The Iliad(the epic written by Homer) comparted to Troy(the movie staring Brad Pitt) - Research Paper Example

The Iliad (the epic written by Homer) compared to Troy (the movie starring Brad Pitt) The Iliad (the epic by Homer) and Troy (the movie starring Brad Pitt) is a story of conflict that end up into a war between Troy (the Trojans) and Greece (the Achaeans). In both cases Menelaus’ wife, Helen, is the root cause of the conflict between the two nations (Winkler, 23). Menelaus was the brother of the king of Greece whose name is Agamemnon. In both the poem and the film, Paris who is a prince of Troy run off with Helen. This leads to Menelaus and his brother, Agamemnon, the king of Greece to set out with the aim of destroying Troy and to reclaim Menelaus wife. As they set off to Troy, a feud between Agamemnon the King of Greece and Achilles one of the greatest Greek warriors plays out very significantly at the beginning in both the film and the poem and creates the epic hero (Troy). Achilles despised the king and, refuses join the war and fight the Trojans. The raging battle resulted in many deaths and casualties among the Greeks. However, Achilles is forced to change his mind and fight alongside the king of Greece when Patroclus is killed by Hector who is the mightiest among the Trojan warriors. This makes Achilles rage towards Agamemnon shifts towards the Trojans and joins in the war to avenge Patroclus (Homer, 42). However, a significant outstanding difference comes out between the film and the poem. The poem talks of Patroclus as Achilles’ friend whereas the film displays him as Achilles’ cousin. Nevertheless the similarity that comes out in both works is notably the same: strong, close, and loving. Patroclus, seeing that Achilles had refused to join the action could not stand around any longer as his fellowmen get slaughtered by the Trojans. He decides to join the action and begs Achilles to let him fight alongside his fellowmen (Troy). Achilles agrees to let him join in the war and gives him his own armor to use in the battlefield (Homer, 20). The epic and the film display perfectly the changes that occur from shifting one medium to another (in this case text to film) and the effects of these changes. Whereas the movie appears visually appealing to the eye, it fails in creating the depth and originality found in the original piece of work. There are several changes in the dialogue, plot changes, temporal and spatial variations, casting, and inclusion and exclusion of particular themes. Some of these aspects are good in that they help in the presentation of the epic to a modern day viewer. The sense of reality in the time the epic was written differs significantly from that of a modern day. For example, Supernatural powers played a much bigger part then than now and ancient Greek gods are completely irrelevant in modern times. Other changes made during adaptation make the epic lose its depth and originality. The purpose of this essay is to address the transformation of ideas and values from the Iliad to Troy. It looks at changes that occurs over time to the characters, the meanings of war, love and friendship. It goes deeper into looking at the differences arising from cultural “time travel” of the Iliad and the texts transformation and corrosion into a modern, commercial film and how these differences affects the comprehension of the original work. In the poem, the Greek gods play a very significant role in the book. They are the ones who determined who was going to live or die or which side was going to win or lose (Homer, 38). In the film, however, the gods were not present except Achilles mother Thetis. The film shows Achilles mother but doesnt explicitly name her as a goddess. The film makes an inclusion which is not present in the epic when Achilles says hes met the gods and has not been impressed. The film talks slightly of the existence of gods but does not show the gods manipulating the humans as was in the poem (Troy). This might have been omitted in the film during the adaptation to give a sense of reality in the modern times where supernatural powers do not play any significant role. But, this makes the epic lose its originality as it does not display the gods determining the outcome of the battle. In the epic, the Trojans rely on certain gods to protect them but the gods let them down because of reasons the Trojans could not understand. Most of the happenings the Trojans go through is partly as punishment for the violation of the guest-host relationship, Cassandra and Apollo (Homer, 42). Peterson does not portrays any of this except for few instances where characters display fear of gods retribution. All this displays a sense of the gods playing no significant role in the film as the epic display. The film does not go the “good vs. evil” road, instead it adapts more of a Homeric approach where all the heroes were equally wonderful and just and admirable. The film even seems to suggest to the viewer to sympathize with Trojans rather than Greeks. Even if Paris seduces Menelaus wife, which in itself is a bad deed, an insult to be avenged for, Paris’s deed is sort of justified by portraying Menelaus as a cheating, immoral, untrimmed