Athene19's Analysis of Troy

I've just been to see the film Troy, which is 'inspired' by The Iliad by Homer (the bard, not Simpson). I read The Iliad back in 1993-5 while preparing for my GCSE... and again in 1995-7 for my A Level...and then again in 1997-2000 for my degree. So I would like to say that, on top of the related mythology, legend and theatre that go hand-in-hand with The Iliad, I know the story pretty darn well.

As many cinema critics may have already told you, Troy is nothing like The Iliad. This is not surprising in the least. Who would want to bankroll, appear, or see a film that focuses solely on the 9th year of the Battle of Troy? Not a great deal happens. In fact, its mostly relating to what has already happened and what is left to come. So I know from the start that Troy is going to be an amalgamation of not only The Iliad and the tales of Odysseus in The Odyssey (another of Homer's fine creations), but of the related mythology, legend and theatre I mentioned earlier, so all in all, the film can span ten years in three hours.

Or so I thought. The film does last three hours, don't get me wrong. Its just the fact that the battle seems to only last about fifteen days... and twelve of those are spent with Troy in mourning and the Greeks building the infamous Wooden Horse. I was a bit disappointed by this. The ten year span could have easily been implemented, with fade in and fade out shots of the battles with the soldiers appearing older and weaker in each fade shot. And lets face it, if YOU were battling your heart and soul away from dawn to dusk every day for ten years, you would appear older and weaker in a short space of time too.

The film depicts Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom) in Sparta, paying homage to King Menelaus (erm... can't remember!) in respect of a newly-founded treaty between Sparta and Troy. They have gone in the place of their father, the ageing king of Troy, Priam (Peter O'Toole). While they are there over the course of three days, Paris is secretly having an affair with Helen (Diane Kruger), wife of Menelaus and Queen of Sparta. Helen admits to Paris that since her forced marriage to Menelaus she has wanted to die, and her love for Paris is more to her than anything. Paris then arranges to steal her away from Sparta and take her back to Troy with him as his bride - the Princess of Troy.

Legend, I'm sorry to say, is completely different and would have been far more fun to film. During the celebrations of the marriage between Peleus and Thetis (Achilles' parents), the goddess Strife threw a golden apple among the guests and said it was to be given to whoever was deemed the most beautiful out of Hera, Athena and Aphrodite. None of the gods were willing to act as judge so Paris is co-erced into making the judgement. Each of the goddesses attempt to bribe him: Hera offers to make him the ruler of all Asia; Athena offers him wisdom and victory in all his battles; and Aphrodite offers him the love of Helen, Queen of Sparta, and the most beautiful mortal woman on earth. Paris gives the golden apple to Aphrodite, who then steals Helen away from Sparta and takes her to Troy, while Hera and Athena plot war against the city of Troy in revenge.

Now legend and the film merge - Menelaus is understandly annoyed when he disovers that Helen is no longer in Sparta and has been stolen away to be with Paris in Troy. He calls upon his brother, Agamemnon (uhm... a little help?), King of Mycenae, to gather troops from all over Greece in a revenge attack against Troy. Agamemnon is the most powerful king in Greece and wastes no time in gathering troops from every city in the Mediterranean. The troops include the King Odysseus (Sean Bean), who rules of the small island of Ithaca and Achilles (Brad Pitt), the son of King Peleus of Phthia in southern Thessaly, who leads the Myrmidons. Achilles takes Patroclus (a hot new actor!) with him... in the film he calls him 'cousin' but The Iliad refers to him as 'brother-in-arms' or 'friend' and leads the reader into the assumption that Patroclus is actually Achilles' boyfriend in so many words! But this is Hollywood - Brad Pitt can't have a gay relationship!! So he's a cousin...!

Meanwhile in film-land, Hector has discovered Helen on board and at first, orders the soldiers to row back to Sparta and return her. But Paris persuades him to continue on to Troy and, eventually, Hector reluctantly does so, knowing that it will bring war on to the people of Troy. On arrival at Troy, Helen is welcomed by Priam (no sign of Priam's wife, Hecuba, anywhere!) and is warned by Hector that Menelaus, and no doubt Agamemnon too, will come after her in the very near future.

