TROY

The summer blockbuster movie Troy, starring Brad Pitt and Eric Bana, has drawn much attention and mixed reviews from the popular press. As a SCAdian, perhaps I draw different ideas and images from the film than Ebert or Roeper, so let's look at how this movie works from the perspective of medieval times and our revisionist medievalism.

First, as medievalists and medieval people, the story of the Trojan War is a common source of tales, images and role models for medieval literature, popular culture and life itself. The main source works relevant to the Trojan War are Homer's Iliad and Odyssey and Virgil's Aenead, all of which were well-known in period (no doubt in the original Greek and in Latin translation). However, if you want to bone up on the stories to spice up your table talk at feast, don't start with this movie. There are significant differences between the film and the books, and for a modern audience these are not necessarily bad things.

In particular, The Iliad is dominated by the Greek gods and goddesses who use the Trojan War as a surrogate for their own feuding. Apollo was patron of the Trojans, Athena patroness of the Greeks and all through the book these two and their Olympian factions use the various mortal characters to score points against each other. In fact, the gods and goddesses "stir the pot" so blatantly in The Iliad that they order mortals to attack in certain places, disguise themselves as mortals to trick unsuspecting fighters into breaking truces and, when a favourite warrior is in danger, they stop the fighting and whisk their favourite away to safety and, in some cases, miraculous healing. The film Troy doesn't rely upon such blatant devices and, as an audience member, I'm grateful. The constant meddling of the Greek pantheon would turn the film into a parody of a good story about marionettes masquerading as mortal warriors (as a cinematic aside, I understand the 1960s Supermarionation TV series Thunderbirds is being made into a feature film. Can someone kindly stop the madness?). What instead is presented in Troy is a story of men, not gods; some men are religiously observant, others uncertain, some downright defiant of the gods and their roles in battle and in life. Indeed, this movie is SCA Corpora-compliant; it removes all active vestiges of religion and theology altogether!

The lack of divine manipulation drives some pretty fundamental plot changes. Take the trigger for the Trojan War, the abduction of Helen, Queen of Sparta. In the Greek myths, Paris of Troy was asked to choose the most beautiful of three goddesses, dooming himself to the enmity of the two losers. Paris picked the "right" goddess and was handed the most beautiful mortal woman as a door prize (according to Homer, Helen never fell out of love with her husband and after the fall of Troy returned to him). Had the most beautiful woman resided in old Cathay, Paris would have lived with Mulan of Troy, I suppose. I am thankful there is no such divine game-show in Troy; instead, Helen falls in love with Paris during a diplomatic visit and is smuggled out of her husband's castle. In the film she hates her husband Menelaus enough to leave him and Menelaus wants her back specifically so he can burn her at the stake for insulting his honour. Without a goddess and her teleporter, how else can the plot unfold?

Troy really is the story of Achilles, Greek hero of the Trojan War (Pitt). There are numerous other significant characters, on the Greek side (Odysseus/Sean Bean and Agamemnon/Brian Cox) and the amongst the Trojans (Hector/Eric Bana, his brother Paris/Orlando Bloom and their father Priam/Peter O'Toole) but the movie revolves around the trials and tribulations of Achilles. He fights as warlord of Pthia, one of the loose confederation of Greek city-states led by Agamemnon but Achilles hates Agamemnon, so every so often he and his men sit out a battle. In this regard the film is true to the book.

The Iliad opens in the ninth year of the siege of Troy; the film begins with the abduction of Helen. The first of several spectacular battle sequences (including a few scenes with shield pressing shield and the bodies piled so thick it's obvious the extras can't move) is the Greeks storming the beach at Troy to open the siege. This sequence confirms one of the fundamental themes of the film, the quest for glory. Achilles wants glory; he understands the fundamental Viking truth that men and cattle die but a name lives forever. Achilles wants an undying name and says so. His prowess is unquestioned; his arrogance at this stage of the war also is notable.

Following Achilles' ship into the shore, the Greek hero Ajax goads his shipmates with the cry, "Row, you sons of whores! Greeks are dying!" After the first battle, as Achilles walks past, Ajax makes a point of stopping him and telling Achilles what an honour it was to fight beside him. In this Ajax is, for me, the essence of the successful, switched-on SCAdian warrior. He is loyal to his comrades and to those who serve his Kingdom. He understands that glory is both won and shared. He draws glory and satisfaction from merely sharing the field with greatness. He offers due praise in a timely and plain- spoken manner.

One of the underlying themes of the film is growth and education. When Ajax praises Achilles on the beach, Achilles' response is at best ambiguous; maybe he is saying it also was Achilles' honour to share the beach with Ajax, maybe he is saying that yes, Ajax was indeed honoured to be there when Achilles performed deeds of legend. Is Achilles that much of a jerk? Maybe, at that stage of the story. Near the end of the film, Achilles' faithful subordinate Eudorus tells Achilles, "It has been the honour of my life to serve you." Achilles smiles, nods silently and leaves. Perhaps Achilles has grown enough to accept a lesser man's heartfelt compliment and to dignify it with grace? Ask any Royal Peer of the Society how hard it is to accept devotion, service and praise from people you've never met.

