das Monkey

http://www.usanetwork.com/movies/helenoftroy/

Anyone going to watch?

Here's a schedule (all times ET):

4.20 8pm, 10pm - Part 1
4.21 8am - Making of Helen of Troy
4.21 6pm - Part 1, 8pm, 10pm - Part 2
4.24 8pm - Parts 1 & 2
4.25 9am - Parts 1 & 2
4.26 6pm - Parts 1 & 2
4.27 12am - Parts 1 & 2
4.27 12pm - Parts 1 & 2

das

Keyser Soze

Thanks for reminding me... off to tell TiVo to record it!

-k
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das Monkey

Yeah, I always forget about these miniseries too. They start promoting these things 4 months before they air, so I never can remember when it's actually going to be on.

das

innocentfreak

Was the first part any good? My father wants me to tape it for him.

vallerie

I'm recording it right now!

BJacks

It was good enough to spend time watching. I get the feeling a lot is being left out, but it's hard to fit an epic into four hours.

Oh, and Helen is HOT!

Excelesor

yea it isn't that bad, so far. only seen the first 50 mins so far. then again I really enjoy these type of films. yea helen is hot

MrX

I thought it was ok so far. I want to see how they handle the war.

Excelesor

someone refresh my memory and give me a history lesson, isn't Troy the city that allowed the wooden horse into its city??

Also, I really enjoy these type of films. Does anyone have a dvd reccomendations that involves the trojan war, roman empire, greek mythology, mark anthony, pretty much, film about anceint european empires, doesn't have to be about war, but war is prefered, but dramas will do.

Keyser Soze

I want to handle Helen.

Sienna Guillory... I fell in love with her a couple years back when she played Jenny Bunn in the BBC mini-movie "Take a Girl Like You".
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/takeagirl/









I pulled some PR strings through a company I was writing for to get a copy of it on VHS... it has yet to come out in the U.S. on any format.

(You can order the PAL tape through PBS now)

-k
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MrX

I need to record that scene of her walking down that hall in front of everyone

wlmowery

Clash of the Titans is a classic Harryhausen stop-motion fx film. Now on DVD....

Excelesor

hmmm, the battle is going to happen tonight. i hope that the wars going to be good.

hahn

Here's a brief synopsis on how the Trojan War started from what I remember. I'll leave out how it ended because I forgot. Anyhow, the whole thing's detailed in The Iliad

It started off when King Peleus had some wedding party and didn't invite a goddess to it. I forget the goddesses name, but she's the goddess of strife, so naturally, she got left out. Anyhow, she got pissed and decided to stir up some trouble so she created a golden apple and claimed that it was a symbol for the most beautiful goddess. She tossed it out to Athena, Hera, and Aphrodite, who each really wanted it badly. So they took it to Zeus to judge who should get it. Zeus, who knew this was trouble and was wise enough to avoid it, took it to the mortal, Paris, son of King Priam of Troy, to judge who was the most beautiful. The 3 goddesses all campaigned him and tried to bribe him with various gifts and promises. Finally, Aphrodite promised him the most beautiful woman in the world. And so he gave the apple to Aphrodite. Helen is, of course, the most beautiful woman on earth, BUT she is also the wife of King Meneleus of Sparta. King Meneleus of Sparta is the younger brother of King Agamemmnon of Mycenea. Anyhow, Paris goes to visit Sparta one day and while he's there, Aphrodite plants the seed of love in Helen's heart and when she sees Paris, falls in love with him. When Meneleus goes off to wage war (I think in Crete), Helen runs off with Paris. Actually, there's disagreement among historians about this translation. Some say she went willingly, some say she was kidnapped. Anyhow, so she ends up in Troy with Paris (who has an elder brother, Hector, the baddest ass Trojan warrior). So then the Archaens (Greeks), all band together and wage war on Troy over Helen. This war goes on for 9 years. Nobody can penetrate the walls of Troy. Various stuff happens during the war. The gods all get involved and start taking sides. Hector kills some "best guy friend" (different connotation back then ) of Achilles. Achilles, is the strongest Greek warrior, but his heart really wasn't in the war, until his "best friend" gets killed. So then, he goes all apocolyptic on Hector's ass and ends up killing him and dragging his corpse back and forth in front of Troy's walls to taunt the enemy. King Priam comes out of Troy and into the Greek camps to beg Achilles to let him have the body back so that he can properly bury him. Achilles starts to come to his senses and returns the body. He actually pays respect to Hector before he returns him. He even protects Priam from the other Greeks. Of all the people, Achilles actually sees the senselessness of a 9 year war over a woman and a vendetta between 2 men. The true focus of the whole Iliad story is actually Achilles even though he's not even in it for like 2/3 of it. Anyhow, yada, yada, yada. The Greeks cleverly build the infamous wooden Trojan horse and finally manage to penetrate Troy's walls and causes their downfall. Other stuff happens in the end, but I can't remember.

Phew...I should go back and read it. One of the all time GREAT epics. Tolkien based a LOT of his writing on the Iliad. And yeah, a lot IS left out, and some is made up. I didn't really like the way they stated in the beginning "This is what REALLY happened". You can't contradict The Iliad!

MrN

The thing about the Iliad is that its sounded like it really happened, except it couldn't have because you have all these gods running around and such. I haven't seen this yet, so how much of a role do the gods play in the mini?

There is a comic book series called Age of Bronze that also tries to seperate the myth from the story and tries to show how it might have actually happened, but there are so many contradictions in the mythology because there are so many stories that tie in to the Iliad.

So, now that the second part has aired, what's the consensus? Worth watching?

hahn

Historians generally agree that the events and the characters themselves are fictional, BUT are based on a real life war between the Greeks and the Trojans. The Greeks believed that everything that happened was influenced by the Gods and so they're always 'cast' in the stories. However, the story of these characters (Paris, Helen, Meneleus, Agammemnon) IS the Iliad. Yes, these characters appear in other myths and legends, but the Iliad is the ORIGINAL story of the Trojan war (probably some of them ARE based on real people). That's why I say you can't contradict the Iliad. It's like retelling The Lord of the Rings and saying, "Here's what ACTUALLY happened..."

I have it Tivo'd so I'm going to check it out sometime this week.

vallerie

Try NBC's The Odyssey. Great movie, a lot of SFX, the Trojan horse is includes and plenty of Greek mythology!

MrN

Except that LOTR is not based on a real life war. Since the Iliad is, you are free to speculate on what *might* have really happened. Note that this mini-series is not named 'The Iliad' - no doubt due to marketing, but maybe also to let the writers get some breathing room.

As another example, someone could make a film about Henry V and contradict the Shakespeare version.

So, anyone else seen the whole thing yet? Opinions?