Troy

[St Leo]

Originally posted by MarkG
this thread was gay long before i came in

But Markos, surely you come in all your threads.

[Locutus]

Back to the original topic:

Originally posted by JohnT
From today's review of the movie in The Wall Street Journal, with possibly the most puntastic title ever seen in a movie review:

Homer, Run: Epic "Troy" Hectors us about History; A Tin Ear for the Bronze Age

Never have so many forgettable characters been so fixated by fame as they are in "Troy."

"They'll be talking about this war for a thousand years," Brad Pitt's Achilles tells Hector.

"If you go to Troy," Achilles mother tells him, "people will remember your name for thousands of years, but I will never see you again."

"That's why no one will remember your name," Achilles tells a little kid who voices skepticism about fighting giants.

"This war will never be forgotten," says Odysseus, "nor will the heroes who fight it."

"You came here because you want your names to last through the ages," Agamemnon tells his troops.

So how long will "Troy" the movie be remembered? That depends upon who's doing the remembering. For students of ancient history, maybe a day. For devotees of long, flat-footed spectacles, a week. For fans of Brad Pitt, a month. But for fans of high-end Hollywood folly - i.e. a willingness to throw a quarter-billion dollars or more at a production with a humdrum script and ho-hum special effects - a long, long time.

Ouch!

I agree with every word in that review That fixation on fame was rather getting on my nerves.

The movie is indeed a travesty, a rape of the Illiad. If viewed as a movie on itself, it was an okay action flick, but nothing more -- I will indeed have forgotten it in a week.

[Drake Tungsten]

That fixation on fame was rather getting on my nerves.

It's a pretty accurate portrayal of the motives of the warriors of that time, though, if I'm remembering my Classics course correctly.

[Inverse Icarus]

Troy was simply a great movie. it was long, but never seemed to drag, which is very hard to pull off. IMHO, the LotR series has some major drag periods in them.

I love the epics, and have read them years ago. This movie does a decent job of sticking to the Greek mythos, while presending it well enough to meet today's standards.

Spoiler:

i was very impressed with the way they represented achille's "invunerability" by showing him pull arrows right out of his chest, but not his tendon.

[Kaak]

I agree, UK, fantastic movie. I was very impressed how they condensed 10 years into 3 hours. the Adaptation was fantastic.

Brad Pitt Did a fantastic job. His intensity before the gates of troy was unnerving. I felt the characters were well developed, and helen was georgious.

All and all, I think it is a classic. My mom even liked it, and she typically hates fighting-movies.

Some of you need to stop whining that it isn't exactly like the illiad. I don't think they could have put gods in the movie without significantly cheesing it up.

anyway, i loved it and i'll go see it a couple more times in the theatre. one final WOW.

[Locutus]

It's a pretty accurate portrayal of the motives of the warriors of that time, though, if I'm remembering my Classics course correctly.

That may be the case, but couldn't they talk about anything else as well in the first hour? They were overdoing it a bit, IMO.

Originally posted by Kaak
I was very impressed how they condensed 10 years into 3 hours.

Actually, they condensed 10 years into 3 weeks (by my count it took 18 days from the day they landed on the beach to the night the city burned -- aside from the 12-day mourning period there were no leaps in time). I know it's not possible to properly display a 10 year war in a few hours, but to just rewrite the story so that a full-scale war basically became a single battle is a bit ridiculous IMO. It was The Greatest War Of All Time, which consisted of a grand total of 4 days of actual combat

[MarkG]

evidence on Achilles heterosexuality

[joncha]

So far people who've actually watched the damn movie approve, 3-1. As for the rest of yous, watch it before you judge it!

[Imran Siddiqui]

So Mark... are you actually saying the Greeks weren't bisexual because of what a HOLLYWOOD movie shows you? Besides, aren't you concerned that they are making a love story of a woman who was a WAR PRIZE?!

[Bugs ****ing Bunny]

Originally posted by MarkG
evidence on Achilles heterosexuality

I like the way the camera angle hides his Adam's Apple.

[St Leo]

Originally posted by MarkG
evidence on Achilles heterosexuality

Have you seen his thrust-play with Patroclus? Achilles is very much metrosexual.

[joncha]

Originally posted by MarkG
evidence on Achilles heterosexuality

"Briseus never felt more vulnerable than that moment Achilles called her Patrocles by mistake."

[Jamski]

Blah. Who cares? Gay or not? Historical or not? Accurate to the Illiad or not? Bleh.

Its a movie, and not a bad one either. Good fights, good acting, some nice ringing dialogue, no dull moments and a great cast. What else do you want.

And just to throw in my two cents on accuracy, the Illiad itself is just one of the semi-fictional accounts of the Trojan War

-Jam

[Traianvs]

Originally posted by Jamski
Blah. Who cares? Gay or not? Historical or not? Accurate to the Illiad or not? Bleh.

Its a movie, and not a bad one either. Good fights, good acting, some nice ringing dialogue, no dull moments and a great cast. What else do you want.

And just to throw in my two cents on accuracy, the Illiad itself is just one of the semi-fictional accounts of the Trojan War

-Jam

Yes but not everything in the Iliad is down to fighting. There's more into it than just a few big fights, some quick bickering because of some women and Brad Pitt.
My fellow students (archaeology) found the storyline rather shallow and inaccurate; haven't seen it myself though.

[Jamski]

Well, there's a couple of funerals, some long speeches and then the rest is all

"Bronze chested Ajax lifted his spear, that two normal men could not lift, and went among the ranked Greeks like a lion does as it protects its kill."

Classic maybe, but really its just a big scrap, described with nice detail.

-Jam