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By
WAYNE KLEIN
Whether or not the siege of
Troy by the Greeks was historical fact or fiction
won't occupy your mind while you're watching
Wolfgang Petersen's epic film. Epics fell out of
fashion for so long in Hollywood that I'm not
surprised it took two foreign directors to make
the movie studios take notice. "Troy" has the air
of a historical epic as Petersen insisted upon
removing the Greek gods as characters in this
loose adaptation of Homer's "The Iliad." Although
flawed due to its attempt to cram so much material
into such a brief period of time, "Troy" is
surprisingly powerful, agile and swift. While it
lacks subtlety and all too often falls into the
clichés of sword and sand epics produced in Italy
during the '50s and '60s, Petersen's film has
ambitious scope and, more importantly, the right
actors to pull it all together. The running time,
though, may be both its greatest strength and its
Achilles' heel: While Petersen's epic seems to run
a bit too long, it truly needs to tell the story
the way it was meant to be told. On the other
hand, there's far too much that's been dropped
from Homer's classic tale that would have
benefited the film.
When Paris (Orlando Bloom) falls in love with
Helen (Diane Kruger) the Queen of Sparta, he
secretly puts her on his boat back to Troy despite
the fact that this act will endanger the peace
treaty that Hector (Eric Bana) brokered with
Helen's husband King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson).
Once Menelaus discovers Helen missing and traces
her to the Trojan ship, he approaches his brother
King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) to ask him to go to war
against Troy. Agamemnon will do it, but only if he
can get Achilles (Brad Pitt) involved. Agamemnon
hates Achilles but recognizes that the proud and
arrogant warrior can rally the troops to defeat
the Trojans. Now Odysseus (Sean Bean) must
convince his friend Achilles to fight for
Agamemnon one more time.
"Troy" looks terrific on this dual layer disc. The
film, which runs roughly 2 hours and 42 minutes,
features terrifically fine detail, clarity and
sharpness. Additionally, the colors and textures
are faithfully reproduced from the original
theatrical showing of the movie. The 5.1 Dolby
Digital Surround Sound mix will shake when the
Greeks march on Troy. The use of surround speakers
will make your speakers sound as if they've been
working out in a gym with muscular, rich sounds
and amazing fine detail.
"Troy" is confined to the first disc of the set,
with all the extras relegated to disc two. "In the
Thick of the Battle" gives fans a chance to
carefully examine the exciting battle sequences,
comparing the rehearsal footage to the shot
footage and, later, footage enhanced with CGI.
"From Ruins to Reality" looks at the history of
the production design and some of the sources that
the designers drew from as their inspiration for
the film. "Troy: An Effects Odyssey" provides
information on the creation of the CGI effects
that make the film come convincingly to life.
You'll notice if you pay careful attention that
the sequence with the ships sailing to Troy from
Greece that there are fewer ships than in the
original trailer. Evidently the CGI folks
convinced Wolfgang Petersen that too many ships
would look unrealistic since they're clustered so
closely together. Also, you'll discover how they
did many of the amazing pans over the city walls
of Troy by combining live footage and enhancing it
with CGI. "Gallery of the Gods" provides a 3D
guide to various Greek myths and is a good primer
if you're not familiar with Greek mythology,
otherwise most folks will probably skip this
feature. Best Buy also initially offered a limited
edition 3-DVD pack with the third disc being a
production featurette on the movie. While some of
the footage is the same, there are enough
differences in comments and behind-the-scenes
footage to make this worthwhile, if you can find
it.
A powerful epic film, "Troy" was unfairly maligned
by critics when it first came out. Featuring
terrific performances, the film's only flaw is an
occasional glacial pace and too much talk between
the battle sequences. Still, it's a satisfying
epic with some amazing battle sequences and superb
acting by a wide array of performers. My guess is
that the film will be reissued as a "deluxe"
edition should it sell well. Petersen's film
recalls Hollywood's glory years when producing
epics seemed routine. |
