Sienna Guillory as Helen in...HELEN OF TROY (2003; mini-series)
I recently watched this mini-series in a three hours copy. What can I say? A lot, actually but I won't be spending too much time here in critiquing it. Needless to say, it's, on one hand, very pedantic in regards to the stories of Helen and Paris (we see their upbringing), and yet on the other hand this production takes so many liberties in the story itself that it's almost comical. It was made for cable which meant some nudity. This scene in particular is quite odd. A naked Helen is showcased to Menelaus and his burly entourage. The legend of Helen is her beauty was so stunning and overwhelming that her face launched a thousand ships and yet this mini-series does everything to counter that. So many important moments are glossed over while pointless ones, like the upbringing scenes, feel more like padding than anything else. It takes 90 minutes for the mini-series to take place in Troy. Ridiculous. Sienna was 28 years old when she made this. She played the young Helen during the upbringing scenes. Those scenes were not convincing at all. Overall, a typical cable rendition of the famous tale.
Is this the one where, in a bizarre casting choice, the lanky, unathletic Stellan Skarsgård plays Theseus, and abducts Helen at one point? If so I've seen this a long time ago and I found it to be quite sluggish. There is certainly more content from the Iliad here than in the (in 2003) upcoming Troy, but not necessarily better presented.
ReplyDeleteHelen of Troy with Rossana Podesta will always be the version for me. No others come close.
ReplyDeleteThis TV version is not all that bad. The movie or should I say Miniseries has good production values. The cast is very intriguing, and even though it is sluggish at times in my opinion quite watchable. The original HELEN OF TROY is still the best of them all. The movie TROY is all about Brad Pitt and as far as following the ILIAD Hollywood made it's own version much to my dislike.
ReplyDelete