Troy is an Oscar-nominated movie
released on May 14, 2004 about the Trojan War, as described in Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, and other
Greek myths. However, the plot differs significantly from Homer. The film has the
following cast of actors prominent at the time of its release: Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector,
Orlando Bloom as Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen, Brian Cox as
Agamemnon, Sean Bean as Odysseus, Garrett Hedlund as Patroclus, and Peter O'Toole as Priam.
It is directed by Wolfgang Petersen, and written by David Benioff. It received an Oscar nomination for its costume
design.
Plot
The film starts with the character Odysseus (Sean Bean) dictating: "Men are haunted by
the vastness of eternity; and so we ask ourselves: Will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long
after we are gone, and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?"
The film is set in the 12th century BC when King Agamemnon of Mycenae and his army are in Thessaly, Greece,
looking to expand their military might and empire. His army prepares to engage in combat against a host of soldiers under
Thessaly's king. Rather than suffer great losses, the King of Thessaly agrees to avoid unnecessary deaths by settling the matter
through a decisive match between the heroes of the opposing armies. The King of Thessaly summons his greatest and most
accomplished warrior (who has reputedly never lost) - Boagrius. A huge brute emerges from the
ranks of Thessalian warriors, then stands proudly before his chanting comrades. Agamemnon shouts for Achilles, who (eventually) arrives at the scene. Achilles sprints towards the giant, avoiding Boagrius's
spears, and jumps past Boagrius while thrusting his blade through his shoulder and neck. The mighty Boagrius falls to his knees
and dies. Achilles questions the stunned enemy army if anyone else would challenge him. Accepting defeat, the King of Thessaly
presents Achilles with scepter as a token for his King, which he refuses, stating: "He is not
my King". In the show, Achilles fights for Agamemnon solely for personal glory. Therein, their relationship is not a
cordial one, and Agamemnon detests him and calls upon him because of his (supposedly) undefeated strength.
As fate would have it, Agamemnon has to call upon Achilles again when his brother Menelaus
seeks revenge on the Trojan Prince Paris for running off
with his wife, Helen of Sparta. Paris' warrior
brother—Hector—isn't pleased to learn of this affair and when he returns to Troy, he urges their father, King Priam, to return the young woman to Sparta. But
Priam puts too much faith in his high priests and their interpretation of how Apollo will react.
Accordingly—and with Agamemnon realizing that a victory over Troy would give him complete control over the Aegean—the Greeks amass the largest naval force ever known to man and set sail for the foreign land with
1,000 ships, each with 50 soldiers. With them are Achilles and his younger and inexperienced
cousin, Patroclus, who have been persuaded by King Odysseus
(the only King in Greece whom Achilles respects) and Achilles' mother, Thetis, to join the quest.
It is also Thetis who tells Achilles of a prophecy she had learned of that stated that if he does not go to the war he will find
peace and have a family of his own but he will eventually be forgotten. If he chooses to go to Troy, his name will last for
eternity but he will die there. Achilles cannot resist the glory of such fame and heads for Troy.
The Greeks land on Trojan soil and are able to take control of the beach on the first day of the war. Achilles and the
Myrmidons—always extremely useful in battle—are able to not only cause many Trojan deaths but
also desecrate the Trojan temple of Apollo and kill the unarmed priests that reside there. Notably, Achilles decapitates the
statue of Apollo, supposedly angering the gods. Briseis—cousin of Hector of Troy—was taken in
the midst of the fight and brought to Achilles' tent to "amuse" him. Briseis questions Achilles' motives and he tells her "I have
killed men in five countries; never a priest". Agamemnon decides to take Briseis from Achilles in order to anger and insult him.
Achilles protests, but Briseis' words stop Achilles from killing anybody to take her back. The result of this is that Achilles
decides not to fight in the next battle. But before this battle, a challenge is issued by Paris, who does not wish to have a war.
He—a man inexperienced in combat—challenges Menelaus—who is a hardened and fierce warrior—to a duel for Helen's hand in marriage.
Menelaus pretends to agree to a duel that would end the war, only to agree with his comrades that no matter what the outcome is,
the Greeks will try to take the City of Troy. Menelaus and Paris fight and Paris, though able to knock out one of Menelaus's
teeth, is utterly dominated by the Greek. He is painfully but superficially wounded and crawls to Hector for help. Menelaus goes
to attack Paris as he lies at his brother's feet, but Hector blocks the attack and slays him, and the war is back on. The Greek
Generals lose control of their army in the mad rush towards the walls of Troy, the Trojans halt the advancing Greeks and shower
them with volley after volley of arrows, inflicting devastating casualties. During the battle, Hector also kills Ajax and the increasingly energized Trojans press their attack against the uncoordinated Greeks. With
command of the battle lost, Agamemnon grudgingly bows to Odysseus's pleas to withdraw, and the Greeks retreat to the beach.
