A Classical View of Vengeance:

“Hector fights not merely for honor but to protect a loving wife, infant son, and cherished parents and homeland, to defend a cause that is indefensible. He is the last and only man between the murderous, revenging Greeks and the innocent women and children inside the walls of Troy. In fact, Agamemnon and Achilles himself – the leaders of Homer’s Greeks – are more morally ambiguous than any of the Trojans save Paris. And so Achilles’ killing of Hector – combined with his subsequent abuse of the corpse – raises questions about the nature of vengeance; instead of satisfying our blood lust for justifiable payback, we recoil that Achilles has gone too far … It is no wonder that this act of revenge brings Achilles – and the reader – little solace. We would all prefer to pay back our enemies in the glorious manner of Odysseus; in reality, we are more likely to feel a little empty, like Achilles, were we to do so.” (Hanson & Heath, pgs. 197-198)

Nothing rings more hollow that Achilles’ pursuit of vengeance against Hector. Arguably, more than half of modern action movies today glorify revenge in some form. Yet Troy is an anti-revenge film. When Achilles storms out to the gates of Troy, blind and deaf to the pleading of Briseis, too angry to even think about the goodness of Hector, his resolve is both intimidating and horrifying. There is no moral justification for what he decides to do, and Petersen never leads the audience to think that there might be.

If there is another single scene that is wonderfully handled by the filmmakers of Troy is the climatic single combat scene between Hector and Achilles. There have been many duels between warriors portrayed throughout the history of film. There are still even more of them to be found in history and literature. But before there was Darth Vader vs. Luke, before Joe Frazier vs. Muhammad Ali, before Baron Richthofen vs. Captain Brown, before Wyatt Earp vs. the Clantons & McLaurys, before d’Artagnan vs. Rochefort, before Miyamoto Musashi vs. Sasaki Kojiro, before Mstislav the Brave vs. Prince Rededia, before Charlemagne vs. Baligant, before Roland vs. the Saracen, before Arthur vs. Mordred, before Beowulf vs. Grendel, before the Horatii vs. the Curiatii, before David vs. Goliath, there was Hector against Achilles.

Given the way that the film handles this one scene, I’m not sure that there is a single better one that exists on the movie screen. Nothing but timpani plays as these two fight. Part of this may be my own combat training, but if you have ever been trained in physical combat then you cannot help being in awe of the men in the past who used nothing but armor, spears, swords and shields to fight each other. It would have taken great mental and physical courage ever to do that. The odds of getting killed eventually seem so high, that it is almost unimaginable being given a sword and shield and then being expected to survive through mass hand-to-hand battles, let alone being matched up all alone against a champion. Pitt’s Achilles is perfect. During the fight scene with Hector, he doesn’t ever even need to catch his breath. He has made himself into the one warrior who can beat anyone.

But Eric Bana throws everything he’s got into playing this scene so enthusiastically that you can’t help feeling what Hector is feeling just a little. As the fight begins and then continues, he knows Achilles is better than he is, but he still tries because he believes what he is fighting for is right. Achilles is fighting for revenge. Hector is fighting for his country and family. He loses his breath but he keeps on the offensive. He starts to tire and charges Achilles again. He loses his footing and then gets back up to try again … and then try again … and then try again. With Bana’s enormous energy in the scene (in contrast to Pitt, who seems as if he might barely be expending a tenth of his energy) you start to believe that he might be able to do it. He keeps coming so close. Achilles’ leaps and lunges, that earlier you watched kill other men repeatedly, don’t work against Hector. Achilles jumps and Hector blocks him. Hector presses forward and Achilles meets him. Achilles stabs with lightning quickness and Hector knocks him aside. Bana somehow plays the scene where you think simultaneously that he is losing physical energy and summoning it back by sheer force of will, because he and he alone is the only one who can stop Achilles. If there was ever a fight scene of right against might, this is it – and after you see it, the scene sticks with you for a long time. I’m still awed by it ten years later. And one of the reasons the scene is awe-inspiring is because of its tragedy. It is a scene that never should have happened. These are two human beings who should never have been trying to kill each other. Find another single war movie where the fight at the climax between protagonist and antagonist has this sense to it. They are few and far between.

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Tags: Iliad, Troy, Wolfgang Petersen