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Troy: the Brad Pitt of Despair I finally got around to watching the movie Troy the other night. Just couldn't get around to seeing it in the theater. A lot of it was pretty good. The battle scenes were spectacular, but repetitive. I thought Eric Bana as Hector was marvelous. The two LotR alumni, Orlando Bloom as Paris and Sean Bean as Odysseus, were also very good. The role of Paris in particular is a thankless one, and Orlando made it work. Peter O'Toole seems to have moved into the spot Richard Harris used to occupy as "elderly veteran actor best suited to playing a king in a costume drama." The scene where he begged Achilles for Hector's body was the most moving in the entire piece. But what deranged casting director hired Brad Pitt to play Achilles? Don't get me wrong. I like to look at Brad Pitt just as much as any other hetero female. He's even a pretty good actor; I adored his Louis in "Interview with the Vampire". But Achilles? Come on! Biceps aside (Brad has very nice biceps, I'll give you that), he is just not by any stretch of the imagination the right actor to play Achilles. Have you read The Iliad? I have. Okay, not lately, but I did read it. Achilles is an invincible brute who lives for war and glory. I'm picturing Vin Diesel in Pitch Black. (That's Pitch Black, not Joe Black.) Or maybe the Rock. Maybe Schwarzenegger when he was thirty. He's certainly better suited to play Achilles than he is for his current job. And where did Hector's cousin the virgin priestess come from? I don't seem to remember her from The Iliad. Was she an attempt to make Achilles' love for his cousin Patroclus look platonic? Fairly watchable -- two stars -- but ultimately disappointing. Every time Pitt was on the screen, I kept wondering what the casting director was thinking. I also kept wishing that they'd do part two with Sean Bean. Billie |
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