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Example research essay topic: Thomas Palaima Richard Nilsen Real - 968 words

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The Iliad Movie Troy is the adaptation of "The Iliad" by Homer. Wolfgang Petersen directs this epic retelling of the battle of Troy. Paris (Orlando Bloom) wins the heart of Helen (Diane Kruger). This would not ordinarily be a problem, except that Helen is already married to Menelaus (Brenden Gleason). Helen moves to Troy, and Agamemnon (Brian Cox), the ruler of all the armies of Greece, uses this as an excuse to attack. Hector (Eric Bana), brother of Paris and the general of the Trojan forces, serves his father, Priam (Peter O'Toole) who is the ruler of Troy.

Agamemnon employs Achilles (Brad Pitt), the most gifted and feared warrior to lead his massive army against the well fortified city of Troy (Lynn). The Iliad contains everything about war: real courage, real cowardice, real command failures, real command genius, real self-seeking, real self-sacrifice, real equipment malfunction, real logistical mistakes, real supply shortages, real bad luck, real good luck, real love of family, real love of friends, real love of brothers in arms, real love of country, real hatred, real sorrow, real pity, real wisdom, real folly, real enemies, real death, real ugliness, real beauty, real fog and real clarity, and, yes, even real gods. Let me repeat that: real gods. Just as real as the God proclaimed in Exodus (King James version): "The Lord is a man of war: The Lord is his name. " Real gods who inscrutably shape and shake human lives (Thomas Palaima).

The Iliad is real, and it taught Greeks, young and old, what they needed to know about war. It helped them to understand what it is like to attack in an army and to be attacked. Because they knew the Iliad, Greeks who were coming of age for obligatory military service knew what war was. War was a grim necessity. War could confer honor and glory and make a man a hero, a woman a heroine. War could break and ruin good human beings, forever, and bring death to innocents (Thomas Palaima).

It may seem like a lot to keep straight, but even if on is not familiar with "The Iliad, " the relationships are very clear. The opening features a few title cards that try to set up the story, and those are a bit confusing, but they can be ignored. Troy is much more than the examination of one man's struggles against an oppressive force. The plot examines the motivations and obstacles of each of the main characters; it paints a whole picture, and a complicated one at that. Unlike most movies, Troy is not simply good versus evil; the forces that drive men against each other are looked at on a personal as well as a national level.

The war they fight is not really just about Helen being taken away and many of the characters understand that. Why Achilles decides to fight is more than simply "he has to. " Every major action by each of the characters has repercussions not only for themselves but also for all the people around them, and it is compelling to see a film where in many instances, both sides are "wrong" and "right" simultaneously (Lynn). Petersen's direction is tight. For such a long feature, it never drags on. He is able to keep each of the characters clearly defined and none are thrown away or forgotten. The battle sequences are impressive, too.

Even though this will be the selling point of the film, it's not the most engaging element. They are done well, though, and they show the importance of the decisions made by the leads, but the movie as a whole is better than the individual parts. As Richard Nilsen writes: Troy validates a whole sheaf of contemporary attitudes: Political leaders are not to be trusted; babies are to be kissed; wives are to be men's equals in marriage; it is more noble to die for love than to die for glory; if a civilization is destroyed, a few key individuals will be herded to safety through a tunnel somewhere to keep the flame alive. Serious academics might notice that Troy strays from "The Iliad" in some ways. The relationship between Patroclus and Achilles was changed for the movie; and the story extends beyond where it ends in the poem.

The war that lasted ten years was reduced to a few days in the film. Helen's relationship with Paris was negatively affected in the original version after a confrontation with Menelaus. However, the biggest departure from "The Iliad" winds up making Troy better rather than worse. The movie lacks the gods as characters: while they are referred to, Troy is a humanist story, and in a film about war it's nice that it digs a little deeper than "God told us to. " This is probably due to the director's incentive to make the movie as realistic as possible. If the gods were present in the movie, it would have been very much like a fairy-tale, which would make it extremely difficult for the viewers to treat it seriously (Lynn). David Benioff in his interview to BBC said, that besides Illiad, he also used The Odyssey, The Aeneid, Ovid's Metamorphoses, Robert Graves' The Greek Myths and a good detail of critical literature, particularly the work of Bernard Knox, whose introduction to Robert Files's user translation of The Iliad is probably his single favorite work of Homeric analysis.

This explains why there are several difference between the story in the movie Troy and Homers Illiad. Works cited: Michael D. Lynn; Troy Movie review. Published: May 14, 2004 Richard Nilsen, The Arizona Republic, May. 16, 2004 12: 00 AM Thomas Palaima, The Difference Between Hollywood's Troy and Homer's; 5 - 18 - 04: Fact & Fiction Interview with David Benioff, Troy screenwriter: web


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Research essay sample on Thomas Palaima Richard Nilsen Real

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