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Your High School Teacher's New Babysitter

Troyblog_2 Up until the release of Troy (2004), many a high school's go-to Greco-Roman epic was probably Clash of the Titans (1981). Despite performances just as corny as its stop-action special effects, Titans could masquerade as educational because it reflected a traditional take on The Classics (without forsaking Hollywood’s happy ending).  As Perseus, Harry Hamlin was serious, studied, and certainly convincing enough for my own high school English teacher to let him take over the lesson plans at the end of a long semester. After weeks of spoon-feeding Homer's Odyssey and Edith Hamilton's Mythology to a bunch of gum-snapping teens, my beleaguered teacher collapsed at the back of her dark classroom while we watched the slaying of Medusa, the defeat of the Kraken, and the courting of Andromeda. Nowadays, Ms. Myers would have a better choice.

Like Titans, Troy casts a strong-but-silent type as its demigod hero then packs in a pantheon of brawny co-stars to flesh out the warrior-angst. Thank Zeus, Brad Pitt's Achilles is more psychologically complex than Hamlin's Perseus. There's a fascinating mix of ambition and brotherhood at work here that make his character's bloodlust totally believable. And unlike Titans, Troy leaves its divinity at the door. David Benioff's script is unafraid to steal characters and storylines outside Homer's Iliad as it aims for historical accuracy and motivational truth. What we lose in mythology, we gain in logic. Instead of a farcical sword fight pitting good against evil, Troy portrays war as a political act with very human repercussions. Such a viewpoint may disappoint the classic scholars in the audience (and perhaps even a few high school English teachers), but in its favor Troy resonates with a subtext more profound than Play-Doh sea monsters on a blue-screen background. There are no magic shields, no invisible cloaks, no godly assurances of protection in battle. These are soldiers with little more than their own virtue to protect them. The rest is left to fate.

Troy, AMC's premiere event, plays tonight (and Sunday, January 6) at 8 p.m.

Posted by Katy Ansite
December 11, 2007 10:00am


Comments

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By Rick on December 12, 2007 3:01 AM

Both films played fast and loose with mythological traditon.

Titans: Perseus had winged sandals. It was Bellerohpon who rode Pegasus to glory although the horse did have other associations.

Troy: Although I didn't dislike the film there were enough changes to have outraged a lover of mythological tradiotion had the film been less watchable. For one, Patroclus was portrayed as Achilles' cousin and not as his lover. He may have been a cousin as well but the love between the two was more than familial. Also, Patroclus was portrayed as weak and juvenile. In "fact" he was good enough a warrior and physically similar enough to Achilles as to have been mistaken for him.

Agamemnon's return home from the war to his death at the hands of his wife Clytemnestra is the basis for some of the great dramas and stories of Greek drama and history. The Orestia by Aeschylus is the only surviving Greek trilogy. Having Agamemnon die at the hands of Achilles (who was already dead before Agamemnon returned to Greece) dismisses all that rich dramatic and historical tradition. That was a major error.

There are other problems with both films and those of us who grew up loving those myths and dramas are still waiting for a faithful adaptation.

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By RebeccaSK on May 28, 2010 8:45 PM

Why are we seeing this NOW on tv when it is not on any schedule that I can find?