drunk in contrast with an emphatic and handsome Paris. While in the Iliad Helen is literally kidnapped, taken away from a beloved husband, home and children and given as a prize for Prince Paris. In Troy she is portrayed as a victim: a young girl married by force to an unloved, unfaithful man. Romance with Paris is her salvation, her road to happiness to real life. Paris is portrayed as Helen’s rescuer and liberator: When he sees Helen struggling with the moral issues of their affair he asks her: “Do you want me to go?” Helen answers by dropping her clothes down to the floor (Troy, 2004). And while Helen is making love to Paris upstairs, Menelaus is shown kissing a dancer during the medieval-like party downstairs. Helens infidelity is justified by her unfaithful husband. Menelaus’ mistreatment of his beautiful wife gives the license to her affair with Paris. Both medium successfully communicate to the audience the main theme which was Achilles anger and they also perfectly shows how he let out his anger. In the epic, after Achilles cousin Patroclus was killed by Hector (Homer, 51) in a night-morning raid at the Greek camp, Achilles jumped above the wall of Troy and confronted Hector to fight. Achilles moved to the wall and shouted out Hectors name until he came out (Troy). In the scene Hector is preparing to meet his death – a duel with Achilles, who is standing outside the gates of the city shouting Hector’s name. After having said his goodbyes to his father and brother Hector descends down the gates where he meets up with his wife: “Remember what I’ve told you?” – asks Hector, referring to the secret passage he has shown to Andromache the night before. “You don’t have to go. You don’t” – replies she with tears in sight. No goodbyes are said, though both are aware that this is their last meeting. Their little son starts crying, scared of the tensed atmosphere in the air as well as the coolness of Hector’s armor. Just like in the Iliad, the presence of the war scares the little child. The division of Hector-Andromache scene presents the viewer with a more intimate, more human angle since we see the pair in the cosines of their own home prior to the war, contrasted by the despair in public. Yet both scenes portray same fear, same uncertain thoughts, and same anxieties as it did in the Iliad. It appears that on “human level” the Iliad and Troy are remarkably similar – a proof that human emotions, feelings and fears did not change a lot during thousands of years of history of mankind. The intense fight between them sees Hector dies at the sword of Achilles who had godlike skills. Achilles then use a rope and ties Hector body to his chariot and drag his corpse around the walls. There is a key inconsistency in the way characters other than Hector and Achilles are handled. Briseis is made a priestess of Apollo, and the film put so much emphasis on the Trojans devotion to their god/gods and overlooks the Greek side. The character of Agamemnon in the film is shown to be a leader who pretends to be a world leader and a leader who is very unlikable which not the case in the epic is (Troy). Another major difference is how many characters dies. In the film, most of them meet their fate during the war but in the poem they died later. For example, in the film, Ajax the Greater is killed by Hector, (Troy), but in the poem he died by suicide. Menalaus is killed and does not live to reclaim his wife as displayed in the film. As a matter of fact, he goes on to be one of the few Greek champion to have a lucky ending to the war. Achilles is shown to live to see the sacking of Troy but in the original text he dies before that event takes place by an arrow. Paris, the prince of Troy manages to survive in the film by escaping from the city with Helen. All of these changes seriously affect the depth, the tone, intent and the originality of the Iliad. The film also makes a huge change in the character of Hector. In the original text, Hector boasts about how he is not going to let the Greeks recover the body of Patroclus and even say he will feed his body to the dogs. Achilles likewise after killing Hector wants to revenge his cousins and initially intend to feed Hectors body to the dog in his anger but later takes pity on Priam and releases his son’s body for a proper funeral. The film however brings out Hector as the good guy who wants peace with the Greeks. The film also displays him as the best fighter among the Trojans which is not the case in the Iliad where he often reluctant to be in the action front unless he had an assurance from one of the gods that he should indeed fight in the front. In the film, they show him leaving the city to meet Achilles which is was not the case in the Iliad. In the Iliad, his courage fails him and tries to run to the city but the faster-footed Achilles catch up with him (Homer, 32). Homer says the conflict took ten years but in the film the quarrel only last three weeks. Hector kills both Menelaus and Ajax on the second day of the war. The film displays Helen as having been wooed by Paris rather than being won. The film does not contain the section showing that Helen remained a reward to Paris for selecting to give an