One of the things I found interesting about watching the movie Troy verses reading the Illiad is the ways in which the two stories deviated from one another. For example, in the Illiad the gods had a very active physical role in the story, such as when Aphrodite rescues Paris from the field of battle during his duel with Menelaus. By contrast, when this scene takes place in the film Troy, Paris crawls to Hector's knees for protection, and there is an absence of direct intervention of the gods.
Frequently during Troy when presented with options for doing battle with the Acheans, King Priam cites favor of the gods before engaging in tactical decision that would be catastrophic for Troy, in spite of Hector's advice against doing so. It never seemed like the gods were truly involved in the film anywhere near the same level they were involved in Homer's epic.
My question is, why do you think the gods were absent from Troy (or do you believe they were?) and do you think it has a significant impact on the morals and lessons to be gleaned from the story itself?
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The director has been quoted as saying that he, personally, didn't want gods in his movie because they compromised the realism of the story. I find that quite amusing, myself, because he then proceeded to go out of his way to deviate from the original text. In his mind, the presence of the gods clearly lessened the story itself. Personally, I think their role in the Iliad is vital to an understanding of the characters' motivations. The Iliad, itself, fails to account for what I'm sure were the real motives of the people involved (greed, lust for power, etc).
ReplyDeleteThe only god seen in the movie is Thetis when she told Achilles of his future if he goes to Troy. I was surprised when I saw her because though she looked good she also looked old. Because the gods never die I assumed they retained a youthful appearance. Though for the movie's sake it was better that she didn't look like she could be Achilles sister.
ReplyDeleteThe gods are so involved in the book that I was wondering if they removed them from the movie script to shorten it from it's already long three hours. I can only imagine if they included scenes with the gods how much time that would add to the movie and how the other scenes would have to somewhat tie into the scenes with the gods.
I very much felt like the movie was about religion vs. no religion. Two of the strongest fighters had qualms with the gods: Hector and Achilles. In the movie Troy, Hector is in disagreement with almost everything his priest says that the gods are showing him. Achilles in the movie Troy defiles the Apollo temple and states several times that he follows no mans orders. Both of these characters in the end of the movie are glorified and will be remembered for 'thousands of years to come' yet neither of them seemed to be of strong faith during the movie.
I am not sure how much the movie takes away from the morals and lessons of the story The Iliad. To me this is an epic tale and while the movie and the book differ greatly the story line is more about the enjoyment of battle and mans glory then about a specific moral, and both the movie and the story have the spirit of war and tragedy.
The film Troy was not created to teach a moral or lesson. The film emphasizes in the love story between Achilles and Briseis, and also between Paris and Helen. The Iliad it self does not teach about love stories but about greed and desire for power not only by the humans making the choices on earth, but by the gods. I agree with Adam in his comment that Homer failed to present the real reasons for the war. I think Homer uses the Iliad to excuse humans for their barbaric actions and puts the blame of the war in the hands of the gods, who are the manipulator of humanity; this way humanity can be cleared of the guilt of their own actions by saying this was the faith of the gods. The film however, is not focused on the war (there were only two scenes on which there was a battle) but, present a love story without a true moral teaching. The film also deviates from any type of religious teaching; clearly there is no reverence to any god, Hector constantly blasphemies against the priest of troy and Achilles clearly shows his nonreligious state by destroying Apollo's statue. The film was not created to teach about gods or heroes or the atrocities of war, but to entertain a public that is only interested in a good heart warming story.
ReplyDeleteI don't personally think the gods not being in the movie left a negative impact on the lessons or morals. While reading the book, the gods made the epic poem seem so much more unrealistic and childish due to their selfish and argumentative behavior, so I think it was better that they were left out. If the gods would have been more present than just Thetis, I think the movie would have been like 6 hours long. I also think 3 hours long is plenty enough, I don't have an attention span for much longer than that.
ReplyDeleteWhat has to be remembered in comparing the movie Troy to the book Iliad is that Hollywood wanted to make money, and lots of it, off of Troy. With this in mind I think that Hollywood made the most logical choice and left out a chunk of the book including the interactions with the gods. If they had tried to add all the major story lines with the gods the movie would have been entirely too long and mainstream America would not want to see it. If Americans don't want to see it then it wouldn't make money and Hollywood always wants to make money. It has a couple of fight scene for the male viewers and the love story for the females best if both worlds equals more revenue.
ReplyDeleteIn regards to Thetis I got the impression that she wasn't even depicted as a goddess, just Achilles mother, from watching the film I thought she was a meer mortal. I guess it was because she was played by an older woman and had none of the youthful immortality that I was expecting.
I also think that the movie Troy was not created to represent any moral or lessons, there isn't enough background in the movie for that to happen. In order to really get the deeper meanings behind the Iliad you must have and idea about Greek themes, ideals,ect. The movie does not provide this and it's not nessicarily common knowledge for the average citizen.
I think the gods being left out of the movie is disappointing, but might have been difficult for the director to achieve. Starting with time limits, if he added scenes with the divine in them it would have add another hour to a movie that is already over two and half hours long. Also it the film might have wanted to focus on the mortal characters and so had to cut out the gods in the movie. Since the movie is about people such as Achilles and Hector, Paris and Helen, it would have been difficult to add more characters to the story while still staying true to the vision the director had for the main characters in this movie. In the end I would have liked to see the divine more involved throughout the film but I understand that would have been very difficult accomplish.
ReplyDeleteI think that the primary reason the gods were absent from Troy was simply because the directors wanted to make as much money as they could from the film. The directors probably believed that if they placed the gods in the film, then it would take away the realistic appeal from the film which would divert some of its audience. I personally feel that the story was not trying to teach any morals or lessons, but simply trying to inform the audience about the events of the Trojan War as well as the famous Greek Myth surrounding the gods and goddesses. On the other hand, I do believe that the absence of gods from the film has a huge effect on the story because in the epic poem Iliad, the gods controlled many mortals’ actions either indirectly or directly. Some of the gods even picked favorite mortals and helped them when they were in need. For example, a prime difference is visible during the duel between Paris and Menelaus. In the Iliad, Aphrodite rescues Paris when he is approaching death in the hands of Menelaus. Contrarily, in the film, Menelaus is killed by Paris’s brother, Hector, when the duel begins to favor Menelaus. Also, since Aphrodite is not there to protect Paris, he is killed soon thereafter. Essentially, it seems as if though either fate is altered by the presence of gods or if each individual’s fate is purposely meant to be different if the gods are not present in the story.
ReplyDelete