As in The Iliad, Paris of Troy offers to meet Helen's husband in single combat to head off further bloodshed. As in The Iliad, Paris is no match for Menelaus; in the film a grizzled old veteran of the wars (and I'd bet a few nasty bar fights) wipes the beach with Orlando Bloom's character and is about to behead the youngster. At this stage in the Iliad, a divine cloak is used to sweep the defeated Paris off the field and into Helen's bedchamber (I'm not making this up; read the book and see). The movie doesn't have this option; instead, Paris' nerve breaks and he scuttles on hands and knees to his brother Hector's feet and begs for help. Paris is a young fighter who meant well but found himself way out of his depth; like we never see that in the SCA! Paris spends the rest of the film beating himself up over his failure, when his father, his brother and everybody else in Troy seems to get over his shameful cowardice pretty quickly. When Paris learns how to get past his mistakes, his character becomes pretty useful, on the field and off. Again, I think many of us have lived that in our medievalist lives.

Achilles, still ticked at Agamemnon, holds his fighting household out of a big battle and the Greeks suffer for it. Later, his personal troops follow Achilles into battle for the Greeks; at least they think it's Achilles. He moves like Achilles, wears Achilles' armour and helmet, throws the same shots... Actually it's his cousin and squire, Patroclus, who has been receiving personal tutelage in arms from Achilles for some undetermined long time and has borrowed his lord's kit. Perhaps some find this mistaken identity improbable, but I've seen squires who look so much like their Knights in the lists it's uncanny and they weren't wearing their Knights' various helmets and surcoats. In a case of mistaken identity, Hector slays Patroclus, thinking he's Achilles. This sets up the climax of The Iliad, the great duel between Hector and Achilles, who seeks revenge for his cousin's death.

(For those with no knowledge of Greek myth, classic literature or film magazines and want to be surprised by the movie, skip the next paragraphs.)

Achilles defeats Hector in an epic display of prowess. Then, despite Hector's stated desire to offer the vanquished all proper funerary rites (Achilles' reply: "Lions don't make pacts with men." This is verbatim from The Iliad, by the bye), Achilles ties Hector's corpse behind his chariot and drags it away. Angry over the death of Patroclus, Achilles desecrates his foe's body and denies his family the consolation of religious rituals to placate the dead man's spirit and to work through their grief. Aged Priam, Hector's father, comes to Achilles that night in secret, to beg for his son's body. This is accomplished in The Iliad with - what else - divine jiggery-pokery. In the movie, Priam says he knows the land he rules better than any Greek; it's clear he took some back path. Regardless, we reach the climactic moment, where Priam meets Achilles in his tent. In the film, Achilles agrees to let the old man take his son's body that night. Achilles says, "But tomorrow we'll be enemies." Priam's response is classic; "We're enemies tonight, but enemies can show respect." Is that not the essence of the Pennsic War? Which Kingdoms ally, who wins, doesn't matter from one season to the next. What is remembered is the respect shown to the foe and by the foe, and within the frame of that respect what glory is won.

Both The Iliad and Troy chronicle the exploits of Achilles, the greatest warrior of his time. In particular, they show a fighter learning to balance prowess with the grace, respect and generosity that in later times came to be known as chivalry. The film shows mistakes made and atoned for, gallantry and growth. It offers object lessons to those of our time who don armour and seek glory, camaraderie and honour from someone across a hot field on a summer's day. As Odysseus says, as Achilles says, as Hector says, those who share the strife, the honour and the glory are brothers, regardless of allegiance. Is that not the essence of why we put on scarlet and stand in the shieldwall?

Troy has a lot of issues, if not out-and-out problems; I am not sure the Greeks lived in Mongol-style yurts, I'll assume for sake of argument the Trojan War was so ancient the Greeks hadn't invented the phalanx yet, and the musical score to the film really is pretty mediocre. But this film reminds me of old battles and old friends and makes me look ahead to August and the knowledge I will be standing in the sun with people I may not necessarily know but who are without a doubt the finest folks within ten thousand miles.

In medieval Europe, there was a chivalric model called the Nine Worthies, exemplars of Knightly virtue used to teach and to define what it was to be a good Knight and true (for an authentic citation, read Caxton's preface to the first edition of Mallory's Morte d'Arthur). Three Worthies were drawn from the "modern" age, three from the Bible and three from ancient times. The three ancient Worthies were Julius Caesar, Alexander the Great and Hector; son of Priam, tamer of horses and killer of men, he of the shining helmet, Prince of Troy. The film Troy, like The Iliad, paints a picture of two warriors of great prowess; it is fascinating to me that in the poetry of Homer, the musings of medieval list-makers and in a modern action film, mere prowess is not enough for Achilles to be deemed worthy. That's a lesson any fighter can buy into.

Hector of the Black Height is no relation to Hector, son of Priam. He is not a tamer of horses and his helmet does not shine. However he is the sire of Peers, the brother of Knights and Jarls and the father of a Princess.