excellent apple to the goddess Aphrodite instead of the goddess Hera or Athena. In the epics, Achilles was long dead at the time the wooden house was built, but the film keeps him alive and he goes to search for his love interest, Briseis. Attacked by Agamemnon, Briseis kills him in the film something that does not happen in the Iliad. The character of Prince Paris was made more likeable and appealing in the film. In the film, Helen is glad that Paris didnt finish the fight and that he chose love over honor. The Iliad portrays Helen disgusted with the cowardly Paris and even wishing he had died in the fight. The film shows Hector killing Melelaus something that does not happen in the Iliad since Melelaus return home with Helen. The connection between Achilles and Patroclus in the film was similar to the Iliad even though Achilles and Patroclus were cousins and not friends as displayed in the film. In the film and the Iliad, Patroclus chose to wear Achilles’s suit of armor and imitated Achilles and went on and to battle the Trojans. Prince Hector thinking it was Achilles killed Patroclus in battle. The film displays Hector as an honorable man in, but the Iliad portrays him as cowardly. He goes outside the gates of the city to fight Achilles get scared and runs away. A god pretending to be his brother convince him to confront Achilles and he get killed. Achilles then ties him to his chariot and drags his body around Troy for everyone to see then leaves the body for the dogs (Homer, 57). The happenings between Priam and Achilles are similar in both cases. King Priam goes to Achilles and gets down on his knees and then kisses Achilles hand begging Achilles to let him have his son’s body so that he can have a proper burial. There are many things that were totally excluded from the film. For instance, it does not show Paris death, no mention of Agamemnons wife or even Hector stripping Patroklos of Achilles armor after killing him and then wears it, when facing-off with him outside of Troys gates. Most of these things were probably changed in the making of the movie to create a happier, more finalized and simpler storyline. The movie and the poem display perfectly the changes that occur from shifting one medium to another and the effects of these changes. The film is visually appealing, but it doesn’t have the depth of the original poem. This is because the film adaptation usually involves numerous individuals providing their inputs into the film. The poem though originally authored by one person must have been splintered into many interpretations. This is because the film is attempting to obtain a slightly different audience than written material and, has gone through moderate changes before being projected on the big screen. These changes are usually for dramatic purposes, logistical reasons and for making the content more palatable for the viewers. Many core elements of pieces of literature, music, drama, and art changes drastically when they are subjected to film adaptation (Beach, 23). For instance, they usually go through adjustments of the point of view. Books and other forms of print literatures are the one mostly affected when they are adapted to the silver screen. The narrative voice becomes lost when point of view is transcribed from the page to the screen. In situations where the film director attempt to keep the original point of view intact, the point of view is delivered to the public through the voice of the narrator. However, it is clear that, the lens of the camera and the voice of a narrator cannot do justice to the original point of view found in the book which makes the essence of the piece becomes harder to find (Beach, 30). In conclusion there are a lot of inaccuracies in the relationship between the Iliad and Troy even though the Iliad is based upon Troy. Peterson did an injustice to Homers work, according to many reviewers, by selecting the Iliad as an inspiration source of the film. However, it is worth noting the expressive medium in both works. The Iliad being a written text appeals to the audience differently as compared to Troy which is a visual medium. When reading the text one uses imagination to draw the picture based on the information given in the text. As a result each member of the audience might have different pictures emerging from the same text. On the other hand, while viewing a film, all the audience are presented with the very same images. While the ancient readers/listeners of the Iliad could be comfortably thrown into the middle of Trojan War, knowing what happened before from a common knowledge of myths, a modern film viewer needs the extra credits to understand and to identify with the story. This might explain why Peterson chose to alter the echo in the Iliad so that he can be able to he presents the prehistory of the Trojan War to help the viewers to understand and identify with it. Reference Homer. Iliad & Odyssey, N.p: Harper Collins, 2002. Print Troy: Dir. Wolfgang Petersen, 2004. Film Beach, Richard “Troy," Montreal film journal, 59.1 (2007). Print. Winkler, Martin M. Troy: From Homers Iliad to Hollywood Epic. New York: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012. Print. Read More