Strange to know duty, to respect it and yet never prescribe to it

[delga]

Saw the movie. Check it out. Cut because of spoilers and opinions.

Although, who doesn't know the story of Troy?

No greater honour than this: to live, to breathe, to die as soldiers of our Immortal Earth.

So I saw the film and now it’s time to retrospect. Spectacular? Moments were – glorious choreography, choice scripting. Poignant performances. Yet not consistently.

I loved Homer’s ‘The Iliad’. I’m going to read it again, if only to remember the true story. It’s easily forgotten, too easily confused but I’m certain that Achilles was never so arrogant and that somewhere inside his soul, Agamemnon knew the true meaning of honour. And what of Paris? Yes, he was prideful but this portrayal of him is suiting only to Orlando Blood: that naïveté was not of Paris, I’m sure. If anything, it’s acceptable because in my eyes, Paris was never lovable.

What of Ajax, the hero who died? Who was it that was decapitated and had their head paraded on the battlefield? Didn’t Achilles step on a poisoned arrow? What of the gods and their roles; their silent intervention? What about the resurrection of Hercules?

OK, yes, the final film was three hours long – an epic in itself – and they obviously couldn’t fit in everything. Did I like the adaptation? Yes, I did. I get the feeling that maybe I liked it more because I know the actual story and it’s one that I adore in so many ways but the adaptation was good on its own. It was enjoyable to say the least. As a historical portrayal it’s nicely altered and above all, the beauty of the adaptation is in its remembrance of the women and of the themes of that war: the war to end all wars.

Andromache and Hector – her I don’t remember at all from the story and him, I don’t recall the spirit of his nature. But I remember his sense of duty and honour, his love for his brother and his father and this recreation is an ode to him, to that man because above all else, Hector is a prince of the noblest position and a good man.

Strange but I never swayed to the Trojans when I read this – I couldn’t pity Helen or Paris or their woes. In this, perhaps, my feelings remain the same – Helen may have been married to an older man or perhaps brutish proportions but there isn’t a strong indication of this within the film and in the story, Menalaus loved his wife dearly. I can never get over the fact that a war was fought over her and her rash and sometimes petty decisions. More sympathy for her in the movie, I think; more touched by her because of her subtle change in characterisation in order to fit in with the rewriting but still, same Helen of Troy, same wounded infidel. Aphrodite or nay, I cannot warm wholly to Helen or her motives but maybe her motive, for now, is beyond my scope of experience.

Back to my earlier point about the women. This film was good in the way that it represented and remembered the second grief – the mothers, the wives, the children and families: those left behind in the aftermath; those broken by the war and their losses; those who sent off their men, never knowing if they would ever see them return. Yes, yes, not exactly, pro-feminista but gorgeous in its own right; these were women who knew their roles (whatever they may be – as wife, as mother) and wore them with pride. Maybe today we don’t (I don’t, I know) agree with those roles or the possession of the self as an object but they did and in that, perhaps there is something to be admired.

The Greeks won; there was bittersweet victory and the deaths of hundreds and thousands who would be remembered for the part they played. They went down in flames; theirs were the deaths of traditional glory and honour and the old rules of war. Those rules that exposit how a man should die. At Hector’s death, I was crushed – even though I knew it would come. I was crushed because he didn’t want to fight but he knew what he had to do. Today, some people don’t understand duty and service and those who do aren’t always revered (even by me). But Hector fought for Troy (‘she is mother to us all’) and when he killed Petrocleus, he killed him honourably. And Achilles? Achilles dragged him out of grief and spite; dragged him like a sack of bones. I’m glad that in the surrender of those bones Achilles wept because he should have been ashamed – he would have been ashamed because there was no honour in his treatment of Hector. (This of course could also be said for the spiking of someone’s head in the actual story but that didn’t happen here and I don’t remember the character).

Such is the life of war.

The musical choices are fantastic: the score is appropriate in its beat and rhythm; the silence is beautifully used; the vocal parts are haunting and apt – when The Greeks conquer Troy, there is nothing but grief in the backing score. Some wonderful lines too: when Achilles is asked why he chose the life he leads, he says that he was born and that he simply was; his rôle chose him instead. I liked that line because it’s true to Homer’s intent. Fate was masterful in the destruction of man; this war was to be the crown of all wars – heroes were meant to die; the gods were meant to sleep.

The actors…well, Pitt suited Achilles’ newfound arrogance and both Sean Bean and Eric Bana were striking in their respective roles as Odysseus and Hector. Saffron portrayed Andromache with a quiet sort of elegance; she seemed to pining in a way that strength defies. Priam’s character was softly lovable; the actor who played him had wonderful eyes and a convincing stature. The humility he had to overcome his pride and go to Achilles for Hector’s body – that entire scene was touching. I loved it. And Helen? What of Kruger? She suited Helen in that she seemed to define this weakling of a woman but the face that launched a thousand ships? The jury’s still out.

Thank you, Sean Bean, for Odysseus. Thank you, writers, for not messing this character up.

Ending on Achilles gives perhaps a little too much to Achilles – if not to Brad Pitt and to me, didn’t quite make sense because Odysseus is narrating and saying that ‘If anyone ever tells [his] story’ they’d say that he ‘knew the horseman Hector. That [he] knew Achilles’. Well yes you did but your story doesn’t end here, does it? Why tell this story in a retrospective narrative if your story isn’t done with. You still have to fight the seas to get home; you still have to string your bow and reclaim Penelope; you still have to greet and know Telemachus, your son. And it’s not like you wanted to go to war anyway; you wanted to stay at home with your family! I know I’m going a little overboard with the details but there were points within the movie when I was just screaming at the screen because, seriously, who did the research on this? At least get some of the facts straight! That aside, remember, I did like it. I did! Don’t look at me like that :)

Odysseus. To see what he saw, to do what he did and yet be rewarded peace only after years more out at sea. Odysseus was one of the true heroes. Helen. Her escape with Aeneas was pitiful and ironic and her story in itself, almost unresolved. She is still alone; still sad and lonely. And Troy. What we made of ash and dust but blood and trust and death.

One last thing: what happened to Cassandra? They managed to insert Aeneas, for crying out loud! But no Cassandra? Why? Why?!

Oh, in case anybody wants to know, I totally failed my statistics exam. Like, totally.