TROY - Another Great Film By Wolfgang Petersen!

Priam: I've fought many wars in my time. Some I've fought for land, some for power, and some for glory. I suppose fighting for love makes more sense than all the rest.

Directed by Wolfgang Peterson (Das Boot & Enemy Mine)

Brad Pitt as Achilles
Brian Cox as Agamemnon
Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus
Peter O'Toole as Priam
Eric Bana as Hector
Orlando Bloom as Paris
Diane Kruger as Helen
Julian Glover as Triopas
Nathan Jones as Boagrius
John Shrapnel as Nestor

TROY – 2004

TROY is an epic adventure with all sorts of characters from ancient Greece and Troy. Greece was being conquered or united, depending on how you look at it, by Agamemnon. Agamemnons power and might is growing incredibly fast. He ruled Greece with a sword, an army and a seemingly invincible warrior, Achilles. Many disputes between armies in Greece were settled by each Armies best warrior. Achilles fought for Agamemnon and won him control over many Armies.

Agamemnons brother Menelaus did not want a war with Troy. In fact he invited the two young prices from Troy to Greece to enjoy some time of parties and feasts. The two young princes enjoyed their time in Greece. The younger of the two princes Paris, is a ladies man and fell in love with Menelaus’ wife, Helen of Greece. The feeling was mutual and the young prince took his new love back to Troy when they left.

Menelaus immediately goes to Agamemnon and demands revenge against Troy! Agamemnon was thrilled by idea of going to war with his last real rival, Troy. The call to arms spreads throughout Greece and before long one thousand Greek ships were sailing for Troy. This would be a war where heroes would be born. People would remember this war for a thousand years! Every man from Greece was on his way to prove his good name, courage and valor.


Quotes from TROY

Achilles: [to his men, while landing on the beaches of Troy] Myrmidons! My brothers of the sword! I would rather fight beside you than any army of thousands! Let no man forget how menacing we are, we are lions! Do you know what's waiting beyond that beach? Immortality! Take it! It's yours!

Hector: All of my life I have lived by a code and the code is simple: honor the gods, love your woman and defend your country. Troy is mother to us all. Fight for her!

Ajax: [to his shipmates, as they approach the Trojan beach] Row you whores! Greeks are dying!

Final Thoughts

TROY is an epic and spectacular piece of film making. Wolfgang Petersen continues to crank out quality films! TROY is based on Homers book, lliad. The film was a lot better than I was expecting. After reading several reviews of the movie, I was expecting a mediocre movie. I was pleasantly surprised and found the movie to be very good! I have always enjoyed Wolfgang Petersons’ films; Das Boot, Enemy Mine and The Perfect Storm is just some of the quality films that Peterson has directed, that I really enjoy watching. Petersen’s directing is as solid as it gets in Troy.

The cast was great. I am a huge fan of Brat Pitt and tend to like his films. Some of films that Pitt acts in are my favorite movies. The guy is an awesome actor, his track record speaks for itself; Thelma & Louise, A River Runs Through It, Legends of the Fall , Seven Years in Tibet, Se7en, Fight Club and Ocean's Eleven just to name a few. Pitt can portray a true warrior with the best of them. His performance as Achilles is as good as Russell Crows performance in Gladiator. I can not give Pitt enough praise for his performance in Troy. I also enjoyed the performances of Eric Bana and Brian Cox.

The first time that I took note of Bana was his excellent performance in the 2001 hit, Black Hawk Down as Delta Force Sniper, “Hoot”. I enjoy this guys acting. His performance in Troy as Hector was outstanding! Another actor that I really liked in the film is Brian Cox. Cox has played in a multitude of recent block busters (X-2 and The Ring) and his performance in Troy is no exception. Cox is a top-notch actor! I coundn’t find one miscast in the entire film. I would have liked to see Connie Nielsen as Helen, but Diane Kruger plays the part well too. The cast in TROY was awesome!

The character development in TROY was quite complete and the pace of the film was good. I think Petersen put just the right amount of time into each character. The film was over 2 ½ hours long and I did not notice its very long length. Some critics complain because of the films length, I found its length and pace perfectly acceptable and very enjoyable. The cinematography and special effects were well done. Not too long ago a director would have to hire hundreds of extras for large battle scenes. With today’s special effects and some good technicians, they are able to create colossal armies that are mostly computer generated. The scene where a thousand ships are approaching the coast of TROY is awesome! The other scene that sticks in my mind is when the two opposing armies are facing each other in preparation for battle. The special effects and battle scenes in TROY are something that I will remember for awhile. Pitt and Bana did their own battle scenes and they were very convincing to see.

The score was good but had some very familiar sounds. I picked out two films where I had heard the music before. Some of the score that I heard in TROY was also used in Enemy At The Gates and The Perfect Storm. I am not knocking James Horner because he only had a month to come up with a new score. Some decided that the film needed a new score and Horner was given just one month to complete this task. The score may sound familiar to some of you. I now own the film and place it in my personal movie collection right next to Gladiator. I would recommend TROY to anyone who liked Gladiator. I give TROY five stars with out hesitation! This is an excellent movie.


Similar Films

~ The Gladiator
~ The 13th Warrior
~ The Vikings
~ The Norsemen
~ Ben Hur

RUNTIME: 2 Hours 43 minutes
Rated : [R] for language

© 2005 Joe McMaster