Upgrade your account to a Community Supporter account and remove most of the site ads.

Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="shilsen" data-source="post: 1542863" data-attributes="member: 198">Nope. I thought about exactly the same thing as soon as the Horse showed up. In fact, I don't think Laocoon shows up at all. There is a priest figure dealing with prophecies, but I think that is Antenor  (can't recall the character being named in the movie).I just got back from it and I quite enjoyed the movie. Some random observations:* Most people know this already, but DO NOT go to the theater expecting an adaptation of the Iliad or even the Troy myth cycle. As the credits say, the movie is "Inspired by Homer's Iliad." * The above being said, most of the changes work well as far as the movie as a movie is concerned. The fates of Agamemnon, Menalaus and Ajax, for example, work fine in the context of the movie, even though they depart totally from the myths. In fact, I would argue that there are some places where the movie was handicapped by trying to stick with the source material (the whole sequence of Achilles being slain by Paris, for example) and would have been better off just continuing with the changes already made.* The movie is often surprisingly true to the spirit of the myths (not just the Iliad), even when rewriting the letter. The character of Hector, Achilles' pursuit of timeless glory at the expense of a life of peace (and his awareness of himself as doomed), the Greek vs. Troy clash as a western vs. eastern issue (which gets slightly ham-handed with sculptures of Apollo and the other gods being represented in Assyrian/Mesopotamian form), the Hector-Andromache relationship and their awareness of the evil of war, etc. are all nicely handled.* Two issues which seemed more than a little anachronistic were the focus on the meaninglessness of the gods and the anti-monarchy angle. * Aeneas. Hah!* One place where Homer beats Wolfgang Petersen is in the closing. "Troy" gets a little weak in the last 15 minutes and I can't help wondering if it would have been better to take the Iliad route. Or make more substantial changes than were done to the ending.Overall, a good and enjoyable movie. I give it two thumbs up!</blockquote>

Verification