The Trojan Women ** (1971, Katharine Hepburn, Geneviève Bujold, Vanessa Redgrave, Irene Papas) – Classic Movie Review 11,273

Writer/ producer/ director Michael Cacoyannis’s 1971 drama The Trojan Women stars the formidable quartet of women, Katharine Hepburn, Geneviève Bujold, Vanessa Redgrave and Irene Papas.

Top quality acting from the four remarkable actresses lifts a dull film of Euripides’s play (based on Edith Hamilton’s translation into English) about the troubles of the ladies of Troy when Greece invades and they face enslavement after the fall of their city.

Papas is excellent as Helen, and there are also impressive turns from Hepburn as queen mother Hecuba, Redgrave as Andromache and Bujold as Hecuba’s daughter, Cassandra.

Director Cacoyannis, filming in desert country in Spain, cannot stir up enough emotion or imagination, though there is no doubt about his sincerity and commitment, and apparently his 60s New York stage production was remarkable.

Also in the cast are Brian Blessed, Patrick Magee, Alberto Sanz, Rosalind Shanks, Pauline Letts, and Pat Beckett.

The acclaimed Edith Hamilton translation premiered on the Broadway stage in 1938.

Filming location: Atienza, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain.

© Derek Winnert 2021 Classic Movie Review 11,273

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