I have a theory that this movie was made and marketed to women (Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, and a bunch of no names...The women in the film are feminist, the battle scenes don't have as much blood and guts as war movies that guys like, and they have co-opted the women wailing music like other women war movies like Blackhawk Down...), which seems weird since it is suppose to be a war epic, heroes, gods, etc. It isn't. In fact it is not suppose to be historical at all, the extra featurette on the DVD shows that the writer and director were intentionally exaggerating the evidence to make a bigger impact in the movie. Hollywood also has this tendency to make the religion of history fit with our current views of the subject, or at least muddle it. In this case the good characters are the ones who do not believe in the gods, and the bad characters the ones who have too much blind faith in them. On the other hand, they do a good job of explaining how reputation and one's name can be immortalized through one's actions, which seems to be a belief that the ancient Greeks had (we might too?). It wasn't worth the 3 hours it took to see it.
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Sometimes I worry that I've lost the plot. My twitchin' muscles tease my flippant thoughts. I never really dreamed of heaven much until we put him in the ground, but it's all I'm doing now - listening for patterns in the sound of an endless static sea. ~ Conor Oberst
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We are lonesome animals. We spend all of our life trying to be less lonesome. One of our ancient methods is to tell a story begging the listener to say-and to feel- ‘Yes, that is the way it is, or at least that is the way I feel it.’ You’re not as alone as you thought. —John Steinbeck
4 comments:
I thought this film was terrible. Everything that could've possibly been done to make it lame was done.
On a similar note, why do you call Blackhawk Down a woman war movie? When I saw it in the theatre, the sole woman in attendance left.
In my experience more women that I know have liked this movie than men(We Were Soldiers is another example of this)...it also starts more male actors that are liked more by women than men, and the soundtrack and music tend to be more emotional and soothing than other war films like Saving Private Ryan, Dr. Strangelove, and Catch 22.
It is all just a theory on gender and film that isn't completely developed yet.
I can see what you're saying. I may be just that movies like Blackhawk Down and We Were Soldiers focused as much on the emotions and characters of the soldiers as the actual combat, something your traditional war film hasn't really done.
On an interesting note, I saw a comparison between the real-life folks involved in the events of Blackhawk Down and the actors. They did a phenominal job of casting.
Troy was sort of a letdown but if you know anything of the Illiad then you'll know they didn't do such a bad job at adapting some parts of it to the big screen. They definitely tried to appeal to the audience though. Greek soldiers were often gay because they had such a close bond with the men they were fighting with. In fact that relationship was encouraged because soldiers fought harder when they were alongside someone they loved. Brad Pitt's character was bisexual, he and his cousin were lovers. They really just wanted this movie to be the blockbuster hit of the summer.
Oh and I liked Blackhaw Down and Saving Private Ryan. I think the realities of war should be shown so maybe people wouldn't be so for it.
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