Troy Blu-ray delivers stunningly beautiful video and great audio in this excellent Blu-ray release
The epic tale of the Iliad charting the rise and fall of the ultimate Greek hero, Achilles, explodes onto the screen
in this adaptation. The section concerned, follows Paris's betrayal of the king of Sparta, Menelaus, which results in
the almighty siege of Troy. The characteristic moment was the sending of the Trojan Horse, to trick the enemy
into allowing warriors into the city.
For more about Troy and the Troy Blu-ray release, see the Troy Blu-ray Review
Do you know what's there, waiting beyond that beach? Immortality. Take it. It's
yours!
Wolfgang Peterson has long been one of my favorite directors. He's made plenty of fine films
such as Das Boot, Enemy Mine, and In the Line of Fire. I consider
Das Boot to be his greatest achievement. It's a portrayal of life aboard a German
submarine during World War II. It's cramped and dirty, the men are filthy, the actors mostly
anonymous, and they fight an enemy they can only hear. Troy is also a war film but in a
different setting, and it's almost the complete opposite of Das Boot. The battlefield is
wide open, literally a field between the beach and city walls. The men who fight are mostly well
groomed and portrayed by several of Hollywood's leading men who frequently appear on the front
pages of the supermarket tabloids with legions of screaming and adoring fans. The fighting here,
unlike in Das Boot, is up close and personal and often becomes a one-on-one combat
scenario amongst heroes. Comparing both films, we see not only the difference in war from one
era to
another but also the difference in the way movies are made, notably the
star-studded cast versus the cast of mostly unknowns and a style that depends on strength of
story over
pretty
faces to sell tickets. Obviously Troy has been, by far, the more successful film financially
with the likes of Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, and Eric Bana headlining the marquee, but Das
Boot is far and away the better film. Make no mistake, Troy is a fine film.
It's beautifully crafted and exciting, but it owes much of its success to its stars rather than to
Peterson's immense talents.
Who do you think you are, George Washington?
The story of Troy should be familiar to anyone with even a passing interest in Greek
mythology and ancient history. It is a love story at its core and a tale of the great lengths the
powerful will go to in the name of pride and honor. The film is based on the story contained in
Homer's The Iliad. For a film that is over three hours in length, the plot is surprisingly
simple. When the young Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom, Pirates of the Caribbean: At
World's End) falls in love with Helen of Sparta (Diane Kruger, National Treasure:
Book
of
Secrets), he smuggles her home, taking her away from
her husband Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson, 28 Days Later),
brother
of Agamemnon (Brian Cox, The Rookie), King of
Sparta. The Spartans decide to besiege the city of Troy in revenge, employing the help of
legendary
hero Achilles (Brad Pitt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith).
Eventually, Achilles and Hector (Eric Bana, Black Hawk Down) will
fight to the death after Hector kills Achilles cousin in battle, ultimately leading to the famous
"trojan horse" surprise attack on the city.
Troy is one of the more polished films I've seen. The film was nominated for an Academy
Award for its costume design. It's slick, clean, and well-crafted. Peterson has created an epic film
that is never dull despite its protracted runtime. The film contains highly energetic and
engrossing battle scenes that contain a copious amount of
bloodshed and demonstrate the brutality of combat in this time period. There are heroes and
cowards on both sides; some fight courageously while others cower. For a movie that is bountiful
in Hollywood A-list names, each actor is mostly convincing in their roles. Eric Bana is especially
good as the stalwart Hector, and Orlando Bloom too is fine in his portrayal of the love struck yet
cowardly Paris. Perhaps the weakest link is Pitt. He certainly looks the part of a hero, but I
found his performance somewhat bland on the whole. His delivery is mostly deadpan and it's
hard to forget he's Brad Pitt. Other actors like Sean Bean (Flightplan), who plays
king Odysseus, and the aforementioned Brendan Gleeson are wholly believable and blend in with
the film. Perhaps the best thing about watching Troy is, well, watching it. Not so much
the movie, but admiring the scale and beauty of Peterson's vision. This is a truly epic film in
scope. While not a terrifically well acted or scripted movie, Peterson's direction, the
cinematography, the costuming, and the effects are all top notch.
