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WARNER

MOVIE INFO

Director:
Wolfgang Petersen
Cast:
Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Diane Kruger
Writing Credits:
David Benioff

Synopsis:
An adaptation of Homer's great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces and chronicles the fates of the men involved.

MPAA:
Rated R.

DISC DETAILS
Presentation:
Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
Audio:
English PCM 5.1
English Dolby 5.1
French Dolby 5.1
Spanish Dolby 5.1
Subtitles:
English
French
Spanish
Portuguese
Korean
Chinese
Closed-captioned
Supplements Subtitles:
None

Runtime: 196 min.
Price: $19.98
Release Date: 9/18/2007

Bonus:
• Introduction by Director Wolfgang Petersen
• “In Focus” Featurette
• “In the Thick of the Law” Featurette
• “From Ruins to Reality” Featurette
• “An Effects Odyssey” Featurette
• “Attacking Troy” Featurette
• “Greek Ship Towing” Featurette
• Trailer


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RELATED REVIEWS


Troy: Director's Cut [Blu-Ray] (2004)

Reviewed by Colin Jacobson (March 19, 2024)

Despite the enormous success of 2000’s Gladiator, Hollywood doesn’t often attempt flicks about the BC years anymore. However, that era returned to prominence via a couple of big-name efforts in 2004.

Oliver Stone’s Alexander bombed. As such, the more successful of the two came first with Wolfgang Petersen’s Troy, which hit the screens in May 2004.

Under King Agamemnon (Brian Cox), the kingdoms of Greece become united in a loose alliance except for unconquered Thessaly. The King’s brother Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson) - also the King of Sparta - tires of war so he attempts to settle problems with Troy, Greece’s main rival. Warrior par excellence Achilles (Brad Pitt) fights for Greece but turns into something of a wild card due to his dislike of Agamemnon.

When the forces of Thessaly and Greece meet on the field of battle, Agamemnon proposes that they settle matters with a one-on-one fight between each side’s best warrior. Thessaly puts up Boagrius (Nathan Jones), while Greece uses Achilles. Inevitably, the latter wins - after all, it’s Brad Pitt’s name over the credits, not Nathan Jones’s.

From there we see a celebration of the union between Sparta and Troy as Menelaus toasts Trojan princes Hector (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). That’s not the only union, as Spartan Queen Helen (Diane Kruger) maintains an affair with Paris.

Helen frets that he’ll split and she’ll never see him again, so he invites her to come as well despite a slew of prospective dangers. She agrees to accompany him, and Menelaus flips when he discerns her absence.

Hector’s none too happy either, since Paris’s decision may cause war. He insists that they return to Troy with Helen even through Paris claims he’ll not leave her.

Not that this seems likely to placate the enraged Menelaus who wants to raze Troy to the ground. To those ends, he convinces Agamemnon to come to war with him.

Although some feel no one can conquer Troy, Agamemnon delights to take on the opportunity. Unfortunately, his advisor Nestor (John Shrapnel) thinks they require the unpredictable Achilles, so the king reluctantly recruits him. Agamemnon gets the warrior’s pal Odysseus, king of Ithaca (Sean Bean), to convince Achilles to fight, and his spiel works.

Paris, Helen and Hector return home and inform the Trojan King Priam (Peter O’Toole) of the situation. Hector wants to send Helen home, but Priam seems more willing to take on those who would fight them.

The various forces soon arrive in Troy, where Achilles’ warriors hit the beach first. They slaughter many and take the advantage.

Along the way, the men capture priestess Briseis (Rose Byrne), also a relative of Priam, and give her to Achilles. He doesn’t take advantage of her, though, and actually comes to her defense when Agamemnon possesses her.

She tells him to back off and not kill on her behalf, though this means the king will use and abuse her. This also serves to make Achilles hate Agamemnon even more, though the hunky warrior manages to start a romance with the priestess eventually.

When the armies next meet, Paris proposes a compromise. He will battle Menelaus for the possession of Helen, winner takes all, and the war ends.

Unfortunately, Paris is a lover, not a fighter, and he fares poorly in the contest. When he cowers next to Hector, the older brother takes care of business and slays Menelaus. This really cheeses off Agamemnon, and the war resumes with a passion.

The rest of the film follows these established threads. We see the various elements of the war along with other pieces. Some of these involve Achilles’ cousin and ward Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund). When his parents’ died, Achilles started to care for him.

In addition to Gladiator, I think part of the reason for the mid-2000s resurgence of this kind of historical epic stems from the success of the Lord of the Rings movies. Of course, those didn’t deal with any specific era in history, but they tended toward a feeling of an older time, and they featured a period prior to the use of firearms.

