Troy

[Teenweek]

I am really looking forward to seeing this movie. I hope it's good as the trailers have been fantastic.

[jeffdwright2001]

I'm sure he appreciates your support.
http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/golfonline/images/2002/12/aikman.jpg

[jeffdwright2001]

Ok, I'm looking forward to it as well.

Did anyone catch "Helen of Troy" that A&E aired last year? I thought it was ok, not great, but ok. It certainly was better than the Napoleon movie they foisted on us.

[Furtherman]

I don't know, I mean, we all know what happens.

They're in the horse! They're in the horse you morons!!

That will be fun to scream in the theater.

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...with thanks to JustJon

[Freakshow]

<img src=http://www.personal.psu.edu/mbs195/simpsons_files/troy1.gif>

You know full well we'll never see Troy again.

"This changes everything. I'd pay to see him in a movie. If only that were possible."

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I don't have a cat

[Tall_James]

I'm gonna see this version...

<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~jamesgpatton/troy.jpg>

Starring Kevin Dillon and Kari Wuhrer.


<img src=http://home.comcast.net/~jamesgpatton/tj2_sig.gif>

Say, that reminds me! How'd you get that kid s'darned fast? Me'n Dottie went in to adopt on account of
something went wrong with my semen, and they told us five years' wait for a healthy white baby! I said healthy
white baby! Five years! Okay, what else you got? Said, two Koreans and one Negro bom with the heart outside.

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This message was edited by Tall_James on 5-12-04 @ 12:24 PM

[billyio]

I can't wait for this movie to come out. The Iliad happens to be one of my all-time favorite stories.

I caught that Helen of Troy TV movie. I thought the actress made a great Helen. I didn't think too much of the rest of that cast but it had some good points. I know it was about Helen,but the Achilles that this movie had really sucked. He was like one of the goons from Weird Science.

I also can't wait for Oliver Stone's Alexander the Great biopic. I'm sure Oliver will make this a nice graphic little tale.



See Ya!

[Bama]

I saw the A&E movie. It pretty much ruins the ending of Troy. I guess it will focus on Achilles more.

I know he fights the Hector guy and I know how it turns out.

I've avoided the Illiad for almost 30 years and A&E ruins it for me three days before the movie.

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[East Side Dave]

I can't wait for this movie, too! It's perfect timing, I've pretty much used up all my gay porn!!!

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[TheMojoPin]

This movie looks SO the homo-gay.

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2% << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[Freakshow]

haha.

You know you're going to be wearing a man-skirt after this movies comes out--Brad Pitt says so.



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I don't have a cat

[JustJon]

Strangely, the original trailer looked like a cool war movie. Everything since then has been chick flick oriented. Makes me weary of this one.

<img src="http://www.chaoticconcepts.com/bans/rfjustjon11.gif"><BR><A href="http://www.chaoticconcepts.com">Chaotic Concepts</a>

[Bama]

It's not gay if there is either war or sports involved.

That's the rule we as a society have all agreed upon.



http://www.ronfez.net/imagestorage/bamanation.jpg
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[reeshy]

So it ain't gay if sports are involved....HMMMM!!!!!

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[Bama]

Those kind of pictures are the exact reason why the rule was implemented.

http://www.ronfez.net/imagestorage/bamanation.jpg
YANKEES SUCK

[TheMojoPin]

Bama, if you wanted to blow me while "Platoon" was on in the background, you just had to ask.

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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[furie]

Did anyone catch "Helen of Troy" that A&E aired last year?


yes, and Helen in that movie was very hot. The movie was ok.

I would have liked it better if they named the movie ILIAD.


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[Teenweek]

ANyone see this yet, I am seeing the 11am show today

[TheMojoPin]

I have a job.

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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[Mike Teacher]

troy boat

troy boat

troy boat

troy boat

troy boat

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This message was edited by Mike Teacher on 5-15-04 @ 11:03 AM

[Yerdaddy]

My review, with some spoilers that I tried to make as unspecific as possible.

Troy is a big grab bag of an epic war hero movie. It's got bad parts, good parts and great parts, all rolled into one. What I liked in the end was the bad parts were the kind of bad parts that just beg you to turn to your neighbor and make jokes about them like: "finally, some hot chicks... oh, wait, that's just Brad Pitt and another dude." or "Doesn't Brad Pitts' hair look like Jan Brady's?" Usually these scenes come in the middle of the weakest parts of the movie, the plot development, so your neighbors will probably only mind if they can't hear what your jokes were. Some scenes I was picking out the shots where Pitt had done curls just before shooting and which ones he hadn't, and thinking "if this were a better movie I wouldn't be thinking about this."

The story itself isn't hard to follow; it's really just a skeleton of the original Homer version. There are no gods as characters or supernatural elements, unless you count Achilles' fighting abilities and apparent luck on the battlefield, and one scene where he washes his face and comes up with more sexy dirt on him than before. The script isn't as good as it should be for this quality of a cast, but the acting manages to stay solid most of the time. Brian Cox has the best performance as the purely power-hungry and scheming Agamemnon. You look forward to seeing him in a scene, he's so good, (as always). Sometimes Pitt is just Pitt in all his torsolisciousness, but in the last 3rd of the movie he finally gets a chance to develop his character and he becomes the damn good actor that he really is.

