Troy (film)

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Troy is an Oscar-nominated movie released on May 14, 2004 about the Trojan War, as described in Homer's Iliad, Virgil's Aeneid, and other myths. However, the plot differs significantly from Homer. The film has the following cast of actors prominent at the time of its release: Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen, Brian Cox as Agamemnon, Sean Bean as Odysseus, Rose Byrne as Briseis, Garrett Hedlund as Patroclus, Peter O'Toole as Priam, Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus, and Tyler Mane as Ajax. Troy was directed by Wolfgang Petersen and written by David Benioff. It received an Oscar nomination for its costume design.

Plot

Agamemnon of Mycenae and his army are in Thessaly, Greece, looking to expand their military might and empire. His army prepares to engage in combat against a host of soldiers under Thessaly's king, Triopas. Rather than suffer great losses, the King of Thessaly agrees to avoid unnecessary deaths by settling the matter through a decisive match between the heroes of the opposing armies. The King of Thessaly summons his greatest and most accomplished warrior, Boagrius. Agamemnon shouts for Achilles, who is still at a small village. A messenger is sent out to get him. Achilles arrives and defeats Boagrius, killing him with a single sword thrust. Accepting defeat, the King of Thessaly presents Achilles with a scepter as a token for his King, which he refuses saying "He's not my king."

Agamemnon has to call upon Achilles again when his brother Menelaus seeks revenge on the Trojan Prince Paris for eloping with his wife, Helen of Sparta. Paris' warrior brother—Hector—is not pleased to learn of this affair and when he returns to Troy, he urges their father, King Priam, to return the young woman to Sparta. But Priam puts too much faith in his high priests and their interpretation of how Apollo will react. Accordingly—and with Agamemnon realizing that a victory over Troy would give him complete control over the Aegean—the Greeks amass the largest naval force ever known to man and set sail for Troy. It is also Thetis who tells Achilles of a prophecy she had learned of that stated that if he does not go to the war he will find peace and have a family of his own but he will eventually be forgotten. If he chooses to go to Troy, his name will last for eternity but he will die there. Achilles cannot resist the glory of such fame and heads for Troy.

The Greeks land at Troy and are able to take control of the beach on the first day of the war. Achilles and the Myrmidons are able to defeat many Trojans but also desecrate the Trojan temple of Apollo and kill the unarmed priests that reside there. Briseis, a member of the Trojan royal family who has chosen to dedicate her live to service to the gods, is captured and serves as a prize for Achilles, though she is far from a willing captive. After the battle, Achilles is annoyed that, though he and his Myrmidons spearheaded the battle, the other kings who serve Agamemnon pay him tribute in honor of 'his' (Agamemnon's) great victory. Offended by what he sees as Achilles' disrespectful and disobedient attitude, Agamemnon unwisely deliberately humiliates Achilles by using his authority as the high king to take Briseis from him and repeatedly telling him that there is nothing he can do about it and he, Agamemnon, is more powerful and important than Achilles. Only Briseis' pleas stop Achilles from slaughtering Agamemnon and his men right there (foolishly, Agamemnon taunts him as being humbled by a female slave.) Achilles leaves, but before going, promises Agamemnon to his face he will see Agamemnon dead before his own life ends.

When the Greek army marches upon Troy, it is without Achilles and the Myrmidons; Achilles, fed up with Agamemnon, refuses to fight or allow the Myrmidons to fight until Agamemnon regrets belittling him. With the Trojan army beneath the walls of Troy and the Greek army surrounding it, Paris, feeling guilt for having brought the threat of war upon Troy, challenges Menelaus to a duel. Paris battles with Menelaus but loses badly. Paris, terrified of dying, crawls back to Hector's feet. Menelaus intends to kill Paris at Hector's feet but Hector steps in to protect his brother and kills Menelaus - guaranteeing that the war will continue. Hector kills Ajax and the increasingly energized Trojans press their attack against the uncoordinated Greeks. Without Achilles and his Myrmidons, and with the Trojan archers upon the walls of Troy free to shower arrows upon the Greeks, the battle quickly turns against the Greeks. With command of the battle lost, Agamemnon grudgingly bows to Odysseus's pleas to withdraw, and the Greeks retreat to the beach.

