Epic In Scope, Indeed
Main Cast: Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Sean Bean
Director: Wolfgang Petersen
You want war? You got it! This very, very long tale of forbidden love leads to many men hacking at each other with swords or shooting each other with arrows. Plus the occasional punch in the face or kick in the stomach. Nobody said love didn’t hurt…
The plot (student’s edition): Paris, Prince of Troy (Bloom) and Helen, Queen of Sparta (Diane Kruger) fall in love. The only problem is that she’s already married to King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson). That doesn’t stop them from fleeing back to Troy. Prince Hector (Bana), Paris’s older brother, knows that no good will come of this. And boy is he right!
The outraged King Menelaus goes straight to his brother, King Agamemnon (Brian Cox), King of the Mycenaeans. This guy is a good brother to have, as he is uniting all of Greece under his banner and has plenty of warriors in his army. He also has the greatest warrior of all time: Achilles (Pitt), although this worthy is definitely a lone wolf and does his own thing. Arrogant and apparently unstoppable, Achilles has his own agenda, which involves plenty of fame and glory.
That’s the overall plot. It’s pretty much war between Greece and Troy, with Agamemnon looking to rule the world (and using his brother’s problem as an excuse). On the other side we have King Priam (Peter O’Toole) of Troy, who trusts both the Gods and his massive city walls. Will these walls hold back the hordes of Greece? Maybe. Or maybe there is a way around them…
This long but pretty good war movie doesn’t try to reinvent the wheel. The characters are familiar, the acting is solid, and the war scenes are very well done. If you want to pass some time watching a big, old-style war, this is the movie for you.
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