Win a Date With Tad Hamilton
Saw it on PPV last night and you know what? Topher Grace is awesome!
Tad was well cast, the girl was fine, but Topher is really bucking to accidentally inherit the John Cusack mantle.
Of course, he won't get there being in movies that appear to be crap, which this one did
appear to have the potential to be. But still.
Ok so I wasn't smart enough to reread the Iliad before seeing Troy but Mel was so she says:
-----Original Message-----
From: MELANIE
Sent: Wednesday, May 19, 2004 9:17 AM
Yup. And I can't tell you how much of the depth and poignancy is lost by not emphasizing that these men have been fighting for so long. Achille's bitterness makes more sense because he's been toiling in the trenches for the Greeks for 9 years and he really has no stake in the battle--except honor for the Greeks. It's why he's ready to return home when Agamemnon insults him. The reason Agamemnon takes Briseis away is because the chick he did have he had to give up to appease Apollo. The girl's father came to Agamemnon with a great ransom and asked for his daughter back--Agamemnon being the ass that he is, said no. Well, the chick's dad was a priest of Apollo, so he prayed to the god and demanded revenge for the insult. Apollo nodded his head and released a great plague on the Greeks. One of the seers tells the army why they are suffering and the Greeks demand that Agamemnon give the girl back to her father. That's when Agamemnon takes Briseis away from Achilles--and this is how the Iliad actually begins. And the Iliad ends with the funeral of Hektor--it does not end with the sacking of Troy, or the death of Achilles (although I did discover that it is, in fact, Paris who kills Achilles eventually).
What really kills me is that there is so much in the Iliad that is great and grand story--excellent fodder for a big epic, and yet they chose such bear bones stuff--and not even most of the stuff that happens in the dang gummed story!
-----Original Message-----
From: MELANIE
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 7:29 PM
To: Karina
Subject: RE: Troy
weeell. Helen does set it off. There's a myth that someone has a party and they invite everyone (all the gods) except the Goddess of Discord. She does not like this and so shows up at the party and throws the Apple of Discord onto the banquette table. Hera, Athena, and Aphrodite begin to fight over the apple. Someone decides that Paris should decide who gets the apple. Hera promises him great wealth; Athena great wisdom (or something);and Aphrodite promises him the most beautiful woman in the world. Of course, Paris chooses Aphrodite and Aphrodite says "okay, I give you Helen of Sparta." Paris takes of for Sparta to claim Helen. Meanwhile Menelaus, her hubby, goes off somewhere else to attend a funeral and have an affair with Water Sprite. When he gets back, Paris and Helen have absconded to Troy. Thus starts the great gathering of the Greek armies (which is also how Agamemnon "unites" Greece under his rule) they get to Troy and it takes 10 years to win. Most of the guys fighting to get Helen back were all her suitor at some point: Ajax, Odysseus, the whole slew of 'em. They are going to Troy to get Helen back, but also to get the wealth that Paris helped himself to while at Menelaus' home and Helen was the daughter of royalty (her real dad is Zeus and her mother is Leda--remember Leda and the Swan? Helen was hatched from an egg with her twin brother) and Menelaus doesn't want to lose the rights to Helen's share of her father's kingdom.
The Iliad begins with the Greeks and Trojans in the 9th year of battle and mostly centers around Achilles in the broader sense, but lots of stories of different heros are told.
-----Original Message-----
From: MELANIE
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 3:48 PM
To: Karina
Subject: RE: Troy
no. in the movie it looks as if they win troy in two months--given the 12 days to grieve over hector, the days that ended with "that's enough for today, let's go home."
yeah, the entire war takes 10 years for the greeks to win--and when the Iliad opens, it's with Achilles crying (yes, crying) to his mother that he's fought for 9 years and the only thanks he gets is Agamemnon taking is prize away (Briseis). The whole bit with Achilles dragging Hektor behind his chariot (which he does for about 3 days) and Priam coming to beg for his son is way at the end. In the translation I'm reading, Hektor's funeral is what ends the Iliad. It may be in other translations that it continues on to the slaying of Achilles, but that may very well be in the Odessey, which I also haven't read in about 20 years. All in all, they really played fast and loose with the story. I mean, even the basic plot of the story isn't really there . . . *sigh*
wish I hadn't known anything about the story, maybe i wouldn't have been so let down . . .
