User Reviews

This reminds me of the old Playhouse 90 and such television productions of modern theater that we used to get on American TV back in the 1950s. It is faithful to the play, basically, without a lot of directorial changes. Many of the actors and actresses do not look like or play their parts as I have imagined them over 40 years of reading and rereading this play. In general, the whole thing takes itself too seriously. (The person who costumed Ulysse should have been shot, and then buried in one of his own creations.) Still, since I suspect this play is seldom staged anymore, this movie gives some idea of how it might play on stage.

The best thing in the movie, for me, is Hector - which is good, as he is, again for me, the most moving character in the play as well. Helen is too old, but still a fine actress. Andromache is completely wrong for the role and doesn't do much of anything with it. Lambert Wilson, as Paris, is good. The Demokos is also good. The great moment in the play, for me, the last scene between Hector and Ulysse, doesn't have the power I have always imagined in reading the play.

And, I confess, this movie points out that the play is too wordy. Sometimes there are just words that seem clever or profound, without really being either, and they slow things down.

If you already know the play, watch this. If you don't, read the play instead of watching this, as I doubt this movie will inspire anyone to read the play.

I knew this film under an alternate title: "Tiger at the Gates."

This is an interesting version of Jean Gireaudoux's play "There will be no Trojan War." It doesn't have particularly good acting, sets, or costumes, but it can be good for ideas if doing a stage production on your own. I did not like the added character of Iris, the rainbow goddess, but it did provide a few laughs.

Note: Paris is played, interestingly enough, by Lambert Wilson, otherwise known as the Merovingian, whom you may recognize from the Matrix: Reloaded movie.