Big budget Hollywood epic at its best (although made in Italy), and directed by one of Hollywood's greats, Robert Wise (noted for The Day the Earth Stood Still, The Desert Rats, Somebody up there likes me, Westside Story and many others), this production shows what could be done, back in the fifties when there was still money enough to splurge. For example, according to the jacket cover on the DVD I bought, this film cost $6 million in 1955 that's maybe equivalent to $600 million in today's money! And, all the more intriguing, considering that this was made right at the tail end of the Classic Hollywood period. But then, movies were fighting back against the rising tide of TV...
And movies won, didn't they? Because, you can still get this movie on DVD and once again enjoy the spectacle of thousands of real people (not regurgitated computer generated drones) having a gigantic tussle on a real beach and plain, all as a backdrop to one of the most well-known love stories and sieges of all time. How can you resist it?
Well, I couldn't. I'd seen this in a big cinema when I was fifteen, and was just smitten by Rossana Podesta as Helen. Who cared about the story then? Not me I was just happy to sit through two hours of exquisite beauty. Oh, yeah the great battle scenes too...
The story follows the usual myth: Paris (Jacques Sernas) is shipwrecked when on his way to Sparta to get a peace treaty with nasty king Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis). Lovely Helen finds him on the beach. They hit it off, natch, and instead of getting a treaty, Paris gets himself a treat, returns to Troy with Helen and tells Priam (Cedric Hardwicke), and all, to prepare for war. Then, battle, battle, Achilles (Stanley Baker) kills Hector (Harry Andrews) in a well-staged duel, Paris gets a lucky strike and kills Achilles, more battle, then Ulysses with some horse sense, the sack of Troy, Paris is killed, Helen is left sobbing as she sails back to Sparta. Fade to black.
Seeing it again, well, I think it's definitely a well-produced film. The cinematography is at the high standard you'd expect from Wise and his crew. The staging of the battles is excellent look at some of those battle scenes and just imagine the management problem alone. The editing is superb; the sound effects are well done. Compared to such epics as Cleopatra (1963), The Ten Commandments (1956), Helen of Troy stacks up as an equally good romantic classic.
I've seen the more recent Troy (2004) but that is a very different take on the battle for Troy; it's more a story about Achilles than it is about Helen and Paris. Both films are good in their own right and I think it's counter-productive to nitpick between the two, despite my criticism about computer drones, above.
Seeing it again now, I did notice that this film produced one of the greatest lines in movie history for me and all done inadvertently. For those who don't know, this film was an early effort by Brigitte Bardot who went on to become the sex symbol of the sixties and seventies perhaps the most famous sex symbol of the mid 20th century. So, when I heard Paris (Jacques Sernas) utter these words to her when the palace occupants were asleep, I nearly fell off my chair, cackling at the irony: "You should be in bed..." meaning it was very late and she needed her sleep. You'll just have to see this movie - it's worth the two hours.
Although, I'd skip the musical overture at the start too long even at ten minutes. In fact, it drags.
Recommended for all.
And movies won, didn't they? Because, you can still get this movie on DVD and once again enjoy the spectacle of thousands of real people (not regurgitated computer generated drones) having a gigantic tussle on a real beach and plain, all as a backdrop to one of the most well-known love stories and sieges of all time. How can you resist it?
Well, I couldn't. I'd seen this in a big cinema when I was fifteen, and was just smitten by Rossana Podesta as Helen. Who cared about the story then? Not me I was just happy to sit through two hours of exquisite beauty. Oh, yeah the great battle scenes too...
The story follows the usual myth: Paris (Jacques Sernas) is shipwrecked when on his way to Sparta to get a peace treaty with nasty king Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis). Lovely Helen finds him on the beach. They hit it off, natch, and instead of getting a treaty, Paris gets himself a treat, returns to Troy with Helen and tells Priam (Cedric Hardwicke), and all, to prepare for war. Then, battle, battle, Achilles (Stanley Baker) kills Hector (Harry Andrews) in a well-staged duel, Paris gets a lucky strike and kills Achilles, more battle, then Ulysses with some horse sense, the sack of Troy, Paris is killed, Helen is left sobbing as she sails back to Sparta. Fade to black.
Seeing it again, well, I think it's definitely a well-produced film. The cinematography is at the high standard you'd expect from Wise and his crew. The staging of the battles is excellent look at some of those battle scenes and just imagine the management problem alone. The editing is superb; the sound effects are well done. Compared to such epics as Cleopatra (1963), The Ten Commandments (1956), Helen of Troy stacks up as an equally good romantic classic.
I've seen the more recent Troy (2004) but that is a very different take on the battle for Troy; it's more a story about Achilles than it is about Helen and Paris. Both films are good in their own right and I think it's counter-productive to nitpick between the two, despite my criticism about computer drones, above.
Seeing it again now, I did notice that this film produced one of the greatest lines in movie history for me and all done inadvertently. For those who don't know, this film was an early effort by Brigitte Bardot who went on to become the sex symbol of the sixties and seventies perhaps the most famous sex symbol of the mid 20th century. So, when I heard Paris (Jacques Sernas) utter these words to her when the palace occupants were asleep, I nearly fell off my chair, cackling at the irony: "You should be in bed..." meaning it was very late and she needed her sleep. You'll just have to see this movie - it's worth the two hours.
Although, I'd skip the musical overture at the start too long even at ten minutes. In fact, it drags.
Recommended for all.