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Achilles learns that Briseis has been given to some men by the king after their poor performance in battle as a "morale
booster". The men are beating up and molesting Briseis when Achilles saves her from being raped and branded by hurting two of
them. He then takes her back to his tent. Achilles attempts to clean her wounds but she fights him away. That night, he wakes up
with Briseis planning to slit his throat so he won't kill any more Trojans; but she can't do it, and instead he wrestles her
down, caresses her thigh and has sex with her. The next night the two are in bed talking, when Achilles tells her he is leaving
in the morning. The Trojans attack the Greek camp at dawn. Frustrated at not getting a chance to fight, Patroclus takes Achilles'
armor when the Trojans attack the beachside camp and a battle ensues. He brings courage to the Greeks, as they mistake him for
Achilles, and eventually fights man-to-man against Hector. In the fight with Hector, Patroclus' throat is cut: Hector is dismayed
when he pulls Achilles's helmet off—Patroclus—and gives him the coup de grace. When Achilles finds out about this, he punches his best friend and begins to strangle
Briseis. He is enraged and marches toward the Trojan gates to fight Hector. Hector stops the city's archers from opening fire and
goes down to face Achilles face to face in battle. After engaging in a ferocious spear and sword fight in which both combatants
are wounded (Achilles in the chest and side, and Hector on the leg), Achilles finally plunges his spear through Hector's armor,
piercing his chest and killing him. Achilles ties Hector's body behind his chariot and drags it around the city walls, then drags
it back to the Greek camp. Later that night King Priam secretly slips into the camp and meets Achilles to plead with him to
return Hector's body. Impressed by Priam's courage and virtue, Achilles returns Hector's body to him and allows Briseis to leave
with Priam back to Troy. He also assures Priam that a proper amount of time (12 days) is given to allow for a proper funeral
service for Prince Hector.
During the 12 days that Troy mourns Hector's death, the Greeks devise a plan to enter the city, using a hollowed-out wooden
horse, devised by King Odysseus. Assuming victory, the Trojans, against the advice of Paris, take the horse into the city and
celebrate long into the night. After the celebrations, the Greeks hidden inside the horse engage in a surprise attack, and open
the gates of Troy to allow the entire army inside the city walls. They commence the Sack of
Troy, killing nearly everyone and burning down anything they can find. Achilles starts searching for Briseis; meanwhile a
group of Trojans (including Helen) flee the city. Though Priam is killed by Agamemnon, Paris refuses to leave at this time and
hands the Sword of Troy to Aeneas, quoting his father by telling Aeneas that as long as the Sword
of Troy remains in the hands of a Trojan, the people have a future.
Achilles frantically searches for Briseis, who is at the shrine of Apollo being threatened by Agamemnon. Agamemnon tells her
that she will be his sexual slave. She kills him with a concealed knife, and is saved from Agamemnon's guards when Achilles
reaches her. However, Paris sees Achilles and shoots him in the heel (Achilles' tendon) once, and three times in the chest, while
Briseis screams at Paris not to kill him. He pulls out the three from his chest, but the one is left in his foot as he passes
into death. Briseis tearfully leaves the city with Paris after Achilles assures her that "everything's all right, go." Achilles
then delivers his last words,"You gave me peace in a lifetime of war."
After a last disorganized and futile attempt by surviving Trojan soldiers to repel the invaders, the battle ends and the
Greeks storm the inner palace only to find that Achilles has died just a few moments earlier. They perform the funeral rituals
for him the next morning. The story ends with Odysseus lighting Achilles' pyre, saying "Find peace, my brother," and then
narrating "If they ever tell my story, let them say...I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these
names will never die. Let them say...I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses. Let them say...I lived in the time of
Achilles".
Finance and Reaction
Troy was an expensive film from its conception. When the film was completed, total production costs were approximately
$180,000,000. This makes Troy one of the most expensive films made in modern cinema. Not adjusted for inflation, it is
number 8 on the all time list of most expensive films and number 15 when adjusted for inflation.
Troy screenings have earned $133 million (US$133,378,256) in the United
States.[1] Having cost $180
million to make,[1] the film was a
disappointment in the US. Many critics anticipated that it would flop as Troy barely missed the $50 million mark on its
opening US weekend and wrote off the film. Troy was among the several historical epics released in 2004 that disappointed,
such as Alexander, The
Alamo, and King Arthur, although it fared better than those
films.
