More on Troy:

[butterfly]

aka, carefully not thinking about Angel tonight.

Definitely, my favorite relationship of any sort in the movie was Paris and Hector. Such brothers! The love! It overwhelms all!

Just take the end of the failed fight -- that moment, where Paris chooses life over honor, it just touches me. Poor kid. And then Hector chooses his brother over honor. Honor, it seems, flies out the window for most everyone when Paris is involved (Helen running away, etc).

I often do love characters with certain failings. Show me a second-best, a trier who fails yet keeps trying, and you show me someone that I will almost certainly love.

I like the lack of actual gods -- it means that you can take the story the way that the King Arthur previews want me to take that story, as the truth before the myths. The only arrow still through Achilles in the end is in his heel, therefore the story can be true or that can be how the myth was born. Helen was the catalyst for a war, was the reason Troy fell (I must say that I admire the Trojan's family loyalty -- his son brings home a married woman for his own, and Priam welcomes her to the family and treats her like family for the rest of the movie.), therefore she must be the most beautiful woman in the world. Paris, who stole this paragon, must be touched by the goddess of love. And so forth. Because the gods never appear, it can be taken either way.

I want to see it again.

Comments

[casapazzo.livejournal.com]

the truth before the myths

Yes, yes, that's exactly what I thought! Especially with that last shot of Achilles' body, the only (immediately) visible wound the arrow through his heel.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I adored that shot.

[lasultrix.livejournal.com]

That's a really interesting thought about the truth before the myths - however, the myth makes a better story, IMO.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I liked seeing the possibility of the mythical up against a non-mythical situation -- there's the fighting and you can believe that it's driven by the gods, as most of the fighters do, or you can not. I like having the choice, not having the gods appear without question.

[kathyh]

I liked the way they dealt with the gods. The characters believed in them but there was no actual intervention on either side. You could say it was Priam's blind trust in the gods that caused the city to fall so a myth could easily grow up that different gods were on different sides.

My main problem with the film was that it was too long.

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

I liked the way they dealt with the gods. The characters believed in them but there was no actual intervention on either side.

Yes, I loved that.

My main problem with the film was that it was too long.

The editing had some major problems. The acting was great, the directing was just fine. The editing, on the other hand, was often utterly baffling.

[selenak.livejournal.com]

As you can see in my review, I liked that particular scene (which I thought was Orlando Bloom's best moment in the film), the Paris-Hector relationship and those Trojan brothers in general as well.

Though I beg to differ about the gods: Petersen left it ambiguous because he lets Achilles' mother appear after the boy asked Achilles "Is it true your mother is a goddess?" (and got no reply). Julie Christie is credited as Thetis. If you know the myths, her appearing on a shore - with Thetis being a sea goddess - makes perfect sense. If you don't know the myths, then of course Achilles' mother is just an excentric lady with a penchant for making prophecies.

(Oh, and Achilles tells Briseis that he talked with the Gods. Now he may be speaking metaphorically, but Thetis in that film is an argument for literalness.)

[butterfly.livejournal.com]

As you can see in my review, I liked that particular scene (which I thought was Orlando Bloom's best moment in the film), the Paris-Hector relationship and those Trojan brothers in general as well.

I loved the Trojan brothers.

If you know the myths, her appearing on a shore - with Thetis being a sea goddess - makes perfect sense. If you don't know the myths, then of course Achilles' mother is just an excentric lady with a penchant for making prophecies.

Right, I like that it can go either way. I enjoy ambiguity.