Briseis has been given to some men by the king after their poor performance in battle as a "morale booster". Achilles saves her from being raped and branded. He then takes her back to his tent. Achilles attempts to clean her wounds but she fights him away. Briseis considers killing Achilles as he sleeps. However, she does not carry it through because Achilles sexually tempts her by pulling her on his bed and lifting her skirt. Achilles penetrates Briseis and they end up sleeping together. The next night the two are in bed talking, when Achilles tells her that he is leaving in the morning.

The Trojans attack the Greek camp at dawn. Frustrated at not getting a chance to fight, Patroclus takes Achilles' armor and joins the battle. He brings courage to the Greeks, as they mistake him for Achilles, and eventually fights man-to-man against Hector. In the fight with Hector, Patroclus' throat is cut: this energizes the Trojans and dismays the Greeks, until Hector, sensing something wrong, pulls Achilles's helmet off and finds Patroclus, a young boy, dying slowly because of the nature of his wound. Grieved at having slain one so young, Hector gives him a killing blow out of mercy. When Achilles finds out, he is consumed by grief and rage, and walks toward the beach. The next day he and Hector gear up to fight each other. Achilles marches toward the Trojan gates to fight Hector. Hector stops the city's archers from opening fire and goes down to face Achilles in battle. Ultimately, Achilles wins when he does a 360 degree spin and spears Hector in the chest; then delivers the final blow. He then ties Hector's body to the back of his chariot and drags it along the dirt. That night King Priam goes to the Greek army's camp to get Hector's body back. Achilles agrees and lets Priam take Briseis back as well. He assures Priam that 12 days are allowed for a proper funeral service for Prince Hector.

During the 12 days that Troy mourns Hector's death, the Greeks devise a plan to enter the city, using a hollowed-out wooden horse, devised by Odysseus. The Greeks leave the horse on their camp site then withdraw leaving the horse on the beach in the remains of their camp. Paris warns Priam about the horse, but Priam neglects his warning and brings the horse into Troy for celebration. However a Trojan scout sees the Greeks still at the bay but gets shot by an arrow before he can deliver the news. Assuming victory, the Trojans, against the advice of Paris (who says to burn it), take the horse into the city and celebrate. That night, the Greeks, hidden inside the horse, launch a surprise attack and open the gates of Troy to allow the Greek army inside the city walls. Paris refuses to leave and hands the Sword of Troy to Aeneas, quoting his father by telling Aeneas that as long as the Sword of Troy remains in the hands of a Trojan, the people have a future. Priam yells to the Greeks who break statues in the temple and says "Have you no honor?" but is killed by Agamemnon.

Achilles frantically searches for Briseis, who is at the shrine of Apollo being threatened by Agamemnon. Agamemnon tells her that she will be his sexual slave. She kills him with a concealed knife, and is saved from Agamemnon's guards when Achilles reaches her. Paris, who manages to find Achilles and Briseis, shoots an arrow that goes straight through Achilles' heel. He shoots Achilles full of arrows, mortally wounding him. Achilles, after pulling out every arrow in his body (save the one piercing his heel,) then delivers his last words, "You gave me peace in a lifetime of war." as he passes into death. Briseis tearfully leaves the city with Paris after Achilles assures her that "Everything's all right, go."

After a last disorganized and futile attempt by surviving Trojan soldiers to repel the invaders, the battle ends and the Greeks storm the inner palace only to find that Achilles has died just a few moments earlier. They perform the funeral rituals for him the next morning.

Finance and reaction

Troy was an expensive film from its conception. When the film was completed, total production costs were approximately $180,000,000. This makes Troy one of the most expensive films made in modern cinema. Not adjusted for inflation, it is number 8 on the all time list of most expensive films and number 15 when adjusted for inflation.