This is also where the movie gets good. The reason is that the plot finally develops tension and you don't know what Pitt's Achilles is going to do. The moral decisions of a warrior are put into play on and off the battlefield and you finally can forget you're watching a movie. It doesn't so much tell you what to think about war, as so many war movies are prone to do but portrays a broad range of aspects of it - from the glory to the tragedy of it and the moral decisions they force on warriors, but also societies. This is an eventual strength of the movie that puts it into a very small class of war films.

The battle scenes themselves are very good. There's a trend in these war epics to use a low-speed film technique to simulate the confusion of battle that I've really grown to hate. Ridley Scott has used this to good and bad effects in his movies. In the opening battle scenes of Gladiator he used it and I had no idea what the fuck was going on. The look is like being in a rugby match with nothing but a strobe light to see by. You were just looking at a blur of arms and legs until the battle was over and our guy was still standing. In Black Hawk Down he used the technique more sparingly, and with less close-ups, and the battle scenes were much more compelling with the ability to see how they unfolded. In Troy the director uses this technique only once or twice but once they've served their purpose he lets us see what's going on.

The battles unfold in grand style. The bodies really pile up and the director does a good job of showing the heroism and the tragedy of the battles. It was interesting to see a war restricted to the weapons and tactics of the time, Achilles and his men notwithstanding, who are more of a modern special forces unit than a part of the armies. The battles are fought with spears, short swords and arrows and it makes for battles that look like a football game with lines crashing into each other over and over in waves with the line pushing back and forth. It also makes for cool solo fights between the primary characters, with credit going again to the director for letting us see the action, and especially for Pitt and Eric Bana for pulling off the cool choreographed action while staying in their complex characters.

In the end it was a fun action movie with some good exploration of the meaning of war in the last hour. But if you see it alone you'll miss not having so

[TheMojoPin]

I can't believe they cut out all of the mystical stuff.

They don't even explain why Achilles in invincible, except for his heel.

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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[Captain Rooster]

In the Iliad, Achilles is killed by one arrow--I think the change is weak.

Also, Thetis never comforts her son or give him his new armor with the entire depicted on the shield. I was really hoping for the new shield, which is the focus of an entire book from Homer's epic poem.



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[furie]

they story has endured al long as it has for a reason. I don't understand why they insist on changing a good thing.


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[TheMojoPin]

The role of the various gods are essential to the damn story. This movie has basically proved that they were the parts of original poem that really made it a classic. All the betrayals, twists, drama, intrigue...because of the gods.

Thumbs way the fuck down.

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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[Captain Rooster]

Thumbs way the fuck down.



As for this quote: roger that.

They strayed from the Iliad way too far.

<img src=http://www.ltrooster.homestead.com/files/TalimanSig.jpg>

[TheMojoPin]

And it's all the more frustrating since they had a kickass story to work with in the the first place! How devoid of ideas is Hollywood that they can't even get something that had such perfect source material SO wrong?

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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[FUNKMAN]

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SNATCH! Coming Soon!

snicker snicker

this is more his role... he doesn't pull off the 'gladiator' thing for me, his voice is too soft and the blonde hair, nah!

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[DarkHippie]

About not having the gods: I think If they were more accurate and had all of them in there, the audience, in their epic stupidity, would've associated this with Xena or Clash of the Titans more than Homer.

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[Captain Rooster]

Another thought: how unimpressive was Pitt's voice when he comes to the gate of Troy and begins screaiming, "Hektor!"? H was less Achilles and more Bobby Brady.



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[Teenweek]

I liked the movie a lot and the gods were not needed. It would have made the movie seem more Clash of Titans than what it was. Yes it had flaws but overall I enjoyed it.

[TheMojoPin]

I liked the movie a lot and the gods were not needed.

Have you read The Iliad?

It would have made the movie seem more Clash of Titans than what it was.

HAVE YOU READ THE ILIAD?!?

Christ.

I weep for our society.

"Yeah, that Homer was a schticky hack. BRING ON BRAD PITT'S ASS AND FAKE CGI BATTLES!"

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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[schmega]

this movie was ass, because i WAS expecting the Iliad. but if you think about it, the movie's called Troy, so the writers taking liberties with written 'history' was fine. what wasnt fine was how subpar EVERYTHING was. when i saw the previews of the thousand ships, i was impressed. when i saw it on the screen, bleh. i had a bad feeling at the start when Achilles killed that big guy in one stab. there was no payoff in that 'fight', and the rest of the movie had the same disappointments.

it was a bad decision to take out the mythology in that Hector's fight with Achilles meant less. it was man vs. man. it wasnt as tragic or epic as man vs. demigod. and of course, the arrow thru the heel meant NOTHING. except, of course, to watch Orlando Timberlake use a bow in ANOTHER movie.

i did like the performances of Bana, O'Toole, some of Pitt, and the villiany of Cox. but it was complete bullshit having him die in Troy. fuckin hollywood ending.

and the horse was too small for a summer blockbuster. i would've been more satisfied seeing a wooden badger instead.

