Helen Of Troy

Helen Of Troy, Prince Paris of Troy, shipwrecked on a mission to the king of Sparta, meets and falls for Queen Helen before he knows who she is. Rudely received by the royal Greeks, he must flee…but fate and their mutual passions lead him to take Helen along. This gives the Greeks just the excuse they need for much-desired war.

STARS: Stanley Baker, Rossana Podestà, Brigitte Bardot

118 min | Drama, History, Romance | 1956 | Color

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One of the greatest epics ever made!
Basically, this movie is criticized because, being one of the very first big international co-productions, its main players were Euro celebrities who never caught on in the US, and because Jacques Sernas' and Rossana Podesta's voices were voiced-over. That is a pretty shallow approach to movie criticism. This film is well-scripted (it's based on Homer and neither substracts nor adds to his basic plot - except for the Gods, which are mentioned but never seen, which makes it a modern secular version of the Iliad), well-acted by some very impressive British actors, superbly constructed (art direction, photography, costumes, period research, choreography) and creates a lasting impression. I own it on laser disc and just had to buy a widescreen TV with home theatre sound to do it justice. I can watch this movie as often as I crave substantial food, which is very often. Robert Wise, besides being the director of The Day the Earth Stood Still, West Side Story and The Sound of Music started his career as the editor of Citizen Kane and it is his input in the editing (vibrant, energetic, kinetic, masculine) that makes this movie a real winner and actually brings life to the giant vistas of this classic and tragic fairy tale/war movie/love story. Max Steiner's beautiful score adds several other dimensions to this masterpiece and its interplay with the editing is always fascinating to watch. The general impression is a beautiful dream of the paintings on a Greek urn coming to magical, inspiring, colourful life. It is also fascinating to watch how the fight scenes were a sort of preliminary study to the ones in West Side Story, which is basically on the same subject. I had better stop while I'm ahead. One word of advice: Don't believe the nay-sayers (i.e. Leonard Maltin) until you have experienced it for yourself in all its CinemaScope, Warnercolor and Stereophonic glory. A must-have at any price and already overdue on DVD.

Great Epic Drama of the Ancient World - with a remarkable resemblance of today's world.
This film of the Illiad has some remarkable resemblance to today's world, I think... For example, interesting to observe that it is not the super-warrior Achilles or the courageous Hector - or even the ruthless Agamemnon - who are decisive of winning the Trojan War; but it's actually Ulysses, with his clever and cunning ruse of infiltrating Troy with the Trojan Horse, and thereby winning the war for the Greeks. Sending a small but potent military force behind enemy lines - who make it possible for the main miliatry force to enter and conquer - is of course a classic example of spy undercover work.

In fact, I think Ulysses was probably the greatest pioneer of espionage and Black Ops in the Ancient World :) Also, Ulysses has a great line at Achilles' fall: "So dies Greek courage, but not Greek cunning!"... This actually sounds a bit like something a spy agency would say, when commemorating a fallen comrade - during the Cold War, for example. And of course many spy agencies would still say today, such as the Intelligence Organization of the IRGC - namely Ali Khamenei, Hossein Salami and Hossein Taeb - when propagating antisemitism, gender-based violence and patriarchal oppression in Iran's Current State... Anyway, the whole notion of going to war over a woman is rather silly of course; with Helen, in the film, providing the Greeks just the excuse they need for a much-desired war... However, in today's world, something like that actually might occur again; of going to war because of something the fair sex might symbolise; not because of feminine beauty, machoism, militarism or politics - as depicted in the film - but rather because of what the fair sex might symbolise on an ethical and emotional level; such as liberty and freedom, and that virtues such as innocence, gentleness and vulnerability must be safeguarded in today's world. This is actually also what Ancient Greek Literature and Philosophy teaches us - and also this film of the Illiad - that vulnerability is also a virtue, in the sense that it's okay to be gentle and vulnerable, which is central to human experience, liberty and love.