"The Trojan Women" is not so much an anti-war movie as it is a movie (play) on the effects of war on the women of Troy and by extension the effects of war on society in general. War is hell; the effects of war are hell. We need only wait for the next atrocity to realize how the atrocity affects the people who survive or who even hear news reports the debacle, of the tragedy; whether that tragedy is Auschwitz or Newtown--the affects to the victims are lifelong, the affects to society are long lasting. (The Newtown tragedy will see a far right swing in American politics in the guise of fewer gun restrictions, the 2nd Amendment viewed as an absolute--"...shall not be infringed..."--from right wing politicos who need only flash their Glock to assert their support of the 2nd Amendment; inevitably they will be a right wing element of the political party that will see that less government is better.) So the movie speaks to the effects of war on society. The stark blacks and browns of the robes matched with a stark grey scenery conveys the emotional overtone of the movie. It is a harsh movie to watch, and yet it is still resonates as modern as the Newtown tragedy-this despite being written by Euripides in 416 BC. Michael Cacoyannis based his screenplay on Edith Hamilton's 1937 translation. I saw the film via YouTube with Greek subtitles; I had just purchased Bantam Book 1971 edition of the play and the screenplay so I could follow the screenplay as it unfolded on the screen. The acting was superb in every way--what could have been toneless and tedious, ended up being a moving evocation of the profundity of the pain and anguish of war captured in the rhythm and idiom of modern English. Captured by actors regarded as giants in the profession: Katherine Hepburn as Hecuba, Vanessa Redgrave as Andromache, Genevieve Bujold as Cassandra, and Irene Papas as Helen. Miss Papas as Helen attempted a stirring defense of her role in the debacle as one ordained by the God Aphrodite--Helen sees herself as a victim; the chorus of women--the townspeople--will have none of it. And how Helen's defense struck the modern ear; as though the modern sociopath can find recourse in pathology from the 2nd Amendment or medication or mental illness. (And by association, how the supporters of the 2nd Amendment insist that the problem is the individual and the gun is only an inert object picked up and used demoniacally by a sociopath. Society sees the lunacy of that conclusion and will have none of it. The gun becomes both instrument and means for the demonic.) Like I say, the play speaks to the modern ear despite its antiquity.
Review of The Trojan Women