Troy screenings have earned $133 million (US$133,378,256) in the United States. Having cost $180 million to make, the film was a disappointment in the US. Many critics anticipated that it would flop as Troy barely missed the $50 million mark on its opening US weekend and wrote off the film. Troy was among the several historical epics released in 2004 that disappointed, such as Alexander, The Alamo, and King Arthur, although it fared better than those films.

However, Troy did extremely well at the international box office financial success, making more than 73% of its revenues outside of the U.S. Eventually Troy made over US$497 million dollars worldwide, placing it in the #52 spot of top box office hits of all time. This places the film 18 spots above Gladiator (#70) and approximately 20 spots above 300 (#72) in the all-time worldwide box office.

Troy met mixed reactions by reviewers. Rotten Tomatoes gave it a Tomatometer rating of 55% from a base of 211 reviews while Yahoo! Movies gave it a critic rating of "B-" (although that was based on 15 Critical Reviews). Roger Ebert, who seemed to dislike what he saw as an unfaithful adaptation of the Iliad, gave it two stars out of four Ebert claimed that Troy "sidesteps the existence of the Greek gods, turns its heroes into action movie clichés and demonstrates that we're getting tired of computer-generated armies." David Denby of The New Yorker, however, seemed to like it : "[It's] harsh, serious, and both exhilarating and tragic, the right tonal combination for Homer."

Box office totals

Budget - $180,000,000
Marketing cost - $50,000,000
Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $46,865,412
Total Domestic Grosses - $133,378,256
Total Overseas Grosses - $364,031,596
Total Worldwide Grosses - $497,378,256

Cast

Actor	Role
Brad Pitt	Achilles
Eric Bana	Hector
Orlando Bloom	Paris
Diane Kruger	Helen
Peter O'Toole	King Priam
Sean Bean	Odysseus
Brian Cox	Agamemnon
Brendan Gleeson	Menelaus
Ken Bones	Hippasus
Saffron Burrows	Andromache
Rose Byrne	Briseis
Julie Christie	Thetis
James Cosmo	Glaucus
Frankie Fitzgerald	Aeneas
Julian Glover	Triopas
Garrett Hedlund	Patroclus
Tyler Mane	Ajax
Vincent Regan	Eudorus
John Shrapnel	Nestor
Nigel Terry	Telephus
Adoni Maropis	Philoctetes
Nathan Jones	Boagrius
Shero Rauf	Trojan Archer (stunt actor)
Ben Crompton	Body double

Music

Composer Gabriel Yared originally worked on the score for Troy for about a year, having been hired by the director, Wolfgang Peterson, who trusted him to be able to write an epic score, despite Gabriel Yared's previous work being anything but epic.

Gabriel wrote an original score for Troy, which was conducted by Harry Rabinowitz and Nick Ingman. Tanja Tzarovska sang on Yared's score, as she later would on Horner's version of the soundtrack. However, after having screened the movie with an early incomplete version of the score, the reactions were against the score and in less than a day Gabriel was off the project and the studio was already looking for someone else to do a complete rewrite

Around the time of the film's release in theaters, Gabriel Yared briefly made his Troy music available on the Internet on his personal website. Currently, Yared's score can be found as an unofficially-released bootleg album on the Internet. A German recording studio released the original score on a special CD, containing all of Yared's music and original images from the film in the design.

In the end, the final score was written by James Horner utilizing droning vocals, traditional in Eastern Mediterranean music and brass instruments used to support the film's mythos. Drums are conspicuous in the most dramatic scenes; most notably, in the duel between Achilles and Hector.

Perhaps as a result of the rather short time of 1 1/2 months, in which Horner had to write over two hours of score, or perhaps simply due to Horner borrowing from himself and drawing inspiration from classical composers, the score for Troy also contains some elements of the musical score Horner did for the 2001 World War II movie Enemy at the Gates with part of the musical score for the arrival of Achilles and the Greek forces on the beaches of Troy utilising part of the musical score from Enemy At The Gates when the poorly-armed soldiers of the Red Army were assaulting the German Army's lines in Stalingrad's main square.

