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And, lo, there was much rejoicing.
I went to see Troy Friday night with![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
figliaperduta and my ring sisters, and enjoyed it immensely. The costumes were awesome (Achilles' Myrmidons looked as if they'd stepped straight off a Greek vase), the sets rocked, and the battle sequences were absolutely beautiful. They had shield walls, spear throwing, Greek fire, chariots (complete with chariot drivers, 'cause you can't drive a chariot and wave a sword at the same time), and all the Bronze age-era weaponry one could wish for. One little quibble: the swords were the wrong colour. They ought to have been bronze, not steel-coloured.
They followed the storyline pretty well up until the end of the Iliad, but after that (in an attempt to fit the entire rest of the war into twenty minutes) they started mixing things up and screwing with the timeline. Achiles died a lot later than he was supposed to, and Agamemnon, a lot earlier (that one irked me: Hello? He's supposed to go home and be murdered by his wife so that Euripides can write the one of greatest tragedies in Western lit, remember?). Of course, most people who aren't complete and utter geeks will never even know that anything was wrong.
They also made Achilles' relationship with Briseis much more important than it really was, partly, I think, in an attempt to make Achilles look like less of a jerk (because, let's face it, he is kind of a jerk in the Iliad) and partly because Hollywood was likely paranoid about the 3000 years worth of Achilles/Patroclus slash vibes they were trying to counteract. Personally, I think they went overboard there. They could have included a lot more interaction and emotion between Achilles and Patroclus without edging into overtly slashy territory--I, for one, felt cheated that we didn't get to see Achilles weeping over Patroclus's body (which he spent, oh, about three days doing in the poem) since that scene would have been a) very emotionally resonant, b) made Achilles more sympathetic, and c) doesn't require that they be anything more than good friends (of course, it would have made nice slash fodder as well). And those Classics scholars and fanfic writers who think they were sleeping together are going to slash them no matter what evidence the film provides. I mean, come on, making Patroclus Achilles' student? In ancient Greek terms, that pretty much guarantees that they were sleeping together.
But considering the amount of naked Anti-Jack, I'm willing to forgive a lot. Plus, Eric Bana made a great Hector, and Sean Bean as Odysseus was every bit as brilliant as I'd expected (he can visit my island any time he feels like it). They so need to do the Odyssy now.
After seeing Troy, I wrote two more papers, packed all of my stuff up, and my dad and I drove back to St. Mary's, so now I'm back home for the summer. * sadly waves farewell to cable internet and anticipates three months of the evil that is dial up*
I went to see Troy Friday night with
figliaperduta and my ring sisters, and enjoyed it immensely. The costumes were awesome (Achilles' Myrmidons looked as if they'd stepped straight off a Greek vase), the sets rocked, and the battle sequences were absolutely beautiful. They had shield walls, spear throwing, Greek fire, chariots (complete with chariot drivers, 'cause you can't drive a chariot and wave a sword at the same time), and all the Bronze age-era weaponry one could wish for. One little quibble: the swords were the wrong colour. They ought to have been bronze, not steel-coloured.They followed the storyline pretty well up until the end of the Iliad, but after that (in an attempt to fit the entire rest of the war into twenty minutes) they started mixing things up and screwing with the timeline. Achiles died a lot later than he was supposed to, and Agamemnon, a lot earlier (that one irked me: Hello? He's supposed to go home and be murdered by his wife so that Euripides can write the one of greatest tragedies in Western lit, remember?). Of course, most people who aren't complete and utter geeks will never even know that anything was wrong.
They also made Achilles' relationship with Briseis much more important than it really was, partly, I think, in an attempt to make Achilles look like less of a jerk (because, let's face it, he is kind of a jerk in the Iliad) and partly because Hollywood was likely paranoid about the 3000 years worth of Achilles/Patroclus slash vibes they were trying to counteract. Personally, I think they went overboard there. They could have included a lot more interaction and emotion between Achilles and Patroclus without edging into overtly slashy territory--I, for one, felt cheated that we didn't get to see Achilles weeping over Patroclus's body (which he spent, oh, about three days doing in the poem) since that scene would have been a) very emotionally resonant, b) made Achilles more sympathetic, and c) doesn't require that they be anything more than good friends (of course, it would have made nice slash fodder as well). And those Classics scholars and fanfic writers who think they were sleeping together are going to slash them no matter what evidence the film provides. I mean, come on, making Patroclus Achilles' student? In ancient Greek terms, that pretty much guarantees that they were sleeping together.
But considering the amount of naked Anti-Jack, I'm willing to forgive a lot. Plus, Eric Bana made a great Hector, and Sean Bean as Odysseus was every bit as brilliant as I'd expected (he can visit my island any time he feels like it). They so need to do the Odyssy now.
After seeing Troy, I wrote two more papers, packed all of my stuff up, and my dad and I drove back to St. Mary's, so now I'm back home for the summer. * sadly waves farewell to cable internet and anticipates three months of the evil that is dial up*
From:
Hey Ex-Roomie!
Email me your snail address so's I can send it to you?
Thank you.
1 Book
1 Card, w/money (from your mother)
1 Nice Pen (in a wooden case, is that yours?)
~Ellen
From:
Re: Hey Ex-Roomie!
PO Box 5001
St. Mary's City, MD 20686