Troy

[inulro]

The beginning was a bit lame and much of the dialogue scored high on the cheese scale, but otherwise I thoroughly enjoyed it, much more than the reviews led me to believe.

Despite the dialogue, the acting was first rate. I've never seen the attraction of Brad Pitt before, but I do in this film. This is probably related to the long hair and short skirts. And he captured the character of Achilles perfectly.

In fact, that's one of the film's strong points. They may have played a bit with the plot of the original, but the characterisations are all spot on.

The costumes and the Troy set were beautiful, if utterly inaccurate. The fight between Hector and Achilles and its aftermath were superb. Not surprisingly, I loved the Dead Can Dance-like vocals (the Bulgarian Women's Choir, allegedly), but the overblown main score was lots of fun too.

For what it's worth, I have read The Iliad. It's a great story and culturally important, but it's a difficult read (or at least my 50s Penguin translation is), and it's difficult to grasp the alien mindset of the Heroic Age. So it'll be interesting to see how many of the people rushing out to read it now get through it. Personally, it's reminded me that I've never got around to reading The Odyssey which is meant to be much more fun.

Comments

[taoist-goth.livejournal.com]

I actually watched all the credits to see if those haunting vocals were Lisa Gerrard or not. I kinda figured it probably wasn't her, but needed to know for sure. So yeah. This is the only film I've known to make Thea cry. But then she hasn't seen The Elephant Man yet.

[easterbunny.livejournal.com]

Troy wasn't really my cup of tea, but I was glad that I'd seen it as two days later a book I was reading went off on Hellenism and the Hector / Achilles ideal. I haven't read The Iliad or The Odyssey since high school (and most of what I remember was making a really detailed analysis of which shade of green my English classroom was painted), so I had much more vibrant images of Greek epics fresh in my mind.

My favourite thing about The Odyssey was drawing similarities between Tennyson's "The Lotus-Eaters" and "Comfortably Numb" by Pink Floyd. (Again, high school English class helping little minds grow...)

[mina-laury.livejournal.com]

I'd never really seen the point of Brad Pitt before either, but he did have the 'I'm a force of nature, me' thing down.