Der Kampf um Troja

Having watched a spate of Trojan War movies recently, I have to say this is among the best. It's not as epic as Robert Wise's excellent HELEN OF TROY from 1956, but far superior to the lame 2003 TV movie of that title and also to the Brad Pitt vehicle TROY.

The story begins at the very end of the war, with events in full swing. The focus is on the Trojan noble Aeneas (Steve Reeves), a man of peace forced by circumstance to become a great warrior. Paris and Helen are portrayed as burned-out, bitter lovers; Paris's death scene is quite dramatic. The various Greek besiegers (Achilles, Ajax, etc.) are sharply drawn.

The sets are wonderful. The CGI monstrosities of TROY and even the imposing sets for Wise's HELEN OF TROY were far too overblown to be historically credible; here we see a much more likely representation of the Bronze Age city, with a low wall, small but exquisite temples, dirt streets, and a populace weary of siege and infighting. The camp of the Greeks is built on an equally convincing scale.

Anchoring the whole film is Reeves' portrayal of Aeneas. Playing Hercules made him world famous, but this is the role he was born for. His heroic stature is truly impressive. Happily, he reprised the role in a sequel, LAST GLORY OF TROY (LA LEGGENDA DI ENEA), which picks up the story of Aeneas after his flight from Troy and his arrival in Italy, where once again the warrior must make take up arms to achieve the peace he desires. In both movies, the filmmakers' use of elements from The Iliad of Homer and The Aeneid of Virgil is intelligent and laudable. Together these films deliver a truly impressive vision of the earliest legends of ancient Rome.

If I remember well it was last year (1997) when I first saw this movie on the private Italian channel Rete 4 one Sunday afternoon. It was broadcasted in the series "Kolossal All'Italiana". At the same time, the Italian state TV RAI3 was showing "Helen of Troy" in the series "Colossi di Casa", both series implying that the movies were epics filmed in Italy. Before viewing this film I thought it was some sort of low-budget re-make of "Helen of Troy", but on watching it I was surprised to find out otherwise. Even though the storyline is basically similar in both films, this one offers a different kind of entertainment. While "Helen of Troy focuses more on the love affair between Helen and Paris, this movie is more concerned on the psychological situations of the principal characters, namely Aeneas. The final scene of "La Guerra di Troia", showing Aeneas escaping carrying his son in his arms after the death of Creusa is much more touching than the finale of the other movie showing Helen looking longingly at Troy where Paris had been killed. Even though I liked more "Helen of Troy" because of its better cinematography, better colour and better acting, still I have to admit that this one is of a higher level than many other Italian sword and sandal films of that era.

As the movie begins, a small group of Trojans (or is it the Greeks) on horseback stand facing towards their beloved Troy (or maybe its Athens). As the epic story is introduced in a voiceover, I watched curiously as one of the horses raised his tail in an arc and then casually "took a dump" one might say. A comment on the upcoming tale or performance? Actually, the horse was rather too severe in his prejudgements. As "sword and sandal" epics go, this one was not too bad. Steve Reeves looked chiseled and handsome, most of the sets and costumes were convincing, and there were some beautiful horses and chariots, although way too many battle scenes, shot long range so it was mostly a blur and a lot of shouting in Italian or something. Not a bad way to brush up on your Homeric history though, with the whole cast of characters from Helen to Casandra, Ulysees to Archilles (who got killed by an arrow shot in the "you know where").

Although we got to see very little of Steve Reeves's impressive physique in The Trojan Horse, we also didn't hear that impressively dubbed bass in the two Hercules movies.

The twist here is an interesting one. Reeves plays Aeneas a Trojan warrior who seems to have more in common with the Greek invaders. He regard Paris played here by Warner Bentivegna as a real punk which he certainly acts like. The irony of hundreds of people being killed on both sides including a lot of good men is not lost on him.

In that computer graphic driven spectacle Troy the roles of Paris and Helen were played by Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger and they were just two crazy kids in love her trying to escape an enforced marriage. Here Helen is played by Edy Vessel and she's quite the scheming vixen.

As Peplum pictures go in that era when two or three seemed to be coming out every week the classic tale gets a different and unique version. Ulysses is played by John Drew Barrymore the only other American in the cast.

There is a sequel about the further adventures of Aeneas which I'm also interested in. This is all based on Aeneid which is the Trojan version of the events of the fall of Troy and the aftermath by Virgil.

Although produced on a higher scale (and budget) than most of these "epics", "The Trojan Horse" soon becomes a tedious blur of battles in which it is even tough to tell who is who. If you're looking for quality Steve Reeves content, he has one great, albeit way too brief, fight scene early on versus the mighty warrior (and not the Dutch soccer team) Ajax, but you can 100% safely skip the rest of the movie, where he is barely visible. ** out of 4.