No time is wasted in bringing on the computer-generated triremes gallantly sailing across the Aegean Sea to Troy. Achilles' ship heads the fleet and he scores a victory straight away. Now, the Greeks are supposed to, at some point, award him for a victory by giving him a 'concubine' or 'war prize' which is in the form of Briseis (Rose Byrne). In The Iliad, Agamemnon is forced to give up his prize, Chryseis, and steals Briseis away from Achilles in compensation. This angers Achilles so much that he doesn't fight in the war until after Patroclus dies. In the film, Briseis is given to Achilles by the Myrmidons and is then briefly stolen by Agamemnon, who then gives her to the Mycenean soldiers to 'play with' from which Achilles rescues her. She is depicted as a tortured soul, a priest of Apollo and, in an amazing twist of fate, Hector's cousin. Its all rather bizarre... But Achilles does feel for her and respects her as a person, both in the film and the book, and I was quite pleased about that.

Now this is where it all gets a bit silly. Agamemnon and Menelaus lead the Greek troops up to the walls of Troy and meet the Trojan army outside, headed by Hector and Paris. Agamemnon demands the return of Helen to Menelaus and the submission of the Trojan army to his rule. Hector tells him where to get off and turns to leave. Then Paris offers an alternative. Paris says that he will fight Menelaus - the winner takes Helen and the armies are to part. Hector looks at Paris as if he's gone completely mad; Agamemnon and Menelaus give the biggest grins in the history of film-making. Paris is a rubbish fighter and after a couple of scratches and a lost tooth, starts crawling back to Hector in defeat. Menelaus calls Paris a coward and shouts his disbelief at his (now ex-) wife's choice in lover. Hector gets angry at his brother's ineptness to defend himself and kills Menelaus himself. Agamemnon is shocked. Helen is shocked. I am shocked. Menelaus is dead and the battle hasn't even bloody started yet! What the HELL is going on?!

Well, the Greeks charge onto the Trojan army who hold them off quite well, if I don't say so myself. Achilles watches from the hill overlooking the plain and mutters to himself at how bad the Greeks are fighting. The Greeks eventually retreat and the Trojans allow them time to collect their dead. I'm still really annoyed at the fact Menelaus is dead... and everyone pronouncing his name wrongly is now thoroughly irritating! Menelaus is supposed to live! He's supposed to take Helen back with him to Sparta and they have a daughter called Hermione and live together for many more years. Menelaus can't die! I have half a mind to leave the cinema there and then!

Hector and his wife, Andromache (too mad at this point to know) spend some quality time together with their newborn son, Astyanax. Andromache voices her fears to Hector who tried to reassure her safety in Troy by gently reminding her that no army has yet breached the city walls. As he leaves her, he sees Helen trying to escape and he stops her, telling her that her return to the Greek army won't make any difference - they will still fight the Trojans. Hector attends a meeting held by Priam's council which leads to a night attack upon the Greeks.

This does not go down well with Agamemnon. He is livid that he hasn't taken Troy in the space of 48 hours. Odysseus and Nestor (some old geezer), an advisor to Agamemnon and the eldest Greek there, both attempt to appease him, reminding him that they came to rescue Helen for Menelaus and now that he's dead, there seems very little point in staying. However Agamemnon is greedy for more power and insists the Greeks stay put and attempt to take Troy, proving Hector's thoughts right. Of course, in legend, Menelaus is still very much alive and this is just a pointless excuse to give Bean and Pitt a little more screen time. Achilles says he will only fight for himself and not upon the orders of any king, and leaves to sit in his tent.

The next day some more fighting on the beach, more blood spattered all over the place, more spears going through men's mouths and appearing through the other side of their skulls... Suddenly, Hector and Achilles are fighting one-on-one with what appears to be the entire Greek and Trojan army around them. I say this because, when Hector cuts Achilles' throat, Achilles collapses and the WHOLE beach is silent. No more clashing of shields, shouting war cries or men screaming as death clouds their eyes... Silence. Hector removes Achilles' helmet... and its not Achilles, but Patroclus in Achilles' armour! Hector is shocked but, with the Trojans watching him, he has no choice but to stab Patroclus fatally through the chest. Patroclus dies and Hector leaves. The entire battle has now ended, apparently. No more fighting. Everyone goes back to their respective camps and that's that for another day.