Troy is of reference quality on Blu-ray. Though it is encoded in the somewhat
controversial
VC-1 encode that is commonplace only on Warner Brothers Blu-ray discs, this 2.40:1, 1080p
high
definition image is of stunning
beauty. The pristine quality of the image is evidenced as soon as the movie begins. As a single
dog
walks through a desert field on a bright day, passing a bloody helmet and coming upon a large
army, viewers are immediately awestruck by what they are seeing on their displays. The image
is
very bright with the primary colors being tans, golds, and browns. Blue is another dominant color
in
the uniforms of the Trojan royalty and, of course, the waters outside of Troy. Each color is
reproduced with stunning clarity and lifelike
accuracy. The greens of the foliage seen throughout the picture from time to time are also
faithfully
reproduced. Detail is very high. Characters look strikingly real and their clothing and armor
look great; every seam is visible. Black levels are solid with fine shadow detail. Flesh tones are
also accurate in appearance. I've reviewed quite a few Warner Brothers titles and this is the best
looking of the bunch. I hope that now that Warner is Blu-ray exclusive we will begin to see
transfers as stunning as Troy on a regular basis.
Nearly as good as the video quality is the PCM uncompressed 5.1 soundtrack that accompanies
the
film. Finally breaking away from their norm of releasing Blu-ray discs with only a lossy Dolby
Digital
track, the inclusion of the PCM track hopefully represents a new direction with the Warner Bros.
releases. For those of you only with the ability to decode a lossy track, a Dolby
Digital 5.1 track is also included, but I urge everyone to start saving up for a player and receiver
that can decode lossless and uncompressed audio tracks. The upgrade is stunning. Even my
wife,
who is by no means an audiophile, noticed the difference immediately when I upgraded. From
the outset, the quality of the track is evident. Ambience is incessant as it emanates from the
rear speakers as the sounds of birds or of the wind or of the waters create a natural and pleasing
atmosphere. Music is represented with deep bass and clear highs and midranges. It sounds
great. Dialogue is reproduced as well as can be expected. It is never muffled, unclear, or lost
under the music or effects. Of course, the track truly shines during the action sequences.
Arrows fly through your listening area with an almost frightening realism. You may find yourself
taking cover! The clanging of swords, shields and armor, and the screams and the bass heavy
pounding of stampedes of hundreds of men charging a position sounds great. While this isn't
quite the hardest hitting and wholly engulfing experience on Blu-ray, this is a very fine
track that ranks very highly as one of the better ones Blu-ray has yet to offer.
Although the lack of a commentary track is an obvious omission, there are still plenty of
supplements to please fans of this film. The supplements begin with an introduction by director
Wolfgang Peterson (1080p, 2:30). He discusses having the opportunity to revisit the film
without studio pressure to trim down the runtime and violence. Troy In Focus (1080p,
23:09) is an eleven part feature that briefly examines many of the challenges in making the film,
including casting, re-creating the weapons of the time, and even dealing with the paparazzi are all
discussed.
In the Thick of Battle (1080p windowboxed, 17:12) is a five-part feature that looks at
the
making of the combat in the film. From Ruins to Reality (1080p windowboxed, 14:00) is
a six part feature that showcases the rigors of filming during a hurricane, building sets and props
to look realistic to the setting, and the search for external inspirations for the film. Troy: An
Effects Odyssey (1080p windowboxed, 10:52), as you may guess, is a seven part look at the
making of the effects including making an armada of ships out of two, making a 50,000 man
army,
and recreating the sounds of swordplay combat. Attacking Troy (1080p, 15:13) is a
three part feature that, despite the name, is really a hodgepodge of material ranging from
adapting The Iliad to modern times to deciding on the fighting tendencies of each hero to
the challenges of flipping a chariot. Greek Ship Towing (1080p, 1:25) is a comedy
routine featuring some of the early and crude computer animated effects that served as the basis
for the final effects in the film. Finally, the film's theatrical trailer (1080p, 2:07) concludes the
presentation of this group of supplements.
One issue I have with the way Warner Brothers presents their extras is that they drag out the
description of each extra to make them look much more substantial than they really are. For
example, they fill up nearly the entire screen with just information about the Troy In
Focus feature. It looks like a plethora of extras, which in reality it is, but when all eleven of
them have a combined runtime of just over 23 minutes, it's deceiving.
Troy is a pretty good movie that is mostly impressive for it's look and style rather than its
take on the tale. The film succeeds as an exciting, action packed epic with excellent direction,
choreography, cinematography, costuming, and special effects. It features mixed acting
performances, but for the most part they range from "decent" to "good." The film is worth
watching for the above mentioned reasons, but it will likely never be shown to serious students of
history or literature as it is not completely true to either the book or what we know of the ancient
history behind the situation depicted in the film. This Blu-ray disc looks excellent. It's a
demo-worthy disc that sports a crystal clear image that ranks among the very best I have ever
seen. The
PCM audio track is very, very good as well. The supplements are deceptively short and lacking in
the depth I was hoping for. On the whole, this is a good movie and a good disc that
is worth adding to your Blu-ray collection. Recommended.
