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Thoughts on “Troy,” May 25, 2004…

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“I’ll tell you a secret… The gods envy us. Because we are mortal. You will never be as beautiful as you are now. We will not be here again.”

– Achilles, to the mugged, bruised Briseias, in “Troy”

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Saw Troy last Sunday. Liked it. Even with the abundant use of CGI (as my friend Jojo points out.)

It can be retitled “Achilles.” Or the “The Life and Times of Achilles.”

I’m fascinated by the film because:

1) No matter what his critics say, Brad Pitt is just undaunted by taking on Herculean challenges. (A female teacher of mine once said that Pitt will never become a good actor because of his good looks.)

2) The scriptwriter did his research! He had a good grasp of Greek culture and philosophy (the love for spectacle, “agon” or contest, “arete” or excellence, immortality through the preservation of one’s name, and the sense of piety vis-a-vis the sense of pride in human achievements that easily becomes prey to “hubris”) and mythology. (You have a tight scene in Phtia because here we discover several things: the cunning of Odysseus, the martial expertise of Achilles, the brashness of Patroclus, and the almost paternal love of Achilles for Patroclus.) Plus, the writer demythologized the mythology. I’d like to read The Iliad just to see how many changes and adaptations he did in the screenplay. (For instance, Agamemnon was killed by Clytemnestra, his wife. Was the Briseias (Perseias?) character/love-interest of Achilles an invention? I’ve a suspicion too that the Agamemnon-Achilles spat was cooked up by the writer. Of course, I’m not that well-acquainted with greek mythology. Haven’t read Iliad yet.)

3) You have a well-thought out, very human(ized) characterization of Achilles. (My good friend Paolo comments that Achilles and Paris are two sides of the same coin. They both earn their redemption towards the end. Paris, by developing his courage; Achilles, by developing his compassion. Paris though is not as sympathetic as Achilles. (Is this due to a failure of acting or script-writing? Uh-oh, I can almost hear the shouts of protest by all those women Legolas-fans.) He also says that the contrast between Hector and Achilles should have been greatly emphasized. Hector is the noblest character in the story, even nobler than the gods. The inner struggle between his sense of duty and fraternal love should have been more apparent. (It’s either a problem of acting, writing, or direction… Well, after all, this is Achilles’s film.)

4) Great choreography, especially in the Achilles-Hector showdown!

5) Laughed out really loud at that scene where Achilles throws the towel at Briseias’s face in exasperation.

6) At first, I didn’t find Diane Kruger (Helen) that beautiful. As I gazed at her face, I slowly did find her beautiful. Classic beauty. Of course, the film tells us that, in all probability, even if Helen were not that beautiful, ships would still be launched to retrieve her because of the wounded machismo of Menelaus and the unbridled ambition of Agamemnon.

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