A strange way to depict the battle I thought. But Patroclus does indeed, in The Iliad, don Achilles' armour and enter the battle masquerading as the invincible man himself. But in The Iliad, Achilles tells Patroclus to do this, only he's not to pursue Hector, which he does and he gets himself killed. In the film, Achilles has no idea Patroclus has stolen his armour and gone into battle - he's just as shocked as the Myrmidons when he hears of Patroclus' death. Meanwhile, in the film, Hector goes back to Andromache and tells her that he had to kill a boy too young to die in battle. He then shows her a secret passageway out of Troy where she is to go should anything happen to him. In the book, Hector kills Patroclus and triumphs in his death. He then strips the body of Achilles' armour and takes it as a prize for himself before heading back to the city, looking forward to the day when he can kill Achilles for real.

Again, fiction and film merge and we watch Achilles ride up to the walls of Troy alone and repeatedly yell for Hector to face him in one-to-one combat. Hector is actually supposed to be chased around the walls of Troy three times before standing his ground and fighting Achilles but here, he just comes out and faces Achilles, ready to do battle. The fight itself is good and of course, Hector does die. Achilles then straps Hector's ankles together and drags him back to the Greek camp behind his chariot. At this point, each man in the Greek army is supposed to stab Hector in the chest but they just show the aftermath of Achilles' wrath on Hector's body - his ears, nose and tongue are sliced off.

Priam secretly heads into the Greek camp and offers a ransom for Hector's body. Achilles accepts the offer out of respect for Priam and grants him the twelve days he needs to properly mourn Hector and carry out the necessary religious rites. Achilles sends Briseis back with Priam in the film, I suppose to tie in with the fabricated storyline of her being Hector's cousin. In any case, Priam goes off into the night with Hector's body and Briseis in tow, and the Greeks are left to carry out their own rituals in honour of the death of Patroclus.

I have to add at this point that I'm quite pleased that the film is depicting the burial rituals correctly, with the coins and the high-built wooden mounds. I didn't see any signs of the ritual sacrifices or the feasts that are supposed to take place in honour of the dead, but I guess a celebration would seem out of place to a modern audience. Still, I guess it is worth mentioning that the Greeks hold funeral games for Patroclus - yes, you read right. They PLAY GAMES in honour of the dead. Weird, huh? But, hey, I respect other people's religions and I think a celebration of an afterlife is very fitting for a deeply religious set of people like the Greeks.

Anyway, during this rather quiet period in the battle, Odysseus comes up with a rather brilliant idea. He voices his idea to Agamemnon who is positively delighted, "... the wolves inviting the sheep to dine" I think was the way he put it in the film! Yes, they gather lots of wood and build a rather large horse, hollow in the middle so a number of the Greek army can hide inside. The remainder of the Greeks hide their fleet in a closed harbour off the main shore. When the Trojans have completed their mourning period, they go back to the plain to find the Greek army apparently gone and nothing there but a wooden horse. Priam believes that the object is an offering from the gods, but in a last ditch attempt to give Paris some credibility, he says, "I think we should burn it." Yes, what a great idea! Because then, if they had listened to Paris, Troy would never have been taken. What a great idea(!) I thought it was rather lame myself and I still don't like Paris very much...

Anyway, the Trojans drag the horse back to their city, with a small army of the Greeks, lead by Odysseus, hidden quietly inside. The Torjans dance, get drunk, and basically have a party to celebrate their victory. Come nightfall, the majority of the city is asleep in a drunken stupor. The Greeks come out of their hiding place, open the gates of Troy to the waiting Greek army outside, and go through the city, killing, pillaging, setting fire to buildings, and causing all manner of chaos.

In the film, Andromache takes Astyanax and shows a small group of women the escape route Hector showed her previously. Among the group are Helen and Paris, who tells Helen to leave with Andromache while he goes to find Briseis. He then heads back to the temple of Apollo to rescue Briseis, who has since been re-captured by Agamemnon. Agamemnon is fatally stabbed by Briseis and, when Agamemnon's companions then turn onto Briseis, Achilles runs onto the scene to rescue her. He kills Agamemnon's soldiers and embraces Briseis. Paris suddenly arrives and, appalled by the sight of Achilles holding Briseis, shoots an arrow right through his... yup, achilles' heel. Funnily enough, this sends him off balance and he dies, even though several more arrows from Paris hit Achilles in the chest and make no difference whatsoever. Paris then grabs Briseis and they run off together, presumably to the escape route, leaving Achilles dead on the ground with a single arrow through his ankle.