That Rings tone comes through very clearly in Troy’s battle sequences. These owe a big debt to those of the Rings flicks, as were it not for the absence of orcs and other creatures as combatants, the Troy fights would look like they came straight from Peter Jackson’s hit.

The Rings feel gets a boost from the casting of Troy. We find both Orlando Bloom and Sean Bean. Heck, Bloom even plays another archer here!

Unfortunately, the battle sequences - and the movie in general - never become nearly as involving as Rings. For an epic about warriors Troy tends to be an awfully chatty experience.

The first act of the flick drags as we learn about all the situations and scenarios. The exposition is clearly necessary, but Petersen could have portrayed it in a livelier manner.

In fact, the opening text tells us much of what we need to know. The rest of the yammering does little more than drive home the same points.

Troy aspires to a larger-than-life attitude but it fails to feel grand and all encompassing. The participants endlessly blather about their places in history and how they want to be remembered.

I suppose this aims to let us know about their attitudes, but instead it feels more like an attempt to convince us we should care. Obviously the stories and characters were remembered for centuries - we’re watching the movie, aren’t we? Do we need endless discussions of the characters’ thoughts about their places in history?

No, and these drag a slow-moving movie even further. All this gabbing might be more acceptable if the action lives up to expectations, but it doesn’t.

A couple of the fights work reasonably well, but most of them just feel like outtakes from Rings. Petersen stages them with too many cuts and in a jerky manner that makes them moderately annoying to watch.

This becomes especially irritating during a climactic battle between Achilles and Hector. Petersen cuts very rapidly, probably to allow Pitt and Bana to do as much of the fighting themselves.

Longer shots would likely have required the use of doubles, whereas shorter bursts could be executed with the real actors. That’s a nice idea, but since it requires the action to pop up in short, choppy bits, it becomes aggravating to watch.

Troy boasts a solid cast, but none of them make much of an impression. In general, I like Pitt very much, but he lacks the right personality for a role like Achilles.

Pitt simply brings the wrong tone for this sort of classical enterprise, as he works much better as more modern and American characters. It doesn’t help that his vague attempt at a British accent fails miserably. The buffed-up Pitt looks great in the role, but his usually solid acting chops fail him.

With all sorts of intrigue, action and subplots, Troy had the potential to be a thrilling epic. Instead, it ends up as an excessively long, overly chatty bore. It rambled from one scene to another without much useful material to connect it. Chalk up Troy as a dull disappointment.

I wrote the notes above about the theatrical version of Troy. This Director’s Cut adds a full 34 minutes to the 2004 edition’s already-long running time. That sounds like a dangerous decision, as making an already slow movie longer should be a disaster, right?

Not always, as sometimes extensions make a movie richer and more dynamic. Does that happen with Troy?

Not in my opinion. I will admit some surprise that the extra running time doesn’t slow down the film to a substantial degree, and I could argue that the footage helps flesh out some of the secondary characters.

However, this additional breadth doesn’t fix the flick’s problems. We still find too much talk and not a lot of meat to make the enterprise interesting. While I don’t think the Director’s Cut comes across as worse than the theatrical edition, I also don’t feel it improves upon the shorter version.


The Disc Grades: Picture C+/ Audio B+/ Bonus B-

Troy appears in an aspect ratio of approximately 2.35:1 on this Blu-Ray Disc. A relatively early Blu-ray that packed nearly five hours of content, the image suffered.

Not that this meant Troy looked bad. Indeed, the picture looked better than anticipated given its release era and all the compression needed to fit so much material onto one disc.

Nonetheless, sharpness seemed inconsistent. Close-ups worked fine, but wider shots could demonstrate looseness, and the movie could feel a bit blocky at times.

I saw no issues with jagged edges or moiré effects, and edge haloes remained absent. No print flaws materialized, but some digital artifacts interfered at times.

Colors went with an arid mix of orange and amber much of the time, and we found a fair amount of teal as well. The hues lacked imagination but largely seemed satisfactory, even if they lacked great vivacity.

Blacks tended to come across as a bit inky, while shadows could become somewhat dense. Though this remained a more than watchable image, it could really use a new master – and a release that gives the movie a disc all to itself.

No concerns cropped up via the PCM 5.1 soundtrack of Troy, but it lacked the scope I expected from this sort of movie. The soundfield stuck with the front speakers to a surprisingly heavy degree.

The surrounds largely just filled in elements from the forward domain. Sure, they added some spark to the battles and occasionally provided unique elements like when spears flew from back to front, but they weren’t very active partners in the proceedings.

As for the front domain, it used the spectrum well. The music showed good stereo presence, while effects were accurately placed. They blended well and created a nice feeling of atmosphere.

