SmugKitZine Tied for the best movie I have ever seen

Softwing Most undeservingly overhyped movie of all time??

ReaderKenka Let's be realistic.

ChicDragon It's a mild crowd pleaser for people who are exhausted by blockbusters.

[email protected] If you have any interest whatsoever in Greek tragedy, this is a film not to miss. It's done in English (an Edith Hamilton translation), beautifully filmed and it has four major actresses in the principal roles: Katherine Hepburn as Hecuba, the widow of Priam, Troy's king, Vanessa Redgrave as Andromache, Hector's widow, Genevieve Bujold as Cassandra and Irene Papas as Helen, whose decision to leave King Menelaus for the visiting Paris precipitates the war. Hepburn has the dominant role and is always in the foreground or the background, but each of the other stars has a moment when she is at the center, and each of them acquits herself in great style. There's also a Greek chorus of women, each striking in appearance. Given the color of their eyes and the differences in their complexions, the members of the chorus are by no means all Greek unless pale skin and blue, green or hazel eyes has become an ethnic characteristic of Greeks when I wasn't looking. Papas, of course, is a classic Greek beauty, and she isn't pale skinned or blue eyed. Hepburn, Redgrave and Bujold don't look very Greek either. But when it comes to the classics, who cares? The dialog is mainly declamatory, as is the case with most Greek tragedies that I've seen, and the action is sparse. But Euripides was a great dramatist and the emotions run both high and deep. Hecuba has lost her husband and all her children except Cassandra who is mad and about to be taken as a slave. Andromache has lost her husband and is about to have her son taken from her and killed before she is forced into slavery. And, the beautiful, seductive Helen, hated by all the Trojan women, is trying to persuade Menelaus that "Aphrodite made me do it"while Hecuba urges him to kill her. Michael Cacoyannis (the way it's spelled on the DVD, though not on IMDb) directs the movie efficiently. Greek drama isn't very fashionable these days but The Trojan Women is a good introduction to a great body of work.

mguller I was is movie when I was a Junior in College. It was 1971.This was, without a doubt, the worst movie I ever sat through. The advertising for it was the only thing that was good.I thought that with a wonderful cast you can only get a wonderful movie but I was really wrong and very disappointed. The acting was horrific and there was little or no direction.In one very long speech over the body of her dead grandson, Hepburn tried but all we could look at was the dead body breathing all through the speech. Hepburn was trying to make us cry and the audience was laughing.Rent this one - if you can find it - and if you have nothing better to do with two hours of your life.People booed the screen. People walked out and many of us warned those in line for the next showing not to go in.It was a complete waste of time and a $1.50

tsf-1962 It's hard to get excited about Greek tragedy. People in stylized masks and costumes wearing over-sized boots, declaiming verse in front of curtains and pillars . . . Bad Greek tragedy can be worse than bad Shakespeare. But Michael Cacoyannis ("Zorba the Greek") took Euripides out of the library and put him back in the real world in this raw, savage adaptation of perhaps the greatest anti-war play ever written. Euripides was the most popular poet of the ancient world, although his leftist ideology has made him a whipping boy for elitist critics from Aristotle to Nietzsche, who prefer the more patrician Aeschylus and Sophocles. "The Trojan Women" is a stirring indictment of imperialist aggression at a time when democratic Athens was involved in a protracted war with totalitarian Sparta (the inspiration for Plato's Republic). The good-guy Athenians were the aggressors, invading islands that didn't tow the line, exterminating the men, enslaving the women--and in the process alienating the Greek-speaking world and losing the war as the brutal Spartans came off as the good guys by comparison. The parallels with today's world situation need hardly be mentioned, but suffice it to say that when they're threatened democracies can be as brutal as dictatorships. Cacoyannis has fashioned a stark, uncompromising rendition of Euripides' play with a dream cast--Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Genevieve Bujold (Clint Eastwood's love interest in "Tightrope") and Irene Papas. Brian Blessed ("I, Claudius," "The Black Adder") has the only significant male role. A movie well worth seeking out.

olarko You must understand the form of classical tragedy to appreciate truly this film. Then you will see that Cacoyannis does, his four major actresses do, and the rest of his cast do, right down to the boy who plays Redgrave's son.The four actresses have tragic arias -- there is no better word for it -- that they play magnificently. One always knows what is going on in this film because the text is translated so perfectly; the direction is so clear; and the actors play directly to that text. All are brilliant.Don't look for special effects; there are none. Greek tragedy needed none. There are no chariot chases, no blowing up of the Parthenon as two smart-assed "detectives" grin and compliment each other, no two heroines outwitting all the police in the district and end up driving their chariot into a handy canyon. Sorry, gang, the play's the thing here -- and what a play and how well it is produced and performed.If you love classics -- text, acting, and production, don't miss this one for any reason!