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[TheMojoPin]

Yeah, Bana and Cox were pretty fucking good in the flick...especially Bana. That guy needs to get into another movie that's actually GOOD, and quick.

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1979 << December boys got it BAD >> "You can tell some lies about the good times we've had, but I've kissed your mother twice...and now I'm working on your dad..."

[schmega]

That guy needs to get into another movie that's actually GOOD, and quick.

thats exactly what i was thinking halfway into the movie. for the 2nd straight year, bana's been in a huge letdown.

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[DarkHippie]

"Yeah, that Homer was a schticky hack. BRING ON BRAD PITT'S ASS AND FAKE CGI BATTLES!"
C'mon Mojo, How's Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite fighting over who's the prettiest gonna play with modern audiences? And the world's mighiest warrior getting killed by an arrow to the heel? The Apple of Discord? the god's actually coming to earth to help with the fighting? that's a huge suspension of disbelief that i don't think people want to make.

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[Freebird]

Overall I did enjoy the movie. I am inspired to re-read the Iliad (since I took it for granted the story would stray from the original work), but I had these questions leaving the theater:

1)Living and Dying: Didn't Paris die? Didn't Menelaus and Agamemnon live?

2)Wasn't Ajax the close friend of Achilles? Wasn't it his death that set of Achilles after Hector?

3)Aeneas was Trojan? Is that how we ended up with the Aeniad? Did Paris' previous life as an elf prepare him to kill Achilles, since he apparently was no fighter?

It's still too fashionable to portray the Greeks as the villians, but still the movie did a pretty good job of "evening" out the story. While the gods played a huge part in the Illiad, the real war in Troy (if there was one any near as it is remembered) was the work of human beings.

The battle scenes were an enjoyable combination of mass battle and individual combat, which is much as the stories recall those events. Although I'm sure the phalanx really didn't come about until much later, the effectiveness of the Myrmidons (did Achilles really have his own elite force?) when massed was pretty wild to see, as was the Trojan victory in the first battle outside their walls.

Bana probably steals the movie, Pitt was great when allowed to be, Bloom does well with a role that will allow him to branch into more diverse film choices, the support cast of big burly Greek kings were all good (wasn't Menelaus in Braveheart or 13th Warrior?), and O'Toole adds real punch to the film.

Again, why they felt it necessary to change something that was already great is a constant question with Hollywood, but I enjoyed this film.

-----------------------------
Now I'm starving

I'm about to turn it up a notch!

[furie]

Agamemnon was not killed by Polydora in the Iliad, he was killed by his wife upon his return. she cut his throat in the bath.

I don't remember what happens to Menelaus.

Ajax and Achilles were great friends, and upon achilles death, Ajax commits suicide.

And where the fuck was Cassandra? how can they have the Iliad without Cassandra and her predictions?

Achilles was far to introspective than what came across in the book. He didn't suffer from Judeo-Christian guilt.

If a person knew nothing of the original story, they'd probably like the movie. Any fan of Homer's work will come out fuming.

The only bright spots I think were King Praim beging for Hectors body and the breif appearance of Aeneas. I thought that was cool.


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[Little Tony DeFranco]

Big summer movie with big bucks and big stars and 2 1/2 hours long with a cast of thousands! Good times, and it's also based on the classic historical story of Homer's "Iliad" (Helen of Troy..you know..the face that launched a 1000 ships). Wolfgang Petersen (Das Boot, Enemy Mine, Perfect Storm are great... Airforce One sucked...Outbreak really sucked!) hits the high mark on this movie for it's scope (simply told) and energetic cast. Even though it's very much an old fashioned "El Cid" type epic with muscles and steel, I like pics like this once and a while.

Brad Pitt is super hot (am I gay?) as the warrior of all time, Achilles! The most blonde Greek of all time too. When the Spartan queen Helen is taken to the fortress of Troy by Prince Paris (Super Hot Orlando Bloom!), ruler Menelaus (big Brendan Gleeson) and his Greek ruler brother Agamemnon (evil Brian Cox) go for the all out battle to take the city of Troy! The Trojans have a good fight ahead, considering that Achilles is the true leader of the war (he likes battle alot and hates his king).

For those who had a ball at "Gladiator" with enjoy "Troy" as much. It had some slow patches and corny dialogue (the key story of Helen and Paris is weak) but the war scenes are first-rate with a spectacular look. The international cast (down under Bloom and Eric "Hulk" Bana, UK greats Peter O'Toole, Cox, Julie Christie,Gleeson, Sean Bean!) are in the game for the right roles. Pitt is a good star and he commands. Browntown Johnny say's "I'm Spartacus!"

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Heartbeat is a Love Beat

[Recyclerz]

Off-Topic



And where the fuck was Cassandra? how can they have the Iliad without Cassandra and her predictions?


Tonight, the part of Cassandra is being played by Paul Krugman of the NY Times.



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