Helen of Troy, how is it? (1 Viewer)

[Holadem]

I generaly avoid watching miniseries on TV, as they require a considerable amount of time. However, a good film about the Trojan war might be hard to pass up, what's this one like? I watched parts of it the other day, using only closed captioning while listening to the Dark Side of the Moon... Anyway, from what I cold see and read, the dialog was pretty awful, and "Helen" couldn't act her way out of a paper bag.

What gives?

--
Holadem

 

[Qui-Gon John]

I don't know, I wanted to see this but missed it. I think it was Apr. 20 and 21. Is it being re-aired. Also, I saw a caption about some new Hitler TV-movie, but missed the details, if anyone has those dates, times, stations, I'd appreciate it.

 

[Hanson]

The first part is a snoozefest. The dialog is laughable and the "acting" outside of Rufus Sewell (who seems to be in another, better movie) is atrocious. Helen and Paris are especially bad -- frankly, it's embarassing to watch at times.

I haven't gotten to part 2 yet -- I hope the promised spectacle makes up for part 1.

 

[Ken Chan]

They repeated it several times last week -- you may have missed it by now. I recorded it on the ReplayTV when they showed it in one four-hour block. When I played it back with the Commercial Advance, it skipped right over the commercials, and I didn't lift a finger (except for the one time it didn't work). Probably cut it down to three hours.

It was just so-so. Focusing on Helen for a moment, you get to see her naked backside a couple of times, and a few of the tops she wore were kinda see-through. Casting "the most beautiful woman in the world" and the "face that launched a thousand ships" must have been tough (but someone had to do it). The actress is pretty, but I'm not sure she really qualifies. (For some reason I noticed in one shot that her nostrils are not symmetric.) As for her acting, some fault must lie with her cheesy lines.

Rufus' job with easier, because he got to play brooding and unstable. I was surprised at what they showed in the penultimate scene with him and Helen, beside the fact that there doesn't seem much basis for it in classic literature. However, the rest of it was fairly close (to one version or another). It wasn't really about the Trojan War -- they basically gloss over the war itself with a few lines ("and so ten years pass") -- it was more about Helen and Paris. They did show the deaths of some of the major players, and of course, the horse, which was clearly computer-generated, as were the ships.

While I was poking around, I did find this good site on Greek mythology.

//Ken