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| TROY (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004) |
| Posted on 18/05/04 at 08:45 by el roberto |
If the critical and commercial success of Ridley Scotts Gladiator (2000) served as a rekindling of the fires that so adequately fuelled classic historical epics such as Ben Hur (William Wyler, 1959) and Quo Vadis (Mervyn LeRoy ,1951), then it is clear that both Oliver Stone - with his upcoming Alexander - and Wolfgang Petersen, with Troy, are poised by the Hollywood hearth, bellows in hand, waiting to hit paydirt with their very own interpretations of the sword and sandal genre. And, while history has yet to prove whether Stones effort will reignite the furnace stoked so effectively by his Geordie counterpart, the fact remains that Troy works more as fire blanket than paraffin can, the net result being no less than a failed 200 million dollar arson attack.
Constructing itself loosely around Homers 3000 year-old The Iliad yet freely borrowing construction beams from The Odyssey, Troy wears its disregard for literary accuracy on its ceremonially-armoured sleeve. Briefly, the plot concerns Prince Paris of Troy (played by Orlando Bloom) who, having visited Spartan king Menelaus to declare a truce between the once-warring nations (Brendan Gleeson), runs off with his wife Helen (Diane Kruger), the most beautiful woman in the world. Arriving back in Troy with his prize, Menelaus swears revenge and invades Troy with the might of the Greek army, his brother the king of Greece (Brian Cox) and rebellious but deadly warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) in tow. The rest, as they say, is history, as mass battles, assassinations and a deadly network of betrayals and violence ensue.
Although action and spectacle are perpetually prioritised by the films Teutonic helmer throughout, from a narrative standpoint Troy suffers greatly from its attempt to condense such a rich literary pretext into the background of a 160-minute action film. The net result of this is an inevitable lack of character depth, narrative motivation or emotional involvement, all of which are essential ingredients to the recipe of war films exemplified in films such as Gladiator, Braveheart, or the Lord of the Rings trilogy. Its often hard to identify which characters to identify with or feel repulsed by, and while this moral ambiguity has been explored effectively in the past by directors such as Tarantino and Kurosawa, in this case it is the result of nothing more than narrative clumsiness. With a script from David Benioff (25th Hour) riddled with clich￩s all but stolen from these films, its quite clear that the actors themselves have very little to work with; the performances of Pitt, Bloom and particularly Cox are often as wooden as the films famous equine centrepiece, and at times the overarching feeling is of a cast headed to the glue factory rather than the winners paddock. How ironic, then, that it takes one of the lesser names in the cast - Eric Bana as Paris brother Hector - to instil the film with a level of acting gravitas; the Australian star of Chopper and The Hulk is undoubtedly the star of the film, and his portrayal of the warlord torn between his family and his violent destiny provides us with the closest thing to a Maximus, a Wallace or an Aragorn to identify with.
Further problems arise with Petersens turgid directing, which throughout remains as leaden as the eponymous submarine from his groundbreaking 1981 thriller Das Boot. And while the German may have excelled in manipulating his audiences with the cramped environments of The Perfect Storm, Air Force One and the latter film, his ability to orchestrate and vitalise the open air battle scenes which form the backbone of Troy is severely limited. The vast array of extras and attention to detail of sets and locations is undoubtedly impressive, but unfortunately the film falls short when trying to engage us with these aspects of mise-en-sc￨ne. Furthermore, Petersen and Peter Honess editing in particular causes significant problems, as their overlong shots and fairly immobile camera set-ups strip the combat scenes of the kineticism and jaggedness that worked so effectively in Middle Earth, Scotland and Ancient Rome. The overall effect thus attained is one of removal from the action - although Troys saturated vistas and violent battles are pleasing to look at, at no point are we properly encouraged to involve ourselves with whats going on, resulting in a critical distance that makes watching this film a decidedly average experience rather than the sensational thrill-ride that it ultimately aims to be.
As the second of this summers blockbusters to emerge from the wooden undercarriage of the Hollywood machine, Troy suffers in comparison to Van Helsing, the latter which at least had no pretence of being anything other than poorly-scripted, spectacular schlock-play. What is perhaps most disappointing is that Petersen has reduced the burning blaze of what is perhaps the most seminal and fully rounded text in civilised society to little more than a smouldering ruin.
(review copyright 2004 robbie edmonstone)
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