However, Troy did extremely well at the international box office financial success, making more than 73%[1] of its revenues outside of the U.S.
Eventually Troy made over US$497 million dollars worldwide,[1] placing it in the #52 spot[1] of top box office hits of all time. This places the film 18 spots above Gladiator (#70) and approximately 20 spots above 300 (#72).[2] in the all-time
worldwide box office.
Troy met mixed reactions by reviewers. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a Tomatometer
rating of 55% from a base of 211 reviews while Yahoo! Movies gave it a critic rating of
"B-" (although that was based on 15 Critical Reviews). Roger Ebert, who seemed to dislike
what he saw as an unfaithful adaptation of the Iliad, gave it two stars out of four [1] Ebert claimed that
Troy "sidesteps the existence of the Greek gods, turns its heroes into action movie clichés and demonstrates that we're
getting tired of computer-generated armies." David Denby of
The New Yorker, however, seemed to like it[2]: "[It's] harsh,
serious, and both exhilarating and tragic, the right tonal combination for Homer."
Box Office totals
- Budget - $180,000,000[1]
- Marketing cost - $50,000,000
- Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $46,865,412
- Total Domestic Grosses - $133,378,256
- Total Overseas Grosses - $364,031,596[1]
- Total Worldwide Grosses - $497,378,256
Cast
Deviations from the Iliad
Assessing the historical truth of Troy is difficult primarily because the historicity of Homer's largely mythological Iliad and Odyssey, upon which the movie is based, is itself uncertain.
The actual events surrounding the Trojan War are a matter of debate among scholars. One can,
however, compare the film to Homer's original Epic Cycle story, on which the filmmakers
claimed to have based their story.
The film Troy differs greatly from what Homer wrote, in many ways. The time scale is
reduced to weeks, and major characters die at Troy who in Homer's writings survive beyond the ten-year war, such as
Agamemnon and Menelaus. The Greek gods and goddesses are not
active forces in the film, as they were in Homer's works. Also, other characters' actions, injuries, and deaths are depicted
differently in the poems and the film, such as the high rank in Troy of Aeneas, the future death
of Achilles' father, and the fate of Helen of Troy, who, according to Homer, went back to Greece
with Menelaus.
Ajax is in fact noteworthy in the Illiad as the only major character to survive
entirely unwounded, despite fighting Hector twice, whilst in the film he is slain.
The big discrepancy is the absence of the gods. The underlying
idea is that Homer's version used gods and goddesses to exaggerate and explain elements of the events, and perhaps as
representations for other forces at play. In the movie, the gods are repeatedly mentioned, but they are not major actors in the
plot as they are in the Homeric poems, in which many events are the result of divine intervention. Though Achilles' mother,
Thetis, does make a brief appearance, displaying prophetic powers as well as some maritime
nature, she is not identified as a goddess except when the page boy speaks to Achilles of the legends surrounding him. Achilles
answers the boy in such a way that it seems Achilles himself is skeptical about the legends. During Thetis' scene she is standing
in a tide pool, an allusion to her mythological role as a sea nymph.
A debate which was roused by the film was the portrayal of the relationship between Achilles and Patroclus. It has been debated whether or not these two men were lovers by historians for centuries, which is
discussed at length here - Achilles and Patroclus. Although in the film
Patrocolus is portrayed as young and inexperienced Homer tells us that he is in fact older than Achilles and an experienced
solider, sent to provide Achilles with sage council and temper his impetuousness.
According to the Iliad, the entire war from the time of Helen's abduction by
Paris until the fall of Troy took ten years and not the few weeks depicted in the
movie. The Iliad begins with the falling out between Achilles and Agamemnon, which
takes place approximately ten years into the conflict. Some characters are missing in the movie (notably Diomedes, Idomeneus, Calchas,
Hecuba and Cassandra). The film also depicts a lengthy romance
between Achilles and his captive Briseis. This romance does not exist in the original story, in
which Briseis along with Chryseis are kidnapped when the Achaeans sack the town of
Chryse, an ally of Troy. Briseis was given to Achilles and Chryseis to Agamemnon, and it was not
until Agamemnon was forced to return Chryseis that he demanded Briseis from Achilles. In the movie, the duel between Paris and
Menelaus takes place with an understanding on both sides that the results of the duel will not be honored (i.e. the war will not
be decided solely by it). Hector knows that the Greeks did not sail the distance just for one man's wife, and Agamemnon only
agrees to the duel once Menelaus suggests that it would be a good pretence for a surprise attack. In the Iliad, the duel
was understood to be taking place in good faith (interestingly, Paris challenged any Greek who would fight him, only to sulk back
into the ranks when Menelaus was produced, until Hector persuaded him to fight). Paris begins to lose the duel, but is rescued by
Aphrodite who whisks him away to his room, where he is berated by Helen for his cowardice. The
movie takes a different course, having Hector intervene to save his brother by killing Menelaus himself and allowing Helen a more
modern-day sympathy for Paris' plight, declaring "I don't want a hero, my love, I want a man I can grow old with".
