The Trojan Women

Rating:
Summary: An emotionally distant version of Euripides's "Trojan Women"
Review: "The Trojan War" was written by the Greek tragic dramatist Euripides as a plea for peace after the Athenians had slaughtered the populace of the island of Melos for refusing to aid Athens in the war against Sparta, and as preparations were being made for the ruinous expedition against Syracuse. Consequently there is a strong rhetorical dimension to the play, which prophesies that a Greek force would sail across the sea after violating victims and meet with disaster. However, there the play also has a strong literary consideration in that the four Trojan Women all appear in the final chapter of the "Iliad," mourning over the corpse of Hector, retrieved by his father Priam from the camp of the Acheans. Following the episodic structure of Greek tragedy, we begin with the lamentations of Hecuba (Katharine Hepburn), queen of the fallen city, then have the wild prophecies of her crazed daughter Cassandra (Geneviève Bujold), and then have to watch Astyanax, the son of Hector and Andromache (Vanessa Redgrave), be ripped away from her mother's arms so he can be thrown from the walls of Troy. When the beautiful Helen (Irene Papas) is brought out, Hecuba tries to convince Menelaus (Patrick Magee) to kill his unfaithful wife. The tragedy ends with the women of Troy being taken to the ships of their captives.

This 1971 film was directed by Michael Cacoyannis, who is best known for directing "Zorba the Greek," but who also did an excellent version of another Euripides play "Electra" in 1962 with Irene Papas in the title role. Cacoyannis tries for something a bit more naturalistic than that previous effort, but the end result this time around creates an unfortunate distance between the characters and the audience that puts these performances in a weird sort of limbo. This is rather surprising because we are talking some formidable talent with these four actresses (who represent four different countries of origin). I first saw this film in high school, when I had absolutely no understanding of the forms and conventions of classical Greek tragedy, and I found I have less appreciation for the film today. Understand that I am a Katharine Hepburn fan of the first order and teach Greek tragedies at any and all opportunities, but I am just not inspired by this film. Hepburn's performance is overly animated, Bujold's is mannered affectation, Redgrave's is understated at the expense of the situation, and only Papas manages to bring some fire to her role that rings true.

"The Trojan Women" reflects the cynicism of Euripides at its most strident. In this play the Greeks do more than enslave the women of fallen Troy: they have already slain a young girl as a sacrifice to the ghost of Achilles and they take a little boy and kill him. Even the herald of the Greeks, Talthybius (Brian Blessed), cannot stomach the policies of his people. The play also reminds us that Helen was a most unpopular figure amongst the ancient Greeks, and there is no satisfaction in her saving her life. Your ability to enjoy this play, whether we are talking about watching the film or simply reading the text, is going to be based on how much you know about Homer's epic poem "The Iliad" and the entire story of the Trojan War. Final Note: Edith Hamilton, author of a classic book on mythology that I use in my Classical Greek and Roman Mythology course, did the English translation for the film.