Troy ***** (2004, Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Brian Cox, Brendan Gleason, Diane Kruger, Peter O’Toole, Julie Christie, Sean Bean, Garrett Hedlund) – Classic Movie Review 367

Troy boy Brad Pitt dons a cute mini-skirt as Greek rebel hero Achilles, who leads the attack on Troy under the banner of bad royal Agamemnon (Brian Cox), king of the Mycenaeans. Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 historical adventure film Troy is a troyumph.

German director Wolfgang Petersen’s 2004 historical adventure film Troy is a triumphant return to cinema’s glory days of epic movies in the late 1950s and early 1960s, the era of Ben-Hur and Spartacus. It’s a troyumph.

For his biggest role up to that date, Troy boy Brad Pitt dons a cute mini-skirt as Greek rebel hero Achilles, who leads the attack on Troy under the banner of bad royal Agamemnon (Brian Cox), king of the Mycenaeans.

While Brad hogs the screen manfully, Orlando Bloom moons around, looking girly in his curls and robes, as Prince Paris, who has spirited off Spartan King Menelaus (Brendan Gleason)’s wife Helen – she who launched 1000 ships – back home to Troy, thus igniting a tragic war that no one will win.

This awesome epic is a true spectacular, a splendidly old-fashioned chunk of movie storytelling, but done up to the nines with a state-of the-art production and eyeball-smacking CGI effects from Industrial Light and Magic and London’s Computer Film Company. The dazzling $185 million show paces up about midway with a rip-roaring battle between Achilles and Paris’s brother Hector (Eric Bana), gearing up again for a stirring finish with the famous Trojan Horse.

However, when he’s on screen, the show is stolen by Peter O’Toole, who, with his haunted eyes, tragic visage and trembling voice, is marvellous as Troy’s old King Priam. Though he wasn’t even nominated, O’Toole deserved the Oscar that has eluded him.

O’Toole was nominated eight times for the Academy Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role, but never won  – and holds the unfortunate record for the most Oscar nominations for acting without a win (tied with Glenn Close). He had to be content with an honorary award in 2003 for his ‘remarkable talents that have provided cinema history with some of its most memorable characters’. He agreed to appear at the ceremony and receive his Honorary Oscar, presented to him by Meryl Streep, who has the most Oscar nominations of any actor or actress.

His nominations are for Lawrence of Arabia (1962), Becket (1964), The Lion in Winter (1968), Goodbye, Mr. Chips (1969), The Ruling Class (1972), The Stunt Man (1980), My Favorite Year (1982), and Venus (2006).

If the film has an Achilles heel, it’s a lacklustre Helen (Diane Kruger) and some cheesy dialogue, but otherwise it’s a total troyumph. Bana is excellent as Achilles’s older brother – noble, warrior-like and grave – Brendan Gleason is striking as Agamemnon’s angry cuckolded brother and Bean is distinguished as Odysseus. Appearing weather-beaten in the bright sun, Julie Christie unfortunately has only one little scene as Achilles’s prescient mother, Thetis.

Looking right for the part, the 20-year-old Garrett Hedlund makes his debut in the role of Patroclus, Pitt’s ‘intimate’ and cousin, whose death spurs his own desperate acts of raging revenge.

Basing his story on Homer’s poem The Illiad, screen writer David Benioff makes a crisp, clear job of a complex narrative, keeping a largish number of main characters in focus. Director Petersen keeps it all pounding along, picking up the pace as it proceeds.

This fairly realistic, corpse-strewn battle movie, detailing all the horrors of war, is sometimes grim and violent, though it tastefully steers away from any extremes of gore. But it is also an ambitious story of love, honour, power and glory, and people’s quest for an honoured place in the afterlife. And for its intelligence, imagination, insight and achievement, it is to be admired and acclaimed.

Asked what he knew about Troy before making the film, Pitt is commendably candid: ‘Not a ********* thing.’

Brian Cox was born on 1 June 1946. His notable film credits include Nicholas and Alexandra (1971), Manhunter (1986), Rob Roy (1995), Braveheart (1995), The Boxer (1997), Rushmore (1998), Super Troopers (2001), L.I.E. (2001), The Bourne Identity (2002), 25th Hour (2002), Adaptation (2002), X-Men 2 (2002), Troy (2004), The Bourne Supremacy (2004), Red Eye (2005), Zodiac (2007), The Escapist (2008), Fantastic Mr. Fox (2009), Rise of the Planet of the Apes (2011), Coriolanus (2011), and Churchill (2017).

© Derek Winnert 2013 Classic Movie Review 367

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