They Took Some Liberties With the Story

Danny finished the Iliad yesterday. He's mighty pleased with himself. As a reward of sorts, I let him watch the Troy movie. You probably already figured out that anything starring Brad Pitt isn't going to be a faithful re-telling of Homer. Still, it had Peter O'Toole and Julie Christie for god's sake, so you know, I kind of had a little bit of hope it wouldn't be awful. In fact, it was kind of the Iliad for about 45 minutes, which I guess is when the test audiences must have started grumbling about the horse...so then the film shifts into the Aeneid. I dunno, one or the other-sometimes you need to make these decisions...or not. What the hell do I know? I don't make movies that gross a gazillion dollars. I do think, for such a big-budget-star-filled movie the fight scenes could have been better. Still, it wasn't the worst thing I've sat through, (oh man, the movies I wish I could un-watch). Now I need a copy of The Trojan Women (the one with Katharine Hepburn). When I covered the myths I let Danny watch Jason and the Argonauts and I can truthfully say the fight scenes with the skeletons blew away anything in the Troy movie with live actors. Maybe I could appreciate Brad Pitt better as claymation.

Brad Pitt can't act. He isn't so great to look at either. I just don't get it. Am I missing something about this fellow that others obviously see? Two and a half hours of Pitt doing his acting was quite the ordeal. Still, Danny liked it, though as he noted they, "took some liberties with the story." Indeed.

When we finally cover the Aeneid, I'm going to let him watch Battlestar Galactica (no, not the one from the 70's-he's already watched all of those), because let's face it, it is the same story. Thankfully, Brad Pitt wasn't in that (was he?).

On to the Odyssey!