fiirst, the tale is told from the viewpoint of Achillies. I am not too sure I enjoy the take. The hand to hand rocks. The uniforms and weapons are fairly accurate, though I am NOT seeing a lot of bronze...everything has a sort of steel look to it.
Peter O'Toole played a rocking Priam. Hector was probably the best character of them all. Sean Bean and Eric Bana were fantastic. Brad Pitt was fairly good too. Orlando Bloom was HORRIBLE.
Couple interesting twists...*shrug*
What annoys me is that the movie starts in the middle of the story...sort of as Paris and Hector are visiting the home of Menelaus.
There is no Casandra. There is no decade of stalemate...rather 12 days of fighting and mourning (for Hector). No sacrifice of Agemenom's child to bring the wind to move the mighty navy. All the mythological stuff is hinted at but in a way that sort of makes the whole thing 2 dimensional...rather than your typical Greek and Roman stuff.
All the bad guys were really bad and all the good guys were EXTREMELY honorable...
The whole thing seemed watered down for such an epic. Acting was better than say...Helen of Troy, bu the Helen of Troy was much closer to the original story.
When it comes to mythology, especially Greek and Roman, I tend to be a purist. The originals are best. Translations can be good depending on how they are done.