All about the visual, baby…

[baleanoptera]

First there is this. A part of me is squeeked, another part is deeply fascinated.


Then there are pictures from 300 . Including one of Dominic West as a Spartan.






Now what would Bunk say to this?








And Gerard Butler (Leonidas) and what is apparently the Persian king Xerxes. I keep thinking decadent. I wonder why...



This movie looks so beautiful and strange, I’m already halfway in love with it. It just looks so, well, mythological. But then again I can forgive so much if something is visually stunning. I know nothing of the director, but apparently the cinematographer did the pilot episode of Lost. Is this good news?

After this visual break I will return to my The Wire analysis.

Comments

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

It takes our modern conceptions of war and the noble sacrifice of soldiers, and transports it back to a time when these ideas didn't necessarily exist.

True. It's not so feudal as it is fake-existential. Very distasteful, especially because Homer's Iliad manages to balance the glory and the bloody joy of violence out with the pathos of death and dishonour so very well. The sentiments may not be applicable to our world or our wars, but they're still incredibly familiar. There's poetry and pity for you, unlike the "oh-I-might-as-well" feel of Troy. And they mucked up by using a forty-year-old Achilles, big time. Among the other things they mucked up. Ohhh, pet peeves. I wrote a paper on the film as an adaptation once and I've never really gotten off my high horse about it, even though it's really like punching a straw man.

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

And they mucked up by using a forty-year-old Achilles, big time. Among the other things they mucked up.

Achilles was my biggest problem. From the Brad Pitt-ishness, to his whole "I do not care about the gods" attitude which made Thethys' appearance rather strange. To add too that was the whole look of Troy, which mixed Egyptian, Cretan and pseudo-greek style. Then the campaign before the movie that claimed that Troy was "OMG! So realistic - for we have based the fighting on vase-paintings!"

That just strikes me the wrong way - because a) Troy didn't need to be realistic. It's based on largely mythical story, so realism is not a demand. b) This quest for realistic historical portraits is something that seems to plague Hollywood films. It's visible in war movies like Saving Private Ryan and Band of Brothers (even if I love the last one) that have this pseudo-claim going that they are almost documentaries. They are not, they are fiction - and what is so wrong about being fiction? Great insights and truths can be found in fiction as well. I would have loved if Troy had tried to channel that - and what you so poetically call " to balance the glory and the bloody joy of violence out with the pathos of death and dishonour".

But no - they had to be "OMG! So realistic!" (see - here is obviously one of my pet peeves... ;D )

But I shouldn't complain to much. I once sat through "Beowulf" with Christopher Lambert, and that was pain on a whole new level.

I wrote a paper on the film as an adaptation once

You wouldn't have that anywhere online and linkable would you?
I have a great fascination for both adaptations that switch mediums (for instance from book to film) as well as interpretation of history to suit our modern needs. Troy in a way touches on both.

[applegnat.livejournal.com]

Wow, we could just go on and on agreeing with each other. Word upon word. :D

A draft of the paper's here (http://applegnat.livejournal.com/80695.html) - it's flocked, though, so you will have to be signed in. It's pretty lightweight, but I enjoyed doing it. :)

[baleanoptera.livejournal.com]

Wow, we could just go on and on agreeing with each other. Word upon word. :D

*g* I see nothing but good in this! ;)

And thank you for the link. I will run over and read.