Troy

[zachsan]

has anyone seen it? i swear that that was gongfu in that fight between achilles and hector....

[zachsan]

then again, if pankration really was the forerunner of the oriental martial arts, i guess gongfu looks like that and not the other way around. then again... i doubt they taught brad pitt and eric bana the ancient martial art of the greeks....

[doc]

I doubt they taught Brad Pitt that also.

They should have spent more time teaching him how to act.

Great movie though. Saw it in Bangkok. Big leather reclining love seats. Huge screen. No doubt I'll be able to buy the DVD today in Patong, LOL....

[zachsan]

man, you must be rich. not everyone can spare 5 bucks for that sort of thing.

[shaolinstylee]

lol...

I have heard very, very mixed reviews...

Loved it, hated it... and a couple of OKs

[doc]

A master copy DVD. Five bucks? How about a dollar fifty?

Got to love Thailand....

[doc]

Watched "Helen of Troy", a rather long film made by A and E, for television, last night. Amazing what you can find on the streets of Thailand.

After watching this, Troy with Brad Pitt seems like a ****ty computer generated homage to Pitt's ability to work out. "Helen of Troy" was most definitely, the definitive Troy movie, more historicall accurate to Homer's Iliad, with much better acting, a much better story line, and just as good special effects. Just awesome.

[daodejing]

I'll have to check that out Doc, cause frankly troy was horrendous in terms of its accuracy in greek mythology.

For starters, the trojan war was supposedly ten years long, but from watching Wolfgang Peterson's homage to leatherbound greeks, one might infer that the war went on for a whole four days. And Achilles was supposed to be long dead by the time troy was sacked.

Then there's the **** they did with the character of Agamemnon, if they really wanted to villify him, all they had to do was tell the story accurately. In the movie, you see Agamemnon get whacked by a priestess he tries to rape during the sacking of troy, in the legendry Agamemnon returns home victorius only to be murdered in the bathtub by his wife (she was still holding a grudge from ten years ago when her husband sacrificed their daughter on a burning pyre for good luck in the trojan war, so she throws a fishing net over him while he's in the bathtub, and stabs him several hundred times).

Am I the only one who thought the myths were dramatic enough already and didn't need hollywoods interpretation of them to make a good film?

[zachsan]

sure, but since when do movies try to stay true to their source material?

[RJW]

Hollywood History.

It's kindah like a teacher trying to reach that 1 kid in 1000. Hollywood's interested in making money; if it looks good & has a decent story people will spend the money to watch it. If they have to make up facts & rewrite literature to do that's okay as long as it makes bucks! The only good thing that may come out of it is occasionally someone will say, "Cool! I wonder how much of that was true? I'm interested." And actually pick up a copy of Homer & get interested in lit. or go to the library & crack open a book on ancient Greece--or more likely hop on the Internet. But that's about the only good Hollywood does with history is occasionally stimulate a little interest.

When Umberto Eco's book "Name of the Rose" came out in theaters there was a marked increase in students signing up for medieval history classes. Now with "C.S.I." there are a lot of students signing up for class to become scientific criminal investigators of some type!

[doc]

I seriously doubt, lol, that the movie Troy is going to make anyone want to pick up Homer's Iliad. I read the damn thing many years ago. Watching the A and E special would have been much easier.

Besides, Helen in that one is a serious babe.

[zachsan]

i don't see what the big deal is. the illiad was written (or told) by taking a little kernel of truth, and then embellishing facts and "making it look good" so that the masses would like it and not forget it. if you have a need to be true to homer, then read the book and don't see the movie, and you have a desire to find out what really happened, go by the archaeological evidence.

the helen girl in the movie was really hot too.

[doc]

The helen girl in the A and E special was hotter.

Trust me on this. I am a doctor.

[shaolinstylee]

Actually, I think I caught part of that Doc..

and if thats what I'm thinking of, I'd have to concur.

I guess the question now is, why did you watch that much A and E.

[doc]

I don't. Found the A and E miniseries special on DVD over here in Thailand. Thought it was just another movie. Had no idea A and E produced/sponsored it.