DVD Reviews

DVD Review: Troy

By Anthony Pearson Oct 26, 2004, 17:15 GMT

Some battles were fought for glory, some for honour, some for land, but Wolfgang Peterson's Troy was fought for love. Set 3200 years ago Troy tells the story of 2 nations, Greece and Troy who have been on the brink of war for many years. A everlasting peace agreement was made between the Trojans and the Spartans, but that was quickly violated the moment Paris (Orlando Bloom) a Prince of Troy swept Queen of Sparta Helen (Diane Kruger) away back with him to Troy.

This made King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) of Sparta furious, so he then counselled his warlord brother Agamemnon (Brian Cox) to ask him to go to war with him, which he did. This launched the famous 1000 ships and an ongoing war, which was shortened down a lot in the film, between the Greeks, Achilles (Brad Pitt), Agamemnon and the Trojans, Hector (Eric Bana), Paris, and Priam king of Troy (Peter O'Toole).

Eric Bana (Hector) says enough fighting for a day.

Ok that was a brief overview of the film, so here is the criticism. I will start with what was bad about this film.

Brad Pitt as Achilles became increasingly annoying throughout the film for many reasons. He is too well known for playing such a figure as Achilles so whenever he was on the screen i almost kept affiliating him with other films like Fight Club and Oceans 11. I feel that role should of been portrayed by an unknown. His character was made to be a stand out performance like that of Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator', or Charlton Heston in 'Ben Hur', but failed miserably. I give him credit for his attempt though.

Another thing with Troy that really got on my socks was the scoring by James Horner. You can so tell that it was a rush job. Most of the soundtrack to the film was just a load of drums banging about or a women squealing a sad and depressing tune, that in some occasions make you want to snooze off and sleep. There was about 1 or 2 tunes from the film score that were quite good, but even those sounded too much like a lot of Horner’s previous work. The Achilles theme tune is stuck in my head.

I can probably think of many more faults this movie has, but I won't bother, let's movie on to what i thought was good about this film, and I did think it was a good sleek film.

Priam (Peter O'Toole) consults Achilles (Brad Pitt)

I have to give some good acting credits out to a few member of the cast including Eric Bana as Hector who was one of the only characters that I actually wanted to live to the end of it. He portrayed the patriotic, determined, and caring hero Hector brilliantly.

Peter O' Toole also shined out in this film, almost the same way he did in Lawrence of Arabia. He plays the King of Troy, Priam a sometimes over confident king, but also a loving and caring father to his two sons Paris and Hector. The actor driven scene in the film that really stuck in my head was when a emotionally drained Priam (Peter O' Toole) enters Achilles camp and pleads for his sons body to be returned so he can be given a proper funeral. My favourite line from that scene was when Achilles says 'Your still my enemy in the Morning', and Priam replies, 'Your still my enemy tonight, but even enemies can show respect'.
Troy also showcases some of greatest battles yet seen on film.

The main battle where 50 000 Greeks march upon the Trojan city is breathtaking. Also one of the most exciting scenes of the movie is when Achilles and his Myrmidons take the beach of Troy with 50 men. I have to say the FX and stunts teams have really hit the spot with Troy.

Troy is epic in scale, and in it performances but it is not an epic that will be remembered long from now. Troy is a very good film dont get me wrong, but it could of been better. It has the massive battles, it has emotional power, but what it lacks is brains.

Overall Troy is pure movie eye-candy. Some of its one liners will stick in my head because of there stupidity though. Check Troy out on dvd if you haven’t seen it yet, good solid entertainment.

P.S Turn the film off when you get to the Credits because the end credit song is embarrassing.

DVD Extras

From the Documentry 'Troy: An Effects Odyssey'

You would have thought a blockbuster film like Troy would showcase a wealth of special features, but this DVD certainly does not. In total the length of all the special features combined is just over an hour. It includes 3 short featurette documentaries about the making of Troy, 3D animated and interactive gallery about the Gods, the theatrical trailer, and 1 comedy Easter egg. Here is a short description of each added feature.

'Troy: An Effects Odyssey' is an interesting short documentary about the special effects and sound effects of Troy.

'From Ruins to Reality' is a featurette about how they brought the city of Troy to life, and what research went into making it as accurate as possible.

'In the Thick of Battle' is about how they choreographed all the fight sequences, and what techniques they used to make it look as good as possible.

'Gallery of the Gods' is a 3D interactive gallery of the Gods of Troy and the Greeks. It features 12 different gods that were said to have shaped the the destiny's of men and determine the fate of Troy.

'Theatrical Trailer' the second of the three trailers released for Troy.

The extras on Troy are very sparse especially for a 2 disc DVD. I recon Warner Brother must be waiting to release a 'larger DVD version of Troy in the near future following the same logic that 'The Lord of the Rings' films did with the extended editions, and 'The Passion of the Christ' and 'Kill Bill' DVD's are going to do.