Review: Troy (2004)

Directed by: Wolfgang Petersen | 160 minutes | action, drama, war, adventure, romance | Actors: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Brendan Gleeson, Peter O’Toole, Julie Christie, Garrett Hedlund, Tyler Mane, Saffron Burrows, Rose Byrne

Agamemnon, Ajax, Hektor; they are those names that almost everyone knows, but what was it that they did to be so grieved in our memory? In the era of the convergence of the tribes of Greece, this is easy to guess: they performed heroic deeds. And that’s what ‘Troy’ is all about. Heroes fighting for fame and glory forever. For themselves, for their people or for their offspring or… for the love of a woman.

The film is based on the story from Homer’s Iliad. This war for Troy, of which it is unclear whether it actually took place, took place around 1200 BC. In his story, Homer delves deeply into the motives of the different characters who go to war, showing for the first time in his time the complexity of good and evil. David Benioff was challenged to write the script for ‘Troy’. And he has succeeded well in showing exactly that complexity in the different characters. At the same time, the characters have been given a contemporary and human face, which makes the film appear very natural and believable.

Director Petersen also attached great importance to the credibility of the film. A considerable investigation preceded the construction of the setting. Nevertheless, not all elements in the film are correct. Troy was probably a much smaller, flatter and more modest settlement, but for the film this has been enlarged to make it more interesting. In terms of statues, hairstyles and costumes, styles have been averaged in the surrounding time frames. An expert who sees the difference.

All indoor shots have been recreated in a studio near London. The city of Troy was built from the sand in Malta and the battlefields from the sea, as well as those on the vast plains, were filmed again in Mexico. Together with the animation work on computers, it is quite clever that this film was put together in just one year. It has therefore cost millions to make this film. Not least because a large number of very talented actors have been attracted.

The actors make the film a spectacle. The heroism radiates from it. And not in the style of the Romans in ‘Ben Hur’ (1959), but as you really see the Greeks of that time before you. That the actors have developed themselves can actually be seen in the one person of Peter O’Toole, who achieved his fame years ago in the classic ‘Lawrence of Arabia’ (1962) and now glories again as King Priam of Troy. Brad Pitt also plays in a sublime way the brutal and arrogant Achilles who kicks on his own strength, but at the same time appears to have a sense of honor. Actually, all actors are not inferior to each other. ‘Troy’ is a great, credible film where you feel slightly elevated after seeing it for a long time. Come and see!