" The Gods envy us. They envy us because we are mortals, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we are doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now, and we will never be here again"
These lines very beautifully describe the virtues of being a mortal. These lines delivered by historic Greek Warrior Achilles to her love interest Briseis say it all.
These are dialogues of all time classic Hollywood film Troy. The film is a depiction of everything that is human. Love, lust, hate, anger, bravery, cowardice, greed, selflessness, humanity, inhuman acts and all that defines a human being.
I have seen this movie umpteen times, still whenever I find an opportunity, I never miss it. How could you even think of missing something which is imaginary still very real. You can relate each and every character of this movie, be it the main protagonists, Achilles and Hector, or the greedy Greek king, Agamemnon or Prince of Troy Paris or her love interest Helen.
In the character of Hector's wife, you can see the real fear of losing her husband in a lurching war. With her fear you can relate yourselves to the fear of losing someone who lives in your heart. This fear of Hector's wife, show what wars bring to the lives of soldiers' families.
And then you find what love can do to a warrior when the greatest of them all, Achilles says to his love interest Briseis: You gave me peace...in a lifetime of war.
Still so, the warrior desperately longing for love, when provoked says, "I want what all men want...I just want it more"
This simple line is testimony to the human aspiration of becoming a legend, the wish to etch a lasting place in the history of humanity. It exlains, why men aspire to be remembered.
Still sometimes people find themselves stretched between aspiration of being legend and being just a normal human being. When Achilles' friend Odysseus says this,
"Men are haunted by the vastness of eternity and so we ask ourselves: will our actions echo across the centuries? Will strangers hear our names long after we are gone and wonder who we were, how bravely we fought, how fiercely we loved?"
This dialogue defines the thought of every person who aspires to be remembered long after he is gone.
Then you are enthralled by the leading figure of this great epic, Hector, the great prince of Troy, who inspires confidence, fills his soldiers with the adrenalin rush when he says, "All my life I have lived by a code and the code is simple: Honor the gods, love your woman and defend your country. Troy is mother to us all. Fight for it!"
Who will not fall in love with this simple code of honor and life. But when you think that humans can live and die peacefully with Hector's simple code, you are not measuring the human greed properly.
Which, was so fiercely and intensely depicted by none other than the great Greek King, Agamemnon.
When Agamemnon declared, "Peace is for women and weak. Empires are forged by war"
He aptly described the Kings' greed to be remembered by the sphere they conquered. How the rulers have long neglected the longing of peace by commoners, how they sacrificed countless lives since ages. That's why when he says, "History remembers kings not soldiers", it says it all, the greed of rulers who wanted to expand and forge empires, soaked the land with blood of soldiers.
And when the old king of Troy, Priam says these words of wisdom, it really makes sense--
"I have fought many wars in my time. Some I have fought for land, some for power and some for glory. But I suppose fighting for love makes the most sense of all"
These words exhort every human being to fight for their loved ones. That's why soldiers and their generals sacrifice their lives for love of their motherland.
Speaking of mothers, who can forget the bravery shown in this movie by mother of Achilles, when she advises her confused son, who is in dilemma about going into the war of Troy. She says:
"If you stay in Larrisa, you will find peace, you will find a wonderful woman, and you will have sons and daughters, who will have children. And they will all love you and will remember your name. But when your children are dead and their children after them, your name will be lost. If you go to Troy, glory will be yours. They will write stories about your victories for thousands of years and the world will honor your name. But if you go to Troy, you will never come back, for your glory walks hand-in-hand with your doom. And I shall never see you again"
How brave of a mother to send her son in a war where death is certain. But send she must her son to this war, because, that is where her son will attain eternity through death. She will not be able to see her son again. But she comforts herself that her brave son will be remembered forever.
How truly she prophesized the outcome of war. Her son is remembered centuries after the war is over and we are writing about him even today.
When we see this movie or read other stories of war, bravery, bloodbath, the ominous question arises, aren't the kings human being? Why they can't avoid bloodbath.
We find the answer in what Odysseus, the king of Ithaca tells his brave friend Achilles:
''The world seems simple to you, my friend. But when you're a king, very few choices are simple"
And then you learn even more about the mortality of a king when he bereaves demise of his son. When the king of Troy Priam says these lines,
" I loved my boy from the moment he opened his eyes until the moment you closed them"
And he show affection in public towards his brave son Hector, by these simple words:
"No father ever had a better son"
This is all about greatness human beings can achieve, about their fallibility, about how kings behave and how soldiers obey, about how women fear war and men love them, about how mothers prepare themselves to sacrifice their beloved sons, about how piece of land becomes motherland then for some, future empires to be forged.
And at the end of it, the humans eternal longing of being remembered long after they are gone.
Last words of Odysseus sum up the whole thing:
" If the ever tell my story, let them say...I walked with giants. Men Rise and fall like the winter wheat...but these names will never die."
This movie was loosely based on the Greek Epic, Illiad written by poet Homar. This can be easily said that this is the Western world's Ramayan or Mahabharat, our very own epics from eternity, for eternity.
Like Ramayan and Mahabharat, Illiyad is also a great literary piece of work. Though I have not been able to read the original work, in movie Troy, I have seen the visualization and depiction of humanity with great force.
Salute the makers, salute the writers and salute the great human endeavor.
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