Review for Troy

Director: Wolfgang Peterson

Released: 2004
Genre: Sword and Sandal Epic

Troy was directed by Wolfgang Peterson and released in theaters in 2004. Peterson has a fairly wide range of movies to his credit, including the spectacular WWII drama Das Boot and the fastasy film The Neverending Story. I have always admired Peterson's collaboration with cinematographer Jost Vocano; together they have produced a masterpiece and a near miss. Vocano has shot the majority of Paul Verhoven's works (including Starship Troopers), and has not been associated with Peterson's direction since The Neverending Story was completed in 1984. Since then, Peterson went on to direct a string of average films in his attempt to produce another Das Boot. These include Air Force One, The Perfect Storm, and Poseidon. I have watched all three of these, and I can say for certain that none top any critic's "best of" list. I had not seen Troy, however, but last night I was willing to give it a shot- after all, I voluntarily rented The Wicker Man remake a few days ago, so I felt I was prepared to waste a few hours of my life.

Of course, I did not think that "a few hours" would translate into 163 minutes, but since I was going to see Troy with a group of fellow movie enthusiasts, I decided not to think much of it. From the title alone, I knew it would be a very streamlined retelling of Homer's The Iliad. I also knew from the cover art of the DVD case that there would be a lot of glory shots of Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, and Eric Bana. I was right on both counts.

Troy effectively tells the most spectacular segment of The Iliad, which is the part that begins with Helen, Queen of Sparta, falling in love with Paris, Prince of Troy, and ends with the sacking of Troy itself and the death of the great warrior Achilles. The story is told in (of course) English, and there are several epic battle scenes. The whole movie reminded me of The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King in terms of the enormity and number of battles. This was especially true when I saw Orlando Bloom's character trying to fight off the Greeks as the latter bashes down a very narrow wooden door. Every now and then the camera stopped shifting and bouncing, and we were able to see Brad Pitt and Eric Bana pull off some pretty spectacular moves, usually involving the killing of many enemy soldiers. I will admit that such niceties were fun from time to time.

Less fun was the length of the film- by the end I just wanted Paris to get it over with and fire an arrow through Achilles' heel. Brad Pitt is lovely and all (although proper lighting and flattering camera angles can do that for anyone), but by the end I had tired of the score, which is similar to but less impressive than the soundtrack to Gladiator, and the money shots of the leading characters... with the exception of Peter O'Toole as Priam, of course.

All things considered, Troy capitalizes upon Gladiator's success in reviving the "sword and sandal" spectacles of the 1950s and early 1960s, and is entertaining in parts. But if I wanted to see an unnecessarily long dramatization of ancient warfare, I would see Spartacus- at least that one has Kirk Douglass and Laurence Olivier.

2.25/4.00