In the movie, Achilles is killed by Paris during the fall of Troy -- he does shoot him through his heel, but this is not the
killing strike (and it appears it is more the distraction of trying to save Briseis that leaves him vulnerable than the wound to
his heel). Rather, several shots to the chest appeared to kill him, but before he died, Achilles pulled them from his chest,
leaving the remaining arrow evident to the Greeks who found him as the "killing strike". In mythology Paris shoots Achilles in
the heel with an arrow guided by Apollo. This happens because Apollo is angry at Achilles because he slew Troilus, Hector and Paris' brother on the Altar of Apollo. This happens before the
Trojan Horse is even built and thus Achilles never would have entered the horse.
Additionally, there is no mention in the Iliad of Achilles returning Briseis to Priam nor of him entering the city to save
her from the burning of Troy.
Achilles shows contempt for Apollo by beheading his statue and sacking his temple despite the
warnings of his comrades. He tells Briseis that she will find her love affair with Apollo
one-sided and posits that the gods envy mortals. Although, in mythology, Achilles did have a special relationship with the gods,
having an immortal mother and having been bestowed with supernatural protection, such a depiction of his theological views is not
entirely accurate. In the Iliad, it is Achilles who offers to protect the prophet Calchas
against Agamemnon in exchange for his advice as to how to end the wrath of Apollo; however,
Achilles' murder of Troilus on the temple of Apollo in some versions of the Troilus myth is
often interpreted as signifying a deliberate insult to the god. Also, no Greek would describe worship of the gods as a
"one-sided" love affair. Their mythology is full of double-sided affairs, and when they are one-sided, it is usually because the
human resists.
Moreover, Briseis is referred to as a Vestal, a virgin servant of the temple of Vesta (Hestia in Greek mythology), while in
the movie she serves in the temple of Apollo. In the Iliad, Briseis is a widow. Achilles first thinks that Briseis is a
slave but realizes she is of noble descent upon smelling her hair. In Ancient Rome (where Vestals actually existed) Vestals were
chosen only from patrician families until plebeians were admitted, long after the War of Troy.
Deviations from the Aeneid
Homer's Iliad only tells the myth up to the point of Hector's funeral: the rest of the myth comes from Virgil's
Aeneid.
One major character left out of the film is Sinon. In the Aeneid Sinon is a young Greek
who appears coincidentally the same time as the Trojan Horse. He claims to have been deserted by the Greeks for a number of
reasons, and explains that the Horse is a gift to the gods for a safe trip home. In reality, he is just lying to the Trojans, but
Priam obliviously believes him and gives him a warm welcome. Many other Trojans, such as Laocoon
and Cassandra, warn that Sinon is a traitor (actually, not a traitorous Trojan, but a loyal
Greek agent), but when Laocoon is devoured by a large serpent, everyone agrees to take the horse inside the walls. After Sinon
and the Horse are let into the city, he lets all the men out to begin the attack.
Laocoon and Casandra were also left out.
Music
Composer Gabriel Yared originally worked on the score for Troy for about a year, having
been hired by the director, Wolfgang Peterson, who trusted him to be able to write an epic score, despite Gabriel Yared's
previous work being anything but epic.
Gabriel wrote an original score for Troy, which was conducted by Harry Rabinowitz and Nick Ingman. Tanja Tzarovska sang on Yared's score, as she later would on Horner's version of the soundtrack.
However, after having screened the movie with an early incomplete version of the score, the reactions were against the score and
in less than a day Gabriel was off the project and the studio was already looking for someone else to do a complete
rewrite[3]
Around the time of the film's release in theaters, Gabriel Yared briefly made his Troy music available on the Internet
on his personal website. Currently, Yared's score can only be found as an unofficially-released bootleg album on the
Internet.
In the end, the final score was written by James Horner utilizing droning vocals,
traditional in Eastern Mediterranean music and brass instruments used to support the film's mythos. Drums are conspicuous in the
most dramatic scenes; most notably, in the duel between Achilles and Hector.
Perhaps as a result of the unusually short time in which Horner wrote the score, a mere 9 days, or perhaps simply another
example of Horner borrowing from himself as well as others, the score for Troy also contains some elements of the musical
score Horner did for the 2001 World War II movie Enemy at the Gates with part
of the musical score for the arrival of Achilles and the Greek forces on the beaches of Troy utilising part of the musical score
from Enemy At The Gates when the poorly-armed soldiers of the Red Army were assaulting the German Army's lines in
Stalingrad's main square.
