Brad Pitt's "The Iliad"

   This week we read the Iliad by Homer. The unfortunate thing about this text was that most of the story I had read from an online version that was a lot more difficult to follow than the text from Norton's Anthology. So I didn't understand a lot of the first half from the actual story, but from other sources explaining it to me. Then, after reading the text, I watched the movie Troy because I wanted to see how the producers of the film did or didn't give it justice. The movie itself was entertaining and well put together, but there were some enormous differences in regards to literary accuracy.
    One of the aspects of the story that I felt was accurately portrayed in the film was the mentality of the warriors. The above scene I think depicts this well when Achilles basically says to the boy that the most important thing in this life is to be remembered. That it is better to go to war and die a hero than to stay away from it and live. The movie also captures the hatred between Agamemnon and Achilles, but in different ways than the book does. Agamemnon in the book was a king and a warrior, who slew many enemies, but ultimately had to concede his pride and ask Achilles for help. In the movie, however, Agamemnon never so much as lifts a sword and is portrayed simply as a politician. The cinematic Agamemnon is never forced to be humble in any way, and I think much is lost through that development.
   The huge omission on the part of the producers was the choice to exclude any deity from portrayal in the movie. I believe that this choice was made to prevent it from being a four hour movie, but it immensely changes the entire feel of the story. The Trojan (and the Greeks to a lesser extent) are still shown to revere the gods, but in the movie no gods act or interact on the story in any way.
     The scene below was what I thought was one of the best parts of the book, where two bitter enemies share commonality in the form of grief and expose their vulnerabilities to each other. Instead, while they do have a touching exchange, the writers chose to have Achilles expose his true grief to the deceased Hector, and his atrocious attempt at grief and mourning was, I think, more fitting a 6 year who just lost his favorite toy. Only Peter O'Toole's phenomenal acting and the original story saved this scene, as I for one failed to believe Brad Pitt's acting to say the least.

      At the two hour point, however, everything changes. I sat in my chair awaiting the funeral games, and then my jaw hit the floor. I think I missed the whole ending of the story, because I don't remember anything about the Trojan Horse, or the fall of Troy. It was almost as if there was a mutiny behind the scenes of the movie and someone stood up and said "No, no, no! Here, let me do it!" at which point the whole thing started to fall apart. Even in Hollywood's need for an exciting ending, I think that a measure that drastic was an unnecessary injustice. 
     I hope you've learned a little bit about the movie Troy and how it relates (and doesn't) to the movie. All in all, it was a good movie, with some great acting parts and some not so great, but worth the 150 minutes devoted to it.