Review: Troy

Hollywood version of the Trojan War saga (set in 1193 BC) has wimpy but love-struck Paris of Troy (a well-cast Orlando Bloom) carrying on a romance with Helen of Sparta (Diane Kruger), the daughter of Zeus, and said to be the most beautiful mortal woman alive. Helen’s husband Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) is a bit miffed at this (well, that’s a gross understatement, but anyway...) and along with his blustery and scheming brother King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) sets about waging a war between all of Greece and the city of Troy. Each side is manned with one supremely skilled warrior; The city of Troy have Paris’ level-headed and principled older brother Hector (Eric Bana), and on the Greek side there is moody, self-absorbed Achilles (a far too contemporary Brad Pitt), the most skilled hero of all, who fights seemingly for infamy rather than out of loyalty. Achilles hates his King, but reluctantly does his duty for his country nonetheless so that his name will live on. Peter O’Toole plays the aging King Priam of Troy, whilst Sean Bean plays the master Greek tactician King Odysseus (he’s the one who came up with the whole wooden horse thingy you might’ve heard of. Or was it a giant badger...?). Rose Byrne plays Briseis, cousin to Hector, and a slave of Agamemnon, whom Achilles takes a particular liking to. Saffron Burrows and Julie Christie turn up as Hector’s loving wife, and Achilles’ mother Thetis, respectively. C-grade actor Vincent Regan has a prominent role here as Achilles’ trusted offsider and friend.

Handsomely mounted, sometimes superlative 2004 Wolfgang Peterson (whose career highlights are still “Das Boot” and “The NeverEnding Story”) epic based (extremely tenuously, so I’m told) on Homer’s ‘The Iliad’, is at its best whenever it focuses on the fight and battle sequences, which are some of the most impressive and varied I’ve seen in all my years (including some memorable one-on-one bouts). The film wisely forgoes the presence of The Gods in the story, instead grounding things in the real as much as possible with an array of interestingly complex human characters.

Aussie Bana holds his own as the honourable Hector, but the real scene-stealers are old pros O’Toole, Cox, and Gleeson. Cox is wonderfully ferocious, opportunistic and blood-thirsty, Gleeson is pitch-perfect (is he contracted to appear in all these big historical epics?) as the battle-loving, scorned husband (he has one particularly brilliant line regarding his feelings about his cheating wife Helen that had me grinning from ear to ear), and legendary actor O’Toole has one of his best roles in decades, and age does not seem to stymie his abilities at all (Yes, he’s a ham’s ham, but that’s what is required here, and his one big scene with Pitt is among the film’s best and most genuinely moving). We also get some nice small turns by Julian Glover (in a blink-and-you’ll-miss-it part as he sees Achilles’ warrior skills in action, to the detriment of his own army), Bean, Regan, and Burrows. The much-maligned Bloom, meanwhile, actually works perfectly as the well-meaning but callow and weak Paris.

So we’ve got the action, some impressive action, and no “Clash of the Titans”-style silliness with the Gods. So why is this film a good one instead of a great one? Well, Brad Pitt is one of the main reasons. He seems to be playing the all-important character of Achilles like the legendary warrior was a preening, pretentious, aloof, and moody Method actor (Does that make Agamemnon a stand-in for David O. Selznick, Alfred Hitchcock,  or Louis B. Meyer?). This is an interesting take on the character, if one chooses to see it the way I do. It felt like the guy was playing Paul Newman- without Newman’s charm and ability. Method actors might shun celebrity, but you can’t tell me they hate infamy and status, they seek it just like the rest. The problem is it doesn’t work within the confines of an historical epic. The role needs a fiery, impassioned, and muscular hero ala Charlton Heston or Kirk Douglas. A ‘scratch-your-ass-and-mumble’ (to quote Humphrey Bogart) hero simply doesn’t fit, and Pitt is ultimately, tragically miscast in the role. Maybe he’s playing it as written, but surely there were more suitable candidates out there than Pitt who could have played the role. Pitt is bland and unmemorable in the role. Kruger, meanwhile, may be playing the ‘Face that launched a thousand ships’ (and that scene is beautifully rendered, by the way) but I didn’t believe it. She’s a pretty girl, but so are a lot of girls. I would’ve gone for someone like Liv Tyler, she may not be the most beautiful girl in my eyes, but she’s at least striking-looking, something that the nondescript Kruger most certainly is not (Or, how about the stunning Burrows? Hell, even Australia’s own Byrne is more interesting to look at). These are two major casting decisions that did not work and on their own bring the film down, where most everything else has worked rather well.

Scripted by David Benioff (“The 25^th Hour”, “Brothers”), this is a solid epic with a couple of unfortunate major cases of miscasting. Still very much worth seeing.

Rating: B-