Furthermore, various elements of the soundtracks seem to have been borrowed from 20th century Russian music, significantly
from that of Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. In particular there is a phrase from the 4th movement of Shostakovich's 5th symphony
which is continually repeated while the armies are prepared for war.
The end-credits song "Remember"[4]
("Remember Me") was composed by James Horner with Josh Groban, David Foster, Randy Kerber, Jochem van der Saag, and Tanja
Tzarovska, with lyrics by Cynthia Weil,[4] sung by Josh Groban.
Director's Cut
Troy: Director's Cut was screened at the 57th Berlin
International Film Festival on February 17, 2007, and
received a limited theatrical release in Germany in April
2007. [3] Warner Home Video reportedly shelled out more than $1 million for the Director's Cut, which includes "at least 1,000 new cuts" or almost 30-minute extra footage (Running Time: 196 minutes). The DVD is scheduled for release on September 18, 2007. Special features will include Petersen audio commentary and additional bonus material, such as the casting search for
Helen of Troy, screen-tests between Brad Pitt and Keira Knightley, who was up for the role of
Briseis, and excerpts from the director's son's book on the making of the film, Troja: Gefangen im Troianischen Krieg
(Troy: Embedded in the Trojan War). [4] [5]
Awards (Wins and Nominations)
2005 ASCAP Film and Television Music
Awards
2005 Academy Awards (Oscars)
2005 Japanese Academy Prize
- Nominated - Best Foreign Film
2005 MTV Movie Awards
2005 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)
- Nominated - Best Sound Editing in Foreign Features — Wylie Stateman, Martin Cantwell, James Boyle, Harry Barnes, Paul Conway,
Alex Joseph, Matthew Grime, Steve Schwalbe, Howard Halsall, Sue Lenny, Simon Price, Nigel Stone
2005 Teen Choice Awards
- Won - Choice Movie Actor - Drama/Action Adventure — Brad Pitt
- Nominated - Choice Breakout Movie Star - Male — Garrett Hedlund
- Nominated - Choice Movie - Drama/Action Adventure
- Nominated - Choice Movie Fight/Action Sequence
Trivia
- The Trojan horse prop that was used on the set of the film now stands in Canakkale, Turkey, near the remains of the ancient
city of Troy. The horse was a gift offered presumably because of the close proximity of the UNESCO Heritage site. (Location in GeoHacks)
- Brad Pitt suffered an injury when he jumped off his ship during filming. Fittingly, he tore his Achilles tendon.
- The first battle scene contains an anachronism: Achilles jumps up and stabs Boagrius
through the trapezius, in front of the scapula, and
through the aorta; Boagrius takes one step forward and drops dead. This is exactly the way a
matador kills a bull, using a technique about two hundred years old—two thousand years after the
Trojan War. At least one cardiologist has confirmed that the method is—barely—possible. [citation needed]
- Near the end of the film, when Troy is burning, Orlando Bloom approaches a young man supporting his father. When asked who he
is, the young man says that he is Aeneas. Orlando Bloom's character then tells him to find a new
home for the Trojan survivors. This is a reference to The Aeneid by Virgil, in which the main character, Aeneas, flees the ruin of Troy with his father and other survivors to found
a new Trojan kingdom in Italy. This is one myth of the founding of Rome and the genesis of the Roman Republic.
- Brad Pitt mentioned that the filming was grueling, due to the fact he had to quit smoking.
- Brad Pitt and Eric Bana did their own fighting scenes. They even had a side bet, where each would pay the other for every
accidental hit made: $50 for light strikes, and $100 for strong hits. Pitt paid $750 to Bana, who did not have to pay Pitt
anything.
- Diane Kruger gained 15 pounds to play the role of Helen. She thought that at that time women were less concerned with looking
like supermodels than they are today.
- Brad Pitt's physical transformation for the role took place under the watchful eye of Gregory Joujon-Roche and his team of fitness experts at Holistic Fitness in LA.
- Peter O'Toole reportedly had this to say of the film and its Director: "Ugh, what a disaster. The director, that Kraut, what
a clown he was. When it was all over, I watched 15 minutes of the finished movie and then walked out. At least I had one good
scene." (http://www.imdb.com/news/sb/2004-11-01)
See also
Notes
Further reading
- Petersen, Daniel (2006). Troja: Embedded im Troianischen Krieg (Troy: Embedded in the Trojan War). HörGut!
Verlag. ISBN 3-93823-099-1.
External links
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