I'm Happy after buyingThis Troy Directors Two Disc Special Edition
This gorgeous film portrays a portion of Homer's Iliad, Achilles' story. Brad Pitt plays Achilles and brings to life this ancient warrior. Despite no overt manifestation of the gods, Pitt manages to convey possession by the god of war or possesion by the warrior archetype in his body language and facial expression. His intense physicalization of the role is typical of Pitt's talent and dedication to studying and learning a character.
The crux of the matter is that Achilles is not a likeable character in the original. He was a great warrior but he was childish and petulant. In the movie they emphasize his lust for glory. His pride and lack of impulse control exemplifies the dark side of the heroic which manifested in other great Greek heroes such as Hercules and Medea. This heroic dark side is often ignored in modern heroic portrayal and leads to problems in our society.
Pitt and Peterson did not flinch from portraying this darkness and in the process provided a portrait of the ugliness of war which I find psychologically useful in this modern era of war. Achilles is balanced by the excellent and sympathetic portrayal of Hector by Eric Bana. Continuing the theme of the problematic nature of war is the portrayal of Agammenon as a cynical warmonger who manipulates others in order to achieve his goal of hegemony.
Of note is the wonderful acting performance in the portrayal of King Priam by O'Toole. One of the best scenes of the movie is where Priam goes to Achilles to beg for the body of his son. The interaction/chemistry between the two actors was savory. Both Pitt and O'Toole clearly have studied Homer's version and provide a poignant scene which underscores the tragedy of war.
While this movie depart s from the original I find it to be a satisfying and beautiful modernization of the story--certainly there is nothing to compare it to since nothing quite like this has been attempted in film. My only complaint might be that I would have liked an attempt to portray the gods. But perhaps the absence of gods is apt in our literal modern age where nature is de-sacralized and we put the gods in the service of our wars.
This gorgeous film portrays a portion of Homer's Iliad, Achilles' story. Brad Pitt plays Achilles and brings to life this ancient warrior. Despite no overt manifestation of the gods, Pitt manages to convey possession by the god of war or possesion by the warrior archetype in his body language and facial expression. His intense physicalization of the role is typical of Pitt's talent and dedication to studying and learning a character.
ReplyDeleteThe crux of the matter is that Achilles is not a likeable character in the original. He was a great warrior but he was childish and petulant. In the movie they emphasize his lust for glory. His pride and lack of impulse control exemplifies the dark side of the heroic which manifested in other great Greek heroes such as Hercules and Medea. This heroic dark side is often ignored in modern heroic portrayal and leads to problems in our society.
Pitt and Peterson did not flinch from portraying this darkness and in the process provided a portrait of the ugliness of war which I find psychologically useful in this modern era of war. Achilles is balanced by the excellent and sympathetic portrayal of Hector by Eric Bana. Continuing the theme of the problematic nature of war is the portrayal of Agammenon as a cynical warmonger who manipulates others in order to achieve his goal of hegemony.
Of note is the wonderful acting performance in the portrayal of King Priam by O'Toole. One of the best scenes of the movie is where Priam goes to Achilles to beg for the body of his son. The interaction/chemistry between the two actors was savory. Both Pitt and O'Toole clearly have studied Homer's version and provide a poignant scene which underscores the tragedy of war.
While this movie departs from the original I find it to be a satisfying and beautiful modernization of the story--certainly there is nothing to compare it to since nothing quite like this has been attempted in film. My only complaint might be that I would have liked an attempt to portray the gods. But perhaps the absence of gods is apt in our literal modern age where nature is de-sacralized and we put the gods in the service of our wars.
Since I've never bought a director's cut before and I already have the theatrical film version, I hesitated on this, hoping the additional footage wouldn't be just a matter of bloodier battles and bared bosoms, but in fact most of the additional material fleshes out existing scenes, giving many of the characters more depth. Much of the additional dialogue goes to Peter O'Toole's King Priam, giving the reasons behind his decisions. This is one of my favorite films, and I prefer the director's cut.
ReplyDeleteBut those who thought the battle scenes in the original release quite vivid enough may want to skip this. The sack of Troy is especially horrifying in this cut, with women and infants now put to the sword.
Like Mr. Robbins in an earlier review, I thought the scoring inferior. Most of the musical cues have been rearranged and a few added and deleted; the sum total is much less effective than the original soundtrack.
The movie is attractively packaged with production stills, sample script pages, and artists' set renderings. This remains one of my favorite sword and sandals films for its spectacle and drama, so the director's cut was money well spent for me, but the original release is quite good on its own merits for those who don't want to shell out the extra money.
I loved Troy the theatrical cut and absolutely love this new director's cut. It's more passionate, more blood, more power, more love, more everything. It looks and sounds absolutely stunning with 1080p/VC-1 video and Dolby TrueHD 5.1 audio. Beautiful crisp picture quality, a must for anyone's HD DVD collection. I highly recommend this epic motion picture.
ReplyDeleteThe Director's cut of TROY is superb. 30 addtional minutes and a revised music score makes this movie a must buy on BLU-RAY. Yes, Troy is in widescreen, and the HD picture and sound quality are outstanding.
ReplyDeleteI am lucky enough to have seen a screening of the Director's Cut for Troy prior to this DVD's release. I haven't seen the DVD extras, so all I can address here is the movie itself. It is fanstastic - the 40 minutes of additonal material adds meat to the bones of the original. The added footage and new score gives the movie a grander scope and serious gravitas. The colors are richer. There are additional scenes that give you a better insight into the Paris and Helen relationship as well as scenes that give more depth to Odysseus and Priam. I loved it.
ReplyDeleteI was already a fan of the original, and now cannot recommend this new improved version highly enough.