Audio quality was very good. Dialogue always came across as natural and suffered from no edginess or problems with intelligibility. Music was bright and lively, as the score demonstrated positive dynamics.

Effects also contributed fine dimensionality. The mix didn’t really do anything wrong, but it lacked the ambition to earn a grade above a “B+”.

How did the Blu-ray compare to the prior DVD? The lossless audio featured a similar soundscape but it showed warmer, richer tones.

Given the format’s stronger capabilities, the Blu-ray looked better defined and more vivid than the DVD. Nonetheless, it remained a dated disc that could use an upgrade.

Extras open with a two-minute, 30-second Introduction with director Wolfgang Petersen. He tells us a little about why he decided to create the extended cut and offers a preview of what to expect. It’s a decent opening to the longer version of the film.

Some featurettes follow, and In the Thick of the Battle brings a 17-minute, 12-second program. We hear from Petersen, second unit director/stunt coordinator Simon Crane, weapons designer Simon Atherton, chief prosthetics makeup Daniel Parker, special effects supervisor Joss Williams, sword master Richard Ryan, military technical advisor Richard Smedley, and actors Eric Bana and Brad Pitt.

They discuss the various weapons used in the flick and their construction, the depiction of gory violence, the training of extras to play soldiers, location challenges, and the specifics of some fights.

The program offers a surprisingly rich look at its subjects. It touches on a nice mix of topics and gets into them with just enough detail to become useful. There’s very little fluff on display in this tight and brisk piece.

Next we locate From Ruins to Reality. It goes for 14 minutes and features remarks from Petersen, Bana, Pitt, Williams, writer David Benioff, British Columbia Department of Greek/Roman Antiquities Lesley Fitton, producer Diana Rathbun, location manager Peter Novak, supervising art director Les Tomkins, production designer Nigel Phelps, supervising art director Kevin Phipps, and actors Diane Kruger and Peter O’Toole.

They discuss exploration of the historical Troy and research for the film, the choice of locations, the design and construction of the sets, and various details of the shoot.

For the most part, my comments about “Battle” apply to “Ruins”. This show also goes through some intriguing material in a reasonably evocative and distinctive manner.

It isn’t quite as good simply because it engages in more puffy talk than I’d like and it occasionally comes across as self-congratulatory. However, the positives outweigh the minor negatives to make this a good program.

After this comes Troy: An Effects Odyssey. It takes 10 minutes, 52 seconds to give us notes from Petersen, Crane, Benioff, supervising sound editor Wylie Stateman, and visual effects supervisor Nick Davis.

They discuss the creation of a digital armada of boats, camera techniques, building digital soldiers and executing battles, and audio elements. Don’t expect anything to differ from the prior two featurettes. “Effects” presents a tight exploration of the various issues and gives us a short but informative take on the material.

Troy In Focus delivers a 23-minute, six-second piece that includes remarks from Petersen. He gives us thoughts about his interest in the story and some changes made for the Director’s Cut, working with Pitt, some casting and character notes, and locations and sets.

“Focus” doesn’t substitute for an audio commentary, but it provides a decent showcase for the director’s observations. Its biggest problem comes from its structure, as instead of a single running show, it compiles 11 short clips.

That’s not a major issue, though, and the collection of featurettes gives us a reasonable number of nice insights, especially in the way it illustrates changes for the Director’s Cut.

Attacking Troy lasts 15 minutes, 13 seconds and features Petersen, Benioff, Fitton, Kruger, Bana, Crane, horsemaster Jordi Casares, and actor Orlando Bloom.

This piece looks at the story and its influences, changes made from the source material, character and performance issues, fight scenes, horse riding and stunts.

“Attacking” takes a somewhat scattershot approach to the film’s creation and doesn’t settle on the various subjects very well. It flits about without much focus, so it doesn’t dig into the areas particularly well. While we get a smattering of decent notes, “Attacking” doesn’t prove very satisfying.

In addition to the film’s trailer, we get an odd blooper reel called Greek Ship Towing. This one-minute, 25-second clip shows a wacky compilation of goofy computer animated shots. It’s not much but it’s harmless.

The theatrical version of Troy felt excessively long and fairly tedious, and the Director’s Cut does not improve upon that situation. It still turns a remarkable series of battles into bland melodrama. The interpersonal elements don’t coalesce and the fight scenes fail to take flight. The Blu-ray offers inconsistent visuals, good but unexceptional audio and a generally interesting collection of extras. This dated release could use an update.

To rate this film visit the original review of TROY

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Review Archive:  # | A-C | D-F | G-I | J-L | M-O | P-R | S-U | V-Z | Viewer Ratings | Main