Note: Not that I'm giving away any plot of the Iliad you don't already know but if you don't want to know how the movie changed it (there are some pretty big surprises), don't read further.
I liked Troy about as much as I predicted I would when I first read about it. I've been really excited about it for a long time, but not because I expected it to be a really amazing film, which it wasn't. The stories are always exciting, no matter how badly portrayed on screen. Ulysses and Helen of Troy? Horrible movies but I watched them anyway. And Troy was far from a horrible movie. My two cents are not here to try to change anyone's mind; that's unlikely and not very interesting. I've heard so many different opinions and it's always fun to have more to say about a movie than a general agreement of it being good or bad.
First of all, the plot changes don’t warrant an automatic criticism of the movie. I think adaptations in general deserve more slack. People always expect film adaptations to be mirrors of the literary interpretations, but adaptations are interpretations in their own right. Someone pointed out that the Iliad is fairly suspect as far as historical events go. It manipulates history as much as the film manipulates the poem. Granted, most of the changes in Troy are designed to cater to a summer movie audience rather than to reevaluate the Trojan War or even Homer. Brad Pitt obviously can’t be homosexual or even asexual, so Patroclus was demoted from lover to cousin and Briseis was promoted from kidnapped priestess to kidnapped priestess/Achilles's lover. I also agree that the optimism of the escape route detracted from the tragedy. I don't think that was even necessary to please the audience because no one fell for the Helen-Paris love story, and certainly the Greeks didn't care anymore after ten years. Also, not that I wanted to see Hector's adorable son die, but all the close ups of his chubby baby face and blue eyes made me expect that they would stay true to that part of the plot. Finally, the death of Agamemnon surprised me because until that point the movie had avoided becoming what I really disliked about parts of Lord of the Rings--a war between good and evil. Life's just not that simple.
Anyway, my point is--aside from some of these things, plot didn't matter so much as the tone. In that respect, the film did a good job of making war exciting to wage at the same time it's painful to bear, both purposeful and useless. The best example of this is the duel between Hector and Achilles. Plot, character, emotion aside--the action itself is pretty incredible. Even as you're amazed at the fight itself, you cringe whenever either person even comes close to being injured. To be able to watch a battle, both knowing that someone has to win and who it is that will win, but to still not want either person to lose--is rare. This continues with the heartbreaking Priam-Achilles scene. The sequence of those two scenes was my absolute favorite, as I'm sure it was for most people, and for me it compensated for anything else lacking.
One of the best things? The male leads. Brad Pitt made Achilles likeable and distant at the same time (and more interestingly, likeable and distant for the same characteristics), someone who strives for abstractions beyond this world but who is very much tied to the tangible things it offers. One of the worst things? The female leads. They must have shown forty different (but really, the same) images of sobbing women.
Two complaints with which I agree and one other that I don't feel is quite as valid: the music, the dialogue and Orlando Bloom. The music was pretty awful and could easily have been improved. I'm not sure how the dialogue could be improved; that seems to be an inherent limitation in adapting something like this. Orlando Bloom? I haven't seen enough of him to share in the common criticism of his acting, but I can believe that opinion. But the thing is, whether it's because he's a bad actor so Paris's stupidity just came naturally or whether he was a good enough actor to pull it off, it didn't matter to me--he played a great Paris. Paris IS laughable, cowardly, and naive; he DOES stand around staring at Helen while others fight--which can be mistaken for Orlando's corniness rather than as Paris's character. For that reason only, it might have been better to cast someone less known.
*moving on*
Amy's birthday was fabulous. It's too bad Erotica (if you stress every syllable as Amy does, "Er-rot-ti-kah") has a ridiculous 21+ age limit. That sounds absolutely horrible out of context. Actually, it doesn't sound too great in context either...but it was definitely hilarious. Rest assured, we remain our wonderfully pure selves. Noteworthy moments include when the Peach Farm waiter showed me the still-alive jumpy fish that we were to eat half an hour later, our Blow-Pop contest (Melkis left the rest of us in the dust), and the suggestion that we go to Glass Slipper because it might be "classier."
Oh, and because it momentarily came up as a subject that night, "Too Much Coffee Man" comic strip on the band Journey:
"My best friend and I hated Journey more than anything. As a joke, we went to see them. We had a blast making fun of the guys and checking out the girls. Mid-show, when Journey played their big hit number one song we decided to take off. It felt great to walk past hordes of fans that couldn't believe that we were leaving. Now, whenever I hear Journey, the music brings back good memories of friendship and subversion. I like it because I used to hate it. It's not fair! I don't want to like a crappy pop band!"
They are indeed an awesomely corny dentist-office pop band. I love them.
