You'd think that by now the story of the Trojan War, based on Homer's "The Iliad", would have become part of our shared data base. Allusions have entered our list of catch phrases. "The face that launched a thousand ships"? "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"? Computer viruses referred to as "Trojans" or "Trojan horses"? "Achilles heel"? The Stanford football team? Condoms? But I don't know. A poll in 2010 before Independence Day found that one in five Americans didn't know which country we had achieved independence FROM. I'd always thought that was part of our shared vernacular culture too.
Anyway, the handsome young Paris from Troy goes on a peace mission to Greece, where he foolishly falls in love with Helen -- it was her face that launched all those ships -- and he steals her from her husband, King Menelaus, and runs off with her to Troy. This irritates Menelaus. He organizes an expedition and besieges the city of Troy, in what is now Turkey. Lots of bloodshed follows. The war lasts something like ten years. Finally, the Greeks pretend to retreat and leave a giant wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. The Trojans think it's a parting gift and drag it inside the walls. But it's hollow. The sneaky Greeks come out after the Trojans have gotten drunk and gone to bed, and the gates are opened. Good-bye Trojans.
This is a godless movie. References are made to Athena (ugly and pugnacious) and to Aphrodite (pretty goddess of love, fawned over by Paris). But we don't see the influence of the gods directly. You don't find out how Achilles got to be so nearly invulnerable. It comes close to being one of those cheap sword and sandal epics that were so popular in the 1950s but it rises above them because of its budget and the willingness of the writers to stick a LITTLE more closely to Homer's original. The hundreds of extras are real people -- real actors rather than pixels acting as actors. And the international cast must have cost a lot.
I guess Paris is made too much of a hero, at least in my opinion. Even in "The Iliad" he struck me as a moron for running off with a power rival's wife, even if she was as good looking as Rosanna Podesta. Menelaus was even more of a moron for starting a bloody war over the affair. And the other Greek leaders were even more dumb for following him. And it's not as if the Greeks solved all their domestic problems immediately after the victory either.
The movie paints the Trojans as honorable and peace loving -- except for that one minor episode of kidnapping and adultery. The Greeks are angry, disputatious, and warmongering. The armor the Greeks wear is uglier than that of the Trojans. Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, is sulky and dresses in drag to avoid being drafted into the war. This was 1956, the middle of the Cold War, and I wonder if all those binary oppositions -- The Free World versus The Iron Curtain -- influenced the writers' construction of the combatants.
At any rate, I always liked the Trojans better anyway. The only Greek I admired was Ulysses. When the ships set sail from Greece after the kidnapping, the director, Robert Wise, gives us shots in quick sequence of three of the major plays and their expressions tell us all we need to know about their character and motives. Menelaus scowls grimly, determined to get his wife back. Achilles wears a smirk, anticipating lots of slaughter crowned with victory. And Ulysses wears a self-contained smile, dreaming of plunder.
It ought to be added that the musical score is by Max Steiner. As far as I know it's his only attempt at a fully blown orchestral epic score and he handles it pretty well. There's the triumph theme that is required for all historical epics. There's the martial theme when we see those hundreds of armored extras marching towards the forbidding walls of Troy. And there's a love them that dominates them all, as I think the story of Paris and Helen dominate the movie.
Anyway, the handsome young Paris from Troy goes on a peace mission to Greece, where he foolishly falls in love with Helen -- it was her face that launched all those ships -- and he steals her from her husband, King Menelaus, and runs off with her to Troy. This irritates Menelaus. He organizes an expedition and besieges the city of Troy, in what is now Turkey. Lots of bloodshed follows. The war lasts something like ten years. Finally, the Greeks pretend to retreat and leave a giant wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. The Trojans think it's a parting gift and drag it inside the walls. But it's hollow. The sneaky Greeks come out after the Trojans have gotten drunk and gone to bed, and the gates are opened. Good-bye Trojans.
This is a godless movie. References are made to Athena (ugly and pugnacious) and to Aphrodite (pretty goddess of love, fawned over by Paris). But we don't see the influence of the gods directly. You don't find out how Achilles got to be so nearly invulnerable. It comes close to being one of those cheap sword and sandal epics that were so popular in the 1950s but it rises above them because of its budget and the willingness of the writers to stick a LITTLE more closely to Homer's original. The hundreds of extras are real people -- real actors rather than pixels acting as actors. And the international cast must have cost a lot.
I guess Paris is made too much of a hero, at least in my opinion. Even in "The Iliad" he struck me as a moron for running off with a power rival's wife, even if she was as good looking as Rosanna Podesta. Menelaus was even more of a moron for starting a bloody war over the affair. And the other Greek leaders were even more dumb for following him. And it's not as if the Greeks solved all their domestic problems immediately after the victory either.
The movie paints the Trojans as honorable and peace loving -- except for that one minor episode of kidnapping and adultery. The Greeks are angry, disputatious, and warmongering. The armor the Greeks wear is uglier than that of the Trojans. Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, is sulky and dresses in drag to avoid being drafted into the war. This was 1956, the middle of the Cold War, and I wonder if all those binary oppositions -- The Free World versus The Iron Curtain -- influenced the writers' construction of the combatants.
At any rate, I always liked the Trojans better anyway. The only Greek I admired was Ulysses. When the ships set sail from Greece after the kidnapping, the director, Robert Wise, gives us shots in quick sequence of three of the major plays and their expressions tell us all we need to know about their character and motives. Menelaus scowls grimly, determined to get his wife back. Achilles wears a smirk, anticipating lots of slaughter crowned with victory. And Ulysses wears a self-contained smile, dreaming of plunder.
It ought to be added that the musical score is by Max Steiner. As far as I know it's his only attempt at a fully blown orchestral epic score and he handles it pretty well. There's the triumph theme that is required for all historical epics. There's the martial theme when we see those hundreds of armored extras marching towards the forbidding walls of Troy. And there's a love them that dominates them all, as I think the story of Paris and Helen dominate the movie.