La Guerre de Troie

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").

I usually begin my reviews with a brief description of how the movie starts out. However, since this is about the Trojan War, beginning with the deaths of Hector & Patroclus, through to the Trojan Horse - you might be able to guess that from the titles in Italian and English - I'm going to suggest that you might read the ILIAD. There are some nice translations available.

Anyway, it's a pretty good Swords-and-Sandala flick, starring the inevitable Steve areeves as Aeneas, the pretty Juliette Mayniel as Helen and the unable-get-work John Drew Barrymore as Ulysses. Barrymore, the son of the better known John Barrymore, seems to have been a difficult man to work with, when he wasn't in jail for drugs or living in the desert.

Mostly one looks at these movies for the costuming, the sets and the homoerotic content, and they're all well represented here. I'd like to comment on the acting here, but there's always a big disconnect in the Italian peplum flicks, since they were shot in Italian, and later had voice-over artists loop their dialogue for the American releases. The English voice work is pretty good.

The film starts with Achiles(Arturo Dominici)dragging body of Hector, Priam's son. Later Aeneas (Steve Reeves) and Priam, king of Troy, go to the enemy camp asking his body. There, Aeneas will have to combat hunk men (Mimmo Palmara, Nello Pazzafini). Later on, at Troy takes place the famous episodes of the prophecy of Cassandra (Lidia Alfonsi) and the ¨Trojan Horse¨ . The movie deals about war of Troy as adaptation from classic poem of Homero. Helena( Hedy Vessel)wife of Menelao of Sparta( Nando Tamberlani),escapes with Paris( Warner). The Greek Army and ships go to Troya with Achiles(Arturo Domicini), the king of Micenas Agamenon(Nerio Bernardi) and the Spartans. They fight against the king of Troya (Carlo Tamberlani) and his son Paris and of course Aeneas.

This is an overwhelming and breathtaking film with impressive battles, as thousands of extras take part and mostly are staged on Yugoslavia.The picture packs colorful cinematography and evocative musical score by Giovanni Fusco. The flick is finely directed by Giorgo Ferroni , an expert on Peplum. It's followed by ¨La Leggenda di Enea¨ or ¨The avenger¨ directed by Giorgo Rivalta and Albert Band and again with Steve Reeves as Aeneas.

The picture is well starred by Steve Reeves who made lots of roman-epic-Italian films also called ¨Musclemen movies¨ or ¨Sword and sandals¨. Luck's Reeves changed when Italian director Pietro Francisci persuaded him to go overseas to star ¨Hercules¨ and sequel ¨Hercules and queen of Lydia¨ also titled ¨Hercules unchained ¨, and later on, he followed with ¨Goliath and the Barbarians¨, ¨The giant of Marathon¨, ¨The son of Spartacus¨ ,¨The Avenger¨ and several others . Steve was an American bouncing who emigrated towards Italy and created a true star-system based on pumped-up heroes. He paved the way for others actors to seek their fame and fortune in Italy playing stocky adventurers . Other stars by the time on this type of movies are Mark Forest, Gordon Mitchell, Dan Vadis, Brad Harris, Ken Wood who is usually Reeves's double and appears in very secondary role at ¨War of Troy¨ ; furthermore 'Gordon Scott' who made him more important competence. Nobody, nevertheless, topped Steve in popularity.

The story is partially based on ¨Iliad¨ that is an epic poem in dactylic hexameters, traditionally attributed to Homer and the screenwriters, Hugo Liberatore and Giorgo Stegani take parts here and there. Set in the Trojan War, the ten-year siege of Ilium by a coalition of Greek states, it tells of the battles and events during the weeks of a quarrel between King Agamemnon and the warrior Achilles. Although the story covers only a few weeks in the final year of the war, the Iliad mentions or alludes to many of the Greek legends about the siege.Along with the Odyssey, also attributed to Homer, the Iliad is among the oldest extant works of Western literature, and its written version is usually dated to around the eighth century BC. The Iliad contains approximately 15,700 lines, and is written in a literary amalgam of several Greek dialects. The authorship of the poem is disputed .

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.

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.