Troy / The Last Samurai

Starring:Julian Glover, Brian Cox, Nathan Jones, Adoni Maropis, Jacob Smith, Brad Pitt, John Shrapnel, Brendan Gleeson, Diane Kruger, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Siri Svegler, Lucie Barat, Ken Bones, Manuel Cauchi, Mark Lewis Jones, Garrett Hedlund, Sean Bean, Julie Christie, Peter O'Toole
Director: Wolfgang Petersen, Edward Zwick
Studio: Warner Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Editorial Review:
Amazon.com
There are many reasons to recommend Troy as a good ol' fashioned Hollywood epic, especially if you've never read Homer's The Iliad. Dispensing with Greek gods altogether, this earnestly massive production (budgeted at upwards of $200 million) will surely offend historians and devoted students of the classics (for them, there's the History Channel's Troy). But there's politics aplenty in the grand-scale war that erupts when Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) makes off with Helen (blandly beautiful German model Diane Kruger), wife of Spartan ruler Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), whose brother, the Greek king Agamemnon (Brian Cox) prods him into enraged retaliation. Greek warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) brings lethal force to his battles (and there are many of them, mostly impressive), and his Trojan counterpart, Paris's brother Hector (Eric Bana), adds even more buffed-up beefcake to a film so chock-full o' hunks that there's barely room for Peter O'Toole (doing fine work as Trojan king Priam) and even less for Julie Christie, appearing ever-so-briefly as Achilles's melancholy mother. The drama is nearly as arid as the sun-baked locations (Mexico and Malta) that stand in for the Aegean coast, and many critics suggested that Pitt (who valiantly tries to give Achilles some tormented dimension) was simply miscast. But when you consider that Wolfgang Petersen also made The Perfect Storm, there's nothing wrong with enjoying Troy as a semi-guilty pleasure with a touch of ancient class. --Jeff Shannon

Amazon.com

There are many reasons to recommend Troy as a good ol' fashioned Hollywood epic, especially if you've never read Homer's The Iliad. Dispensing with Greek gods altogether, this earnestly massive production (budgeted at upwards of $200 million) will surely offend historians and devoted students of the classics (for them, there's the History Channel's Troy). But there's politics aplenty in the grand-scale war that erupts when Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) makes off with Helen (blandly beautiful German model Diane Kruger), wife of Spartan ruler Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), whose brother, the Greek king Agamemnon (Brian Cox) prods him into enraged retaliation. Greek warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) brings lethal force to his battles (and there are many of them, mostly impressive), and his Trojan counterpart, Paris's brother Hector (Eric Bana), adds even more buffed-up beefcake to a film so chock-full o' hunks that there's barely room for Peter O'Toole (doing fine work as Trojan king Priam) and even less for Julie Christie, appearing ever-so-briefly as Achilles's melancholy mother. The drama is nearly as arid as the sun-baked locations (Mexico and Malta) that stand in for the Aegean coast, and many critics suggested that Pitt (who valiantly tries to give Achilles some tormented dimension) was simply miscast. But when you consider that Wolfgang Petersen also made The Perfect Storm, there's nothing wrong with enjoying Troy as a semi-guilty pleasure with a touch of ancient class. --Jeff Shannon

While Japan undergoes tumultuous transition to a more Westernized society in 1876-77, The Last Samurai gives epic sweep to an intimate story of cultures at a crossroads. In America, tormented Civil War veteran Capt. Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise) is coerced by a mercenary officer (Tony Goldwyn) to train the Japanese Emperor's troops in the use of modern weaponry. Opposing this "progress" is a rebellion of samurai warriors, holding fast to their traditions of honor despite strategic disadvantage. As a captive of the samurai leader (Ken Watanabe), Algren learns, appreciates, and adopts the samurai code, switching sides for a climactic battle that will put everyone's honor to the ultimate test. All of which makes director Edward Zwick's noble epic eminently worthwhile, even if its Hollywood trappings (including an all-too-conventional ending) prevent it from being the masterpiece that Zwick and screenwriter John Logan clearly wanted it to be. Instead, The Last Samurai is an elegant mainstream adventure, impressive in all aspects of its production. It may not engage the emotions as effectively as Logan's script for Gladiator, but like Cruise's character, it finds its own quality of honor. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Reviews:

"Last" trip to "Troy".......2005-06-01

Epic adventure flicks come in two varieties -- there's the "Ben-Hur"/"Lord of the Rings" type, and then there's the "Alexander" type. Sadly, two of the much-hyped adventures of 2003 and 2004 were monumental duds, both artistically and critically.

"The Last Samurai" tells the tale of a alcoholic officer-turned-mercenary (Tom Cruise), who is dragged to Japan to train the emperor's troops in Western warfare. But when he is captured by a samurai rebellion force, he begins to respect them and their way of life -- even to the point of fighting alongside them.

"Troy" goes further back in time, to ancient Greece and Troy. The beautiful, married queen Helen (pretty but wooden Diane Kruger) has run off with Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom), prompting all the Greek kings to lay siege to Troy in an effort to bring her back, with doomed hero Achilles (Brad Pitt) at the front lines.

Oddly enough, these two films suffer from opposite problems -- "Samurai" romanticizes history to the point of disbelief, while "Troy" strips away all mythological trappings. And it doesn't help either movie: the former is turned into a dewy-eyed star vehicle, while the latter loses many of its layers, and feels thin and undernourished. Achilles isn't much fun without his goddess mom and flawed invulnerability, is he?

Admittedly, the costumes and scenery for each are spectacular. "Troy" is set in an arid Mid-Eastern setting, and has some truly spectacular battle scenes between the Greeks and Trojans. And "Last Samurai" was filmed in New Zealand, which gave it plenty of green, dewy expanses and forests. Too bad each film is burdened with very clunky dialogue.

Tom Cruise plays a P.C., rather annoying version of a soldier, while Orlando Bloom and Brad Pitt do seem to be giving it their all, but are hampered by their thin characters. The supporting actors are given better roles and do a better job, most notably Eric Bana ("Troy") and Ken Watanabe ("Last Samurai"), both of whom shine beside the A-listers.

"Troy" and "The Last Samurai" were attempts at modern Hollywood epics, but with difficult storylines and thin characters, neither one works. They're nowhere near as bad as "Alexander," but nowhere near good either.

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