Furthermore, various elements of the soundtracks seem to have been borrowed from 20th century Russian music, significantly from that of Shostakovich and Rachmaninoff. In particular there is a phrase from the 4th movement of Shostakovich's 5th symphony which is continually repeated while the armies are prepared for war.

The end-credits song "Remember" ("Remember Me") was composed by James Horner with Josh Groban, David Foster, Randy Kerber, Jochem van der Saag, and Tanja Tzarovska, with lyrics by Cynthia Weil, sung by Josh Groban.

Director's cut

Troy: Director's Cut was screened at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2007, and received a limited theatrical release in Germany in April 2007.

Warner Home Video reportedly spent more than $1 million for the Director's Cut, which includes "at least 1,000 new cuts" or almost 30-minute extra footage (Running Time: 196 minutes). The DVD was released on September 18, 2007 in the USA. The score of the film was changed dramatically, with many of the female vocals being cut. Various shots were recut and extended. For instance, the love scene between Helen and Paris was reframed to include more nudity of Diane Kruger. The sex scene between Achilles and Briseis is also extended. Only one scene was removed: the scene where Helen tends to the wound of Paris is taken out. The battle scenes were also extended, showing much more of Ajax's bloody rampage on the Trojans during the initial attack by the Greek Army. Perhaps most significantly was the sacking of Troy, barely present in the theatrical cut, but shown fully here. Characters were given more time to develop, specifically Priam and Odysseus, the latter being given a humorous introduction scene. Lastly, bookend scenes were added: the beginning being a soldier's dog finding its dead master, and the end including a sequence where the few surviving Trojans escape to Mount Ida.

Awards (wins and nominations)

2005 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards

Won - Top Box Office Film — James Horner

2005 Academy Awards (Oscars)

Nominated - Best Achievement in Costume Design — Bob Ringwood

2005 Japanese Academy Prize

Nominated - Best Foreign Film

2005 MTV Movie Awards

Nominated - Best Fight — Brad Pitt, Eric Bana
Nominated - Best Male Performance — Brad Pitt

2005 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)

Nominated - Best Sound Editing in Foreign Features — Wylie Stateman, Martin Cantwell, James Boyle, Harry Barnes, Paul Conway, Alex Joseph, Matthew Grime, Steve Schwalbe, Howard Halsall, Sue Lenny, Simon Price, Nigel Stone

2005 Teen Choice Awards

Won - Choice Movie Actor - Drama/Action Adventure — Brad Pitt
Nominated - Choice Breakout Movie Star - Male — Garrett Hedlund
Nominated - Choice Movie - Drama/Action Adventure
Nominated - Choice Movie Fight/Action Sequence

Additional information

The Trojan horse prop that was used on the set of the film now stands in Canakkale, Turkey, near the remains of the ancient city of Troy. The horse was a gift offered presumably because of the close proximity of the UNESCO Heritage site. (Location in GeoHacks)

Coincidentally, Brad Pitt tore his Achilles tendon when he jumped off his ship during filming.

Brad Pitt's physical transformation for the role took place under the watchful eye of Gregory Joujon-Roche and his team of fitness experts at Holistic Fitness in Los Angeles.

Both Rose Byrne and Diane Kruger star in another 2004 film, Wicker Park.

Both Diane Kruger and Sean Bean star in another 2004 film, National Treasure.

Both Sean Bean and Orlando Bloom star in The Lord of the Rings trilogy.

Both Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom star in the 2001 film Black Hawk Down.

Brendan Gleeson, James Cosmo and Brian Cox all star in the 1995 film Braveheart.

Notes

External links

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Last updated on Tuesday March 11, 2008 at 12:51:41 PDT (GMT -0700)
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