I can pronounce Iliad just fine, but I just find it humorous that they'd probably rename it if they made a big studio production out of the thing.
Well, they did. And they called it Troy.
But I was thinking more small budget. Maybe even keep the ancient Greek with subtitles, or at least use Lattimore's translation as a foundation. Contrary to what might be thought, such recreations can be good. For example, take this, a staging of an ancient play by Aeschylus (my favourite Tragedian), of his tragedy Agamemnon. Absolutely top notch, and by no means irrelivant or boring.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vqFgCGuBn4A&feature=PlayList&p=4A606964367287EA&index=0&playnext=1The translation's not perfect, but they knew what they were doing, and went for a good adaption. That's the sorta thing that's possible in the arts.
Anyway, the Iliad can have a similar small budget production. I would especially like to see armour after the fashion of Peter Connolly's drawings, with horns on their helmets and all that sorta thing. But I suppose any studio might get edgy when you begin what is apparently in medias res and end long before the fall of Ilion itself.
Bah.
I guess I should be happy that the Classics aren't ignored. We have things like Rome; we have Gladiator. Heck, we even have a remake of Clash of the Titans on the way. Won't be much like the myths, but I hope it's a good movie all the same. Still, just like those of you who here have this wish to see a more exacting retelling of their beloved anime, I do sometimes desire for a precise retelling of the Iliad. Not because it's cool, not because I like the characters or anything like that, but because the construction of plot and all is so powerful and subtle (only look at the cycles through which the plot runs! The foreshadowing and how, though Ilion itself never falls, it is essentially contained within the death of Hektor.) The Iliad is the work of an absolute master. This is not primitive or primordeal story, some raw and rough war epic of an archaic age. It is thoughtful and subtle, beautiful and human. For those of you who have seen Troy, think about the best and most touching parts in that (say, the embassy of Priam to Akhilleus). Now take that as a continual resonance within the story. Take that embassy and make it three and four times as good. Not to have Akhilleus yield because of Priam's courage, but because Akhilleus feels the common sorrow of loss that afflicts humanity, and the two of them weep together, one for a lost friend, the other for a son. As the one her Glaukos says, hailing the enemy hero Diomedes on the field: like leaves are the generations of men. That is the the sort of thing, the sort of deep philosophical thought that pervades the Iliad.
But as yet, no film has even assayed to capture that. Troy caught a glimpse of it, and what it did, I think it did well enough for its purposes. But it could be better, I think.