The whole thing was rather annoying. It was like the only reason Briseis went back with Priam was to give Achilles an excuse to go back and save her in Troy's final hour. Paris gets to escape death when it was his fault that there is a war there in the first place and his own brother had to die for him. I was also annoyed at Andromache and Helen escaping from Troy through a secret passageway. The women of Troy (including the non-present Hecuba) are supposed to be rounded up by the Greek army and sent to be slaves with different Greek leaders. Helen is captured by the Greek army and returned to Menelaus. Odysseus takes Astyanax and throws him off the walls of Troy to stop him growing up to avenge his father's death. Agamemnon doesn't die during the seige (he is killed on his return from Troy by his wife, Clytaemnestra) and he takes the head priestess of Apollo as his prize, the tormented Cassandra. Paris does kill Achilles with an arrow shot through his heel, but he is killed during seige by the Greeks and does not escape.

By the way, I thought the Greeks won not only because of the Trojan Horse but because of the Bow of Heracles, which is in the possession of Philoctetes. Philoctetes was the original leader of the Thessalians but was abandoned on the island of Lemnos after being bitten by a snake in his foot. The bite became infected and his moaning was so much that Odysseus abandoned him. Odysseus is the one sent to get him back (seen in Sophocles' tragedy, Philoctetes) after a prophecy says that the Bow of Heracles is the Greeks' only chance at taking Troy. Excuse me Mr Director, where was Philoctetes in Troy?

Please don't get me wrong. I thought generally that the film was great - cool sets, great actors, some brilliant battle sequences and some good attention to the armour details, the way people lived and fought, and rituals the ancient peoples observed. But I feel that it is unfortunate that the people who are most likely to enjoy the film are the ones who know the least about The Iliad. The script takes outrageous liberties in the film, with main characters dying when they're not supposed to, and minor characters getting juicier parts than they deserve just to make the story just-so.

I felt that Helen was lumbered with some pretty dire dialogue and any attempt to salavge some of her dignity was a lost cause. The same goes for the film's attempts at making Paris appear to be any more than a selfish womaniser without any morals, scruples or thought for the sacrifices made on his behalf by other people.

Achilles was only consistent in the way that he only fought for himself and not for others. At times he was a reluctant player in the war; at other times he was a vigorous fighter and appeared to relish the thought that his actions were gaining him the glory and fame he wished for. I guess I was supposed to be cheering him on all the way but I just simply did not feel for his character. I just saw Brad Pitt in a costume.

Agamemnon was flamboyantly over-the-top as the powerful and greedy overload of Greece. His death in the film was inevitable - you can't have an evil, manipulative warlord seeing the end of the film alive. I just felt that he may have been slightly misrepresented and that he maybe wasn't all that bad as the film made him out to be.

Odysseus was woefully underused and was simply a go-between for Agamemnon and Achilles. I felt that Odysseus had a lot more character to exercise had the script given him a chance. He does get a nice scene with Achilles though where we see why Odysseus has the epithets 'wily' and 'trickster'. After all, it's Odysseus' trick that wins them Troy. Maybe there is an adaptation of The Odyssey in the wings... and I hope to be one of the histroical advisors! Lets get something right, heh?

The only character I really liked, and who looked more at home that any other character, was Hector. He was the leader of the Trojan army, a good fighter and a brave man. But he was also conscientious, keenly aware that when he was killing the opposition it was only for the good of his country and not for the purpose of fame or glory. He loved his family more than anything else and fought for Troy to simply protect them. He was horrified at his actions when he killed Patroclus, yet he killed Menelaus without hesistation when his brother's life was threatened. Hector was a character I felt proud of, and I was torn when he died so nobly at the hands of the angered Achilles. Yet through all this, the acting was understated and never went full steam, giving Hector a kind of mild-manneredness about him, which only serves to make him appear more noble.

Do you agree? I know this was a bit long-winded but it needs to be said. I'm a former Classics major after all! Comments are, as always, much appreciated. Send them to me at athene19@hotmail.com and who knows? I might even reply or post your comments here on the webpage!!