Techtite's DVD Reviews!

"Troy is still a very good blockbuster movie --and a nice beginning to the summer movie season-- though it is more likely to be known for the number of "cool" action scenes than the number of Oscar nominations it receives. It's a good looking film, that could've been so much more."

--from the review

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Sidebar ::

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Helen of National Treasure. This is the sort of side thought best left for a side bar, but: is it just me, or is it really unusual to note that Diane Kruger, who plays Helen of Troy in this film, is also this jeans-clad adventurer in the Disney action flick, National Treasure? I don't know; it's not that she's the first actress to have such diverse roles, but it's just how close these two films were released, along with how very polarized the characters are. I'm just saying. It's pretty amusing to think of.

The Trojan Horse Gambit. I must admit, of all the stories throughout history, the Trojan Horse always interests me. Those responsible for the Trojan Horse gambit must've been as desperate as they were bold to attempt it. Those who fell for it must've similarly been desperate, to believe in the most unlikely sign of peace. The film implies that they thought of the large horse as a "gift for the gods," which may explain some of their reasoning, if religion of the times was involved. However, it is certainly a major battle strategy to go into history books for years to come.

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Troy

Click picture to order this DVD (Widescreen)

A Techtite Review

As Always, a review of The Film and The DVD (extras)!

The Film: Of all of the stories throughout history, one of the ones that always baffles me is the tale of the infamous Trojan Horse. Two warring factions are at a seeming standoff because of Troy's impassable walls. The enemy builds a giant horse as a "gift" to the Trojans, who think this means that the war is over and they have won. They bring the giant horse into their protective walls and discover by nightfall that --surprise!-- a small army of enemies were hidden inside said "horse," who promptly let in all their friends, and plunder and destroy the city into rubble. Such is the story behind this film, called, quite simply enough, Troy.

True, there's a bigger story here, both in the original story of ancient times, and this epic film as well. It is the story of a woman named Helen (Diane Kruger), soon to be Helen of Troy, who left her Grecian husband to be with her forbidden love (Lord of the Rings' Orlando Bloom). This is an outrage to the husband, who with the help of his brother Agamemnon (X-men 2's Brian Cox), set out to attack the city of Troy in an act of revenge. This is a far more involved story than the Trojan Horse, so I hope it interests you; it is in fact the better 95% of the entire film, leaving the "horse" story as a footnote in comparison.

Well, not exactly. There is Achilles (Brad Pitt) as well. Yes; the same Achilles with the proverbial "Achilles' heel." He's a seemingly invincible foe who turns the tides of every battle he's in...and every action scene of this film. Sure, Brad Pitt is a major theater draw, though one must presume that they seriously rewrote the original script, to make Brad the center of attention...even in an alleged "Troy" story such as this. So much of the film is devoted to Achilles' tale one wonders why the film wasn't simply titled Achilles. It's hard to consider Troy the central story when so much of the film is about one soldier.

This is a shame, in the end, because I sense the director (Wolfgang Petersen, The Perfect Storm) had no firm idea of how to direct a seemingly "unstoppable soldier" story with any sense of reality. As a result, for every action scene in which Achilles adds a bit of grit, the movie's epic grandeur seems to wane. Such one-man-army moments seem less and less like another Gladiator, and more and more like a mythological Die Hard. At one moment, we see that Achilles' ship leads the entire Grecian fleet by many lengths, which Agamemnon has to point out with the line, "What does he intend to do; fight Troy with just 50 men?" The line is so overdone, one wonders why they didn't add a caption reading: "Action Scene Approaching! Get Your Friends Back From The Snack Bar Now!"

Not that this is a negative review. Far from it. It's just that with a roughly 200 million dollar budget, and based on early trailers, I would've expected a different film than this. I would not blame Brad Pitt for this shortcoming, being an actor, lest we forget, who was nominated for an Academy Award, and won a Golden Globe (12 Monkeys). Troy is still a very good blockbuster movie --and a nice beginning to the summer movie season-- though it is more likely to be known for the number of "cool" action scenes than the number of Oscar nominations it receives. It's a good looking film, that could've been so much more.

It truly is a good looking tale, though. From the computer-enhanced armies that seem to cover the entire beach, to the whole fleets of ships that seem to cover the entire sea. Yes, there's also a half-naked Brad Pitt for the ladies, though Diane Kruger is pretty easy on the eyes as well. Although the film is not the epic that its budget and promos would seem to imply, it is still an enjoyable film, with not one boring or annoying moment in all its roughly two hours and 40 minutes in length. Oscar nominations or not, this film was very worth watching.

Any major problems are simple suspensions of belief. I'm no historian, so I can only presume that certain things may not have happened this way, even when they very well may have, under the right conditions. On at least one occasion, the Trojan king allows Agamemnon's armies to collect their dead in front of the Trojan walls, without threat of attack, so the fallen soldiers can have a proper burial. In an even more chivalrous scene, a major fight leaves a relative of a high-ranking soldier dead, leading to the leader of the enemy army responding something like, "Enough bloodshed for today. We'll continue this tomorrow..." That may not be his exact words (no notepad in the theater, of course), though that's the gist of it, and it sounds highly unlikely that two warring factions would call a temporary truce as easily as this.

Yet to spurn Troy for its historical inaccuracies would be to admit bias. Barely a single critic dared bad-mouth Titanic, 7 years ago, even though it had barely a single historical accuracy aside from the name of the boat. Indeed; "Rose" and "Jack," the core story of that film, never truly existed at all. In the end, a film that's currently the biggest box office draw of all time is not as much of a historical documentary as it is a good popcorn flick. That's more than good enough, both for Titanic, and Troy, as well. Keep your history books at home, kids, and enjoy it.

---Techtite

Unfortunately, this film didn't do as well as expected for some, so the extras here are substantial, yet nothing in the way of, say, deleted scenes or such. Three featurettes on disc two showcase battle sequences, the special effects, and the film from a historical perspective. A third feature showcases a 3D "tour" of Mount Olympus and the mythology of Ancient Greece. However, I hope you're the sort that likes quality over quantity, because that's about it for the bonus features.

Overall, much like the film, there is a lot of effort here yet not that little something extra that makes people take major notice. This was certainly not a bad film, and is one of those films that makes the perfect gift. It's one of those movies that someone may not have bought for themselves but would not be against putting on their shelf if they had it. It's not bad. In fact it's pretty good.

As a parting thought, there is also the promise of hidden features, which is to say many are hidden, though I only found the one. Maybe this is one of those instances when these hidden features should've been actual film clips you could choose from an actual menu. Remember when Monty Python and the Holy Grail placed the special "LEGO" video clip in the main menu along with everything else, even if it was totally separate from the actual film? This discs hidden features are a lot like that, since more than one is alleged, and nobody has found them.

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