Troy Is Finally Getting The 4K Upgrade It Deserves
More than two decades later, it’s time to give Troy a second shot.
A beautiful warrior with a cat’s eyes glares furiously at his opponent. He positions his spear, ready to strike. What follows is one of the most spectacular fight sequences in all the 2000s, where the mighty Achilles (Brad Pitt) battles the reluctant Hector (Eric Bana) over a blood debt for his slain companion. In this perfect duel, you can see every hit, track every blow. Their powerful movements are so rhythmic and dancelike they almost become beautiful. It’s the twirl of Achilles’ shield, the smooth curve of his spear’s swing, the sound that treats Hector’s shield as percussion. The camera is always lucid and clear, with every cut effortlessly following each line of attack. In dodges and parries, thrusts and lunges, each warrior closes distance, and they soon draw swords, pushing them dangerously close together. It represents much of what’s missing from big blockbusters today — a thrillingly tactile set-piece that sacrifices none of its glamor while retaining all of its coherent fury.
This scene represents Troy (2004) at its best, the lavishly mounted epic that chased the success of Gladiator (2000) and The Lord of the Rings (2001-2003). On paper, it had everything going for it: a star-studded cast with key parts given to stars from classics old and new; Peter O’Toole plays King Priam, Julie Christie as Achilles’ mother Thetis, and even the still green Orlando Bloom as Paris. It was part of that whirlwind when Hollywood made Eric Bana its top leading man. James Horner was commissioned for the score (it’s excellent), and brought with him his always stirring four-note danger motif. It was directed by German filmmaker Wolfgang Peterson, who transitioned from directing his torturously bleak submarine thriller Das Boot (1981) into trashy-but-awesome Hollywood genre fare with In the Line of Fire (1993) and Air Force One (1997). Ironically, that made Peterson the perfect candidate for this version of The Illiad, which has aged into a surprisingly thoughtful, if flawed, sword and sandal actioner. With the limited edition release of Troy on 4K UHD by Arrow, it’s a perfect time to revisit why.
How Was Troy Initially Received Upon Its Release?
Despite the expensive fanfare of its production, Troy was widely dismissed as a meat-headed and boringly secularized approach to Homer. It removed the gods and flattened classic heroes into flesh-and-blood action figures, while Paris and Helen’s tryst was unsexy and bland. Achilles shouts lines of dialogue like “you sack of wine!” and just about nobody seemed to think Pitt (who reportedly did not want to do the film) felt comfortable in the role. The costumes were pure early-2000s, like the aqua-blue tunics that showed the male lead’s midriffs. In his two out of four star review, Roger Ebert joked Homer’s estate should sue. Though it went on to earn nearly 500 million at the global box office (a massive number in 2004 dollars), it was widely seen as a disappointment.
Why Is Troy Important to See Now?
A star-studded affair.
Let’s not lie: it’s always satisfying to check out related movies for a new release, and Troy serves as a makeshift prequel for Christopher Nolan’s recently released The Odyssey. In a coincidental bit of showbusiness lore, Nolan was originally hired to make Troy. Some elements clearly carried over, like the focus on the Trojan Horse, or the beheading of a God’s statue. But Troy has aged into a bracing and fun, if difficult, watch — one that succeeds on its own terms. Peterson’s adaptation of The Iliad is unapologetically Hollywood and yet soulful and despairing, and it’s in the unlikely friction between those two modes that Troy works. Where it’s glitzy and witless one moment, it’s probing and nearly nihilistic the next. Written by David Benioff (yes, the same creative who went on to co-create HBO’s Game of Thrones), its approach is surprisingly dark-edged for a major commercial Hollywood film. Benioff may have eliminated the gods from the story — Athena no longer holds back Achilles’ wrath — but in their place he has his heroes act out other Homeric themes; each character surrenders to their darkest and often most petty of desires, hubris most of all.
Without the intercession of Aphrodite to “gift” Helen to Paris (how it happens in The Iliad), Paris simply runs away with Helen (Diane Kruger) in a reckless romantic gesture, knowing it will break peace between Troy and Sparta. Worse, the more restrained Hector lets him bring Helen home; he knows if he lets Paris run away with her, he’ll be burying a brother. In essence, he chooses his brother over the people of Sparta. This version of Priam even succumbs to his vanity, letting the Trojan Horse into the city walls out of the pomp and glory of its entrance. But none of Benioff’s changes are as stark as with Achilles, who is both a gentle lover and unforgiving psychopath. This Achilles yearns for his story to become a myth, told and retold for all of time. There is nearly nothing he will not sacrifice for that goal: he’s willing to fight for a king he hates (King Agamemnon, a snarling Brian Cox), and participate in a war he doesn’t believe in, so he can win enough glorious kills to enter those tides of history. Thus, every action he takes at Troy is a kind of storytelling by murder, killing as many as he can in as spectacular a manner as he can muster, to mythologize himself in the process. The vapidity of the characters becomes one of the film’s strongest assets, repeatedly foregrounding the banality and pettiness of why these battles are being fought.
This approach is daring and cynical, a tragedy that subverts Peterson’s incredible technical achievement: it is one of the best movies of the 2000s to blend practical filmmaking — massive set builds, shooting in exotic locations, armies of extras — with solid CGI effects that are added to those elements instead of trying to replace them. As a result, Troy is as breathlessly entertaining as it is probing and difficult, giving it a fraught but rewarding legacy Achilles himself should be proud of.
What New Features Does the Troy 4K Blu-ray Have?
The love story between Paris and Helen became central to the film.
+ 4K Restoration Completed by Arrow, with the theatrical cut working from a new 35mm scan (the sections of the Director's Cut not include in the theatrical version were completed with a 2K DI)
+4K (2160p) Ultra HD Blu-ray presentation in Dolby Vision (HDR10 compatible)
+Original lossless DTS-HD MA 5.1 and stereo 2.0 audio options
+Optional subtitles for the deaf and hard of hearing
+ Disc One: Theatrical Cut
+ Disc Two: Director’s Cut + Disc Three Special Features: + Booklet that includes essays by Priscilla Page and Laurie Maguire, as well as production notes. -In Movie Experience: a picture-in-picture commentary track
- Troy in Focus: behind scenes featurette with Wolfgang Peterson
- In the Thick of Battle: a behind the scenes featurette on the making of Troy
- From Ruins to Reality: a behind the scenes featurette on the production design-Attacking Troy: a behind the scenes featurette discussing adapting The Iliad
- Gallery of the Gods: a behind the scenes featurette on various Greek gods
- Theater Trailer + image galeries
