SPOILER ALERT - maybe giving away some plot points though its a famous enough story !!


Caught TROY over the weekend. Should have been renamed "all that Achilles wanted but could not achieve!"....I have not read THE ILLIAD yet (hoping to catch it over the next couple of weeks) but surely Homer dwells more into the Paris and Helen romance....One just does not get the premise behind the Trojan war.....as Helen's husband Menelaus says just even as Paris is on his knees begging his brother Hector to save his life ' is this what you left me for?', it is a poignant moment in the movie and I would have very much liked personally for the question to be answered somewhere along the way.....alas there are no answers, you'll have to read Homer's original in case you are interested in finding out (as I am). And Helen - the face that launched a thousand ships is just a little too ordinary looking! I cannot imagine more than a few dozen rowboats going after her as a search party, leave alone a ton of battleships! The scope is too vast and big and Wolfgang Petersen with his budgetary, commercial & box-office constraints falls short of expectations. I doubt this movie will even recover its monies, going by audience reactions. Even the battle scenes do not quite impress. It is ultimately the story, that does hold your interest, for it is a classic. At the end of the movie however one wishes that a far more gifted writer had written the screenplay (perhaps Tom Stoppard who wrote SHAKESPEARE IN LOVE). It really needed the touch of someone who was more in touch with literature and the current happenings around the world. That treatment would have been simply wonderful !

It will perhaps go down in Hollywood history as another CLEOPATRA (Burton-Taylor movie that never took off)

the movie was entertaining enough although it does not hold up to the leagues of Braveheart and Gladiator. The movie tries too hard to tell an epic story but doesn't really focus on any given characters, just giving us a broad overview of the Trojan War.

The acting is pretty bad, especially when there is several A-list talent involved in the production, however Eric Bana is quite good as the noble Hector. I just wish he had more screentime. Brad Pitt wasn't really given much to do, while Orlando Bloom was pathetic. Brian Cox as Menelaus was just too loud and overacted in every single scene. We needed a more classy actor in the role, much like Peter O'Toole as the king of Troy. Arguably the second (or perhaps third after O'Toole) best performance in the film belongs to Sean Bean as Odysseus. If you have read the Odyssey and saw Bean's performance in Goldeneye or LOR, you know that he is very much capable of performing his role. Bean was excellent and I wish that he was given much more screentime.

The story wasn't really paced well nor was it well written. The movie quickly launched into the siege of troy (not focusing on the romance or political angles at all) and then quickly ends - right after a certain character dies. I found the last scene to be very pathetic as it just made me go - yeah so this guy's dead but what happens to Troy. The aftermath of both armies is not shown and we don't even know what happens to the survivors at the end.


I'm only basing this on the movie and not the literature, and I believe that the movie should be made to stand alone from its source.


However, despite its flaws, the film is entertaining enough to provide massive entertainment and it is generally better than many of the movies made in this genre - however don't expect quality story telling like LOR or Braveheart.

The screenplay was written by David Benieff and is only his second. The first was 25th Hour Directed by Spike Lee




I'm surprised! Wolfgang Peterson directed and co-write what I would term the greatest war movie ever "Das Boot" not to mention his other masterpiece " Shattered" in true Hitchkcock style. He had no problem delivering the goods under any constraint!. Think I'll have to go out and watch this one!

Apparently he is also a novelist that has turned to screen writing which is why it is that much more perplexing that he has failed to transfer the tragedy of the original as much as he should have ! What is sad is, you come away feeling you have watched a movie whose story is something you have seen filmed earlier. This is where a director needs to do his part, be able to assemble a crew that helps him translate his vision in a completely new way.


Yup, DAS BOOT is on the list of movies I want to catch. Though his work in THE LINE OF FIRE was noticeable, it did not really set the screen on fire.

I hope you enjoy the movie

Same rehash storyline, however, John Mallkovich's performance was superb. I couldn't get pass the"Dirty Harry" temperament and I don't think this movie did anything for Clint!



Wait for the Sony uncut version coming soon. Specs below
Das Boot (The Original Uncut Version, 2 discs) - DVD

Format: DVD
Running Time: 293 Min.
Rated NR

SYNOPSIS

This gripping tale from Academy Award® nominated director Wolfgang Peterson follows the daring patrol of U96, one of the famed German U boats known as the "gray wolves." The crew aboard the U96 is graphically portrayed in a desperate life and death struggle, coping with endless hours of claustrophobic boredom at sea, which quickly gives way to terror when confronting the enemy. DAS BOOT delivers an amazingly accurate account of Germany's elite U boat crewmen, as it deliberately hammers away at the tragic waste of war.


DVD FEATURES

• Widescreen Presentation
• Languages: English , German 5.1
• Subtitles: English, French
• Original Extended Version is almost 5 hours long!
• Includes a making-of featurette and the Director's Cut!
• Includes restored original stereo audio and newly created 5.1 audio from the original stereo

About the Film

• Stars: Jürgen Prochnow, Herbert Grönemeyer, Klaus Wennemann
• Director: Wolfgang Petersen
• Producer: Günter Rohrbach
• Writer: Lothar G. Buchheim, Wolfgang Petersen, Dean Riesner
• Genre: Drama
• CC: Yes
• Color/B&W: Color