----Original Message Follows----
-----Original Message-----
From: MELANIE
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 2:03 PM
To: Karina
Subject: RE: Troy
i stand corrected! paris does kill achilles--i thought he was taken down by someone else, but nah, it's paris.
but the other stuff still stands! it would have added much more poignancy and purpose to A LOT of the story if they would have shown the first battle, then a little "9 years later" and here they are, still on the beach, no closer to gaining the city. Agammemnon just comes off as bloated ass (which he kinda is any way) but his frustration means nothing when he so easily wins Troy in less than 2 months. Mostly I'm just sad that they took all that great production value and star power (Peter O'Toole, Brian Cox, Sean Bean--a great Odysseus) and just wasted it on tripe. Some of the dialogue was wholesale pulled from the Iliad, but it was out of sequence and didn't mean anything when they'd been fighting for 2 minutes as opposed to 9 years. 9 years, people!
-----Original Message-----
From: MELANIE
Sent: Tuesday, May 18, 2004 9:42 AM
To: Karina
Subject: Troy
george and i saw troy on saturday. mostly i was let down by the way the
screenwriter played down to us. the back story was nice as a reminder for
those who haven't read the iliad in ages, and a good primer for those who've
never read it. still, i was bummed that they made the war seem to last only
a month, maybe two tops. and don't get me started on why they kept paris
alive and had him kill achilles -who, by the way is way dead before the
whole trojan horse thing, which is the odessy, not the iliad--and having
briseis kill agammemnon--blargh!! and where were the gods, i'd like to
know? except for achilles brief encounter with his mother, no gods. SO
WRONG! there were a group of us in the audience who got a hearty laugh
over the credit "inspired by homer's iliad." loosely inspired by . . .
still, they got the gist of achille's character right, and they made tens of
thousands of greek death look pretty cool.
Passion of the Christ.
I didn't want to offend anyone with my review, but really what the hell? If we are supposed to learn about Christ's infinite love, we ain't getting it here. And it was SO very violent. It was past scary, past gross, past gratuitous, it was a snuff film. And if you didn't know anything about Jesus, it would be an even more pointless snuff film than a real one. Cannibals would lose their lunch watching this.
Satan was interesting and I wish s/he had been used more, it would have shown more strength of character (in a big picture way) than just Jeshua's ability to endure pain. Nothing from Caveziel, he did what he could with a one note piece, and I would like to see more of him playing Jesus when he was doing what he's really famous for, healing the sick and talking to people and making the actual stir for which this film shows him more than adequately punished. Never mind all that anti-semitic shit, this is just anti-filmmaking.
Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind.
i loved this movie. looooved it. I really try to justify my reviews in my actual reviews (www.cinerina.com if you have just stumbled across this blog instead of being directed here) but in this case, this movie touched me deep inside. is it that I have a bad memory, that I strongly feel my history made me who i am, for good and bad? sure. is it that I am a historian and the idea of erasing someone who was so significant is irresponsible to me? sure. But really - it's that final scene (a great shot is a pan past a piano, joel in the back of david cross' car buried up to his neck in sand, that song that's been on the radio this week is on the soundtrack) where the last memories are being sucked up and they merge and flitter and- I just get goosebumps and cry. Not gut-wrenching crying, like Lilo and Stitch, but just mourning this relationship I didn't even live through. mourning my own relationships I did live through and chose to forget as best I could.
I also think it's very interesting that despite doing what he does, Dr W and Mrs W don't choose to erase the affair, even though they erase it from Kirsten Dunst. That means they know the value of keeping the memories even as he helps people lose theirs. It's ill advised behavior but he can make a buck at it. God I hope Kaufman isn't really ike Nic Cage played him in Adaptation because I want to meet him!
And god dammit one of these days I will say I TOLD YOU SO when Carrey gets his freaking Oscar. Jim, if you found this on a vanity search, please go read all my reviews of your movies. I promise it's not just a physical thing.
