Will Homer get an Oscar for Troy (2004)?

[Albert]

They give one, don't they, for the best creator of the original material a film was based on? If so, should be a close contest between Saint Matthew for "The Passion" and old Homer for "Troy".

Helen and I contributed to the impressive opening-weekend audience for "Troy" by seeing it on Sunday afternoon at Ward16.

I don't have to recommend it to any Brad Pitt fan because they've no doubt also already seen it. (And we do see a lot more of him in this film than we've seen before.) Inspired casting, because if he hadn't been in it I wouldn't have been at all interested. And watching him also made the almost three-hour-long film much more engrossing.

He does have a handicap because he is such an interesting personality that it's difficult to accept him as the character he is playing instead of just continually thinking, "I'm watching Brad Pitt."

Peter O'Toole constantly skirted being a ham, but did it adroitly enough that I suspect he will at least get a nomination for Best Supporting Actor (thus far my own choice would be the Pontius Pilate in "Passion").

The young Trojan princes were less interesting, Paris especially, and although the Helen was an attractive woman, I couldn't really see her as the "face that launched a thousand ships."

A splendid epic, in the true Hollywood tradition. By far the best they've yet done for Homer.

And I loved those "great balls of fire" ...

[helen]

It was an okay movie, I was slightly wondering who was the actor that played the King of Troy, he looked familar, my first guest was Richard Harris but I sort of remember he past away. Anyway it turned out to be Peter O'Toole.

Was a joy to see Orlando Bloom (Paris) and Sean Bean (Odysseus) on the screen again even through they played characters who were on the opposite sides in a war. Eric Bana 's character (Hector) was good to see.

For Brad Pitt's character (Achilles) I need to use the spoiler.

I guess the legend of Achilles being indestructible didn't get much treatment in this movie. It portrayed him as a quick on the feet, hard hitting warrior but not of the type were bullets or arrows would bounce off him.

[Albert]

Helen was more impressed by the Trojan princes than I was. It was amusing last evening on NPR's "Left Right and Center" when one member of the panel used the end-of-show "rant" to comment on "Troy". That part of the program is usually concentrated on news stories or political issues, but he evidently so hated "Troy" (a "horrible movie") he used his rant for it. He left Brad Pitt alone but said Helen (of Troy, not our own Helen) looked like a "high school prom queen".

The movie got slammed by the reviewer in the new issue of the Weekly, too.

[Albert]

From an email exchange:

: And who is playing Patrocle, or whatever you call him in English, his best
: friend ?

Patroclus. An actor I don't know at all, Garrett Hedlund.

On a discussion board about this, one person writes: "Does anyone know
which kind of Patroclus he is going to play in Troy? Is he going to be
Achillies gay lover or just 'really good friends'? I doubt they would want
to question Brad Pitt's masculinity so i assume they will go with the
latter, but i'd really like to see them pull off the former."

Another says (and I agree):

"They're making Patroclus into a really whiny, effeminate cousin of
Achilles. It really bothers me, because in the Iliad, Patroclus was my
favorite character."

[easTTriver]

From an email exchange:

: And who is playing Patrocle, or whatever you call him in English, his best
: friend ?

Patroclus. An actor I don't know at all, Garrett Hedlund.

On a discussion board about this, one person writes: "Does anyone know
which kind of Patroclus he is going to play in Troy? Is he going to be
Achillies gay lover or just 'really good friends'? I doubt they would want
to question Brad Pitt's masculinity so i assume they will go with the
latter, but i'd really like to see them pull off the former."

Another says (and I agree):

"They're making Patroclus into a really whiny, effeminate cousin of
Achilles. It really bothers me, because in the Iliad, Patroclus was my
favorite character."

in greek myth, patroclus is achilles' gay lover

[Albert]

"in greek myth, patroclus is achilles' gay lover"

No way, no how Brad Pitt was gonna play a queer. :)

[easTTriver]

"in greek myth, patroclus is achilles' gay lover"

No way, no how Brad Pitt was gonna play a queer. :)

das why, in the movie, they are cousins

[easTTriver]

they should make a movie on Homer's other epic, the odyssey.

[DaFerret]

they should make a movie on Homer's other epic, the odyssey.

Yeah, I agree. Although the TV mini saga (http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0118414/) was pretty good in its own merits.

But back to Troy...
Achilles, I'm assuming, they wanted to portray as a more realistic invincible hero. Throughout the movie, the gods were transparent deities. They were worshipped but didn't show their presence. There were no magical occurrences, so rather than showing arrows and blades bouncing off of Achilles, they made him quick and agile. There was only one instance, with Hector, where one got close to striking Achilles.

According to mythology, Achilles' downfall was being struck in the heel, yet in the movie, it seemed his heart lead to his death.

A shame they didn't follow more to mythology as I'd like to see an Amazon warrior in the movie... sans Xena theme please. :P

Off topic...
Does it seem Orlando Bloom is type cast into the archer character? :P Granted he was a smith in Pirates.

[helen]

Does it seem Orlando Bloom is type cast into the archer character? :P Granted he was a smith in Pirates.

I was thinking the same thing, granted three of the four movies where he was an archer, it was the same character.