Originally Posted by Madcap link=board=1;threadid=9334;start=msg111317#msg1113 17 date=1084950780
Not bad. I'll give it a "B" despite some GLARING mistakes with the source material (No-one ages during a ten year war???) and with History (For fuck's sake, Sparta was a cluster of five UNWALLED villages, and the women practically ruled the men, a fact that scandalized the rest of Hellas at the time, so Helen wouldn't have been all that worried about Menelaus, not to mention that Spartan women never wore make-up... ever, and she's caked in it).
Eric Bana's Hector and Brian Cox's Aggamemnon are the highlights of the flick. Pitt was passable as Achilles, but wasn't prickish or arrogant ehough (The only thing Achilles worshipped was his own reflection). Paris, the biggest think-with-your-dick idiot man in all of literature, IMO, annoyed me but then he always does in any retelling of this story. Peter O'toole is, as always, great as Priam.
Some of the bad stuff... Where the hell was Cassandra? I realize that they can't have everyone, but if you're going to add Ajax, might as well toss in Cassandra as well.
There's this subplot with Achilles and some Trojan woman (I forget her name) that I don't remember in the Illiad, but then it's been a while since I read it).
Dates don't add up. The historical Trojan war was sometime around 1600 years BC, this has it four hundred years later. Splitting hairs, i know, but I'm a stickler for Greek history.
Helen was in no way pretty enough. Not enough to launch a bathtub, much less a thousand ships.
They keep saying the greek army was 50,000 strong and then showing these sweeping panoramics that look like ten million soldiers on screen.
Oddyseus has nothing to do. Oddyseus is one of my favorite characters in all of literature because he's so different (Crafty, cunning) and he's just standing there until it's time to dream up something about a wooden horse.
Some of the good stuff...
It's got Aeneas. I was like "THAT ROCKED!" Best thing about it is that it's an easter egg for us literature buffs since 99% of the world has no idea who Aeneas is (Virgil had Augustus Caesar breathing down his neck to write a roman version of the Oddesy, hence the Aeneid).
Achilles has a great scene in the beginning where he takes out a guy the size of Mighty Joe Young in a blink. Dug it.
Hector. Nuff' said. He never gets a fair shake in flicks that tell this story.
The Horse. Usually this monstrosity is all cleaned up and prim, here it looks like it was lashed together in ten minutes. A lot more buyable than the Greeks sculpting out a wooden horse, IMO.
Anyway, i thought it was worth the price of the ticket, just take everything with a grain of salt. Sparta had no friggin' walls.