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Three Greek Movies

January 20, 2006

As matter of coincidence, I watched three [tag]Greek[/tag] [tag]movies[/tag] over the past 2 weeks. No, when I say Greek movies, I don’t mean Greek-speaking modern cinema, but [tag]Hollywood[/tag] sword and sandals epics ‘[tag]Troy[/tag]‘ and ‘[tag]Alexander[/tag]‘. And the third one was the comedy ‘[tag]My Big Fat Greek Wedding[/tag]‘. That one was quite funny, actually.

OK, disregarding the third one, let’s talk about ‘Troy’ and ‘Alexander’. I used to be very interested in Greek [tag]mythology[/tag] as a kid, reading everything I could find about the Greek (and Roman and Norse) Gods. The stories on the mortals heroes like Achilles, Jason, Perseus and Theseus were not as interesting as the ones involving the politicking and back-stabbing Gods, but they were all a little far-fetched and mythical, to say the least.

There were a slew of movies in the 70’s that were quite notable. There was one called ‘Jason and the Argonauts’ which was quite good, and of course there was Robert Mitchum as Spartacus (oh, wait, that was the Roman Empire).

But the big box-office came in the form of Clash of the Titans, which I recalled was really huge in Malaysia (although it came to our shores a few years later than in the US). It starred Harry Hamlin (before he starred as the hotshot lawyer on LA Law), as the hero who set out to slay the Medusa to take her head. I could remember he was accompanied by a mechanical owl.

But coming back to Troy and Alexander. Five things I noticed about these modern day Greek tragedies:

  • The hero is always blonde. The side characters have black hair, as with convention depiction of Greeks in the movies.
  • Greeks in 200 B.C. speak perfect English. With a so-called Greek accent.
  • Greeks actually DO wear togas all the time. How the women avoid VPL (visible panty line) all the time is a big mystery.
  • Just like in Braveheart, just before the important battle, the hero or general will giving this rousing, awe-inspiring speech about ‘for freedom, for country and may the Gods be with us’. To which the foot soldiers will cheer like animals. The question is, how 40,000 soldiers can hear him speak without a loud hailer or a decent PA system is beyond me.
  • Coming back to ‘My Big Fat Greek Wedding’, I had no idea Joey Fatone of the Backstreet Boys is supposed to be Greek. And if you look at it one way, his name becomes Joey Fat One.

9 Comments

  • fifi

    January 20, 2006 at 8:21 pm Reply

    joey fatone is actually from the boyband nsync. justin timberlakes band mate.

    but then, why should anyone care 🙂

    ps: i hated troy because in the end, all the good looking guys died. hmmp. who wants orlando bloom!

  • simon

    January 21, 2006 at 7:02 am Reply

    lian – that would have been a dream subject for me. too bad my uni didn’t have one.

    ken – yeah. the bad guys also have cooler outfits.

    fifi – ok, i didn’t know that he was from n’sucked. thanks! 🙂 btw, yeah, i thot orlando bloom really disappointed his teen girl fans when he wimped out of the battle with Menelaus. at least Eric Bana (hector) fought til death even when he knew he’d lose.

    alan – perhaps he is. in the show he acted as a greek, i think.

  • machinist

    January 23, 2006 at 1:12 pm Reply

    “The hero is always blonde. The side characters have black hair, as with convention depiction of Greeks in the movies.”

    hm… interesting observation. I never noticed myself. But all the Greeks I’ve known have black hair. Maybe it has something to do with the idea that heroes have this ‘divine light’ in them that causes their hair to be shining…

    Hm, have to see those movies again lah like that

    BTW, wasn’t it Kirk Douglas who was Spartacus? I think he had dark hair though.

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