Dear Cinemythologists,
On Thursday, November 5, we resume our unit on the Trojan War. Please do the following.
VIEWING
- Troy (Wolfgang Petersen, 2004)
Streaming on Swank Digital Campus. Take notes as you see fit. Coming nearly 50 years after Helen of Troy, today’s viewing ought to give us a long view on Hollywood screen epics of the 21st century.
ANALYSIS
Davis and Knepper will continue our Analysis series. Their sequence selection is in the comments.
READING
- Blondell, Ruby. 2013. “‘Third Cheerleader from the Left’: From Homer’s Helen to Helen of Troy.” In Nikoloutsos, Konstantinos P. Ancient Greek Women in Film, 51–74. Oxford University Press.
Blondell explores the tensions between Diane Kruger’s Helen, Rose Byrne’s Briseis, and Brad Pitt’s Achilles — all with an eye toward ancient sources.
SEQUENCES
- Cullors, Rosenblum.
Use the comments feature on this post to recommend a sequence to be reviewed and discussed in class.
Recommendations should contain the following:
- A brief description of the sequence.
- Precise starting and ending times (hh:mm:ss — hh:mm:ss).
- A rationale as to why this sequence is worth our time.
DC
Davis/Knepper have chosen the scene between Achilles and Thetis, around the 30-minute mark.
My scene suggestion is from 0:09:40–0:11:29 which is the feast with the princes of Troy and the Spartans and continues to Paris following Helen upstairs. This scene has several eye level shots back and forth between Helen and Paris while Menelaus is speaking about peace which foreshadows how their love/flirting will undercut politics. Additionally it establish to the audience what the Greek lifestyle is like.
My scene suggestion runs from 0:21:26 – 0:24:29, it is the scene where Patroclus is first introduced, and when Odysseus visits Achilles to persuade him to join in the war effort on the side of the Greeks. This scene defines both the relationship between Patroclus and Achilles (which leans heavily on their status as cousins to negate any homoeroticism) and between Odysseus and Achilles. It also grounds Achilles’ initial motivations for joining the war and plays into the heavy re-occurring theme of legacy and memory that is present throughout the film.