An Excellent Effort with Great Performances

Atienza, Guadalajara, Castilla-La Mancha, Spain

Theodoros Dimitriou, Aleka Katselli, and Irene Papas in Electra (1962)

Mimis Fotopoulos, Ellie Lambeti, Ilia Livykou, Vasilis Logothetidis, and Orestis Makris in The Counterfeit Coin (1955)

Katharine Hepburn and Fred MacMurray in Alice Adams (1935)

Lakis Komninos and Elena Nathanail in Ekeino to kalokairi... (1971)

Anthony Quinn, Alan Bates, and Irene Papas in Zorba the Greek (1964)

Deborah Kerr, Robert Taylor, Peter Ustinov, and Patricia Laffan in Quo Vadis (1951)

Katharine Hepburn, Vanessa Redgrave, Geneviève Bujold, and Irene Papas in The Trojan Women (1971)

Never make gods out fools to whitewash your own evil.

Vanessa Redgrave in The Trojan Women (1971)

Katharine Hepburn and Alberto Sanz in The Trojan Women (1971)

Vanessa Redgrave and Alberto Sanz in The Trojan Women (1971)

Katharine Hepburn and Patrick Magee in The Trojan Women (1971)

Patrick Magee and Irene Papas in The Trojan Women (1971)

Katharine Hepburn

Vanessa Redgrave

Geneviève Bujold

Euripides

Edith Hamilton

Michael Cacoyannis

The women of Troy face enslavement after the fall of their city.

The Trojan Women

&quot;Woe, woe and thrice woe!&quot;

Euripides has always been regarded as the most &apos;modern&apos; of Greek dramatists and although, for a man of his time, he took little part in either politics or war, it is surely no coincidence that his Trojan War trilogy was written during the protracted war between the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues which would eventually subjugate Athens and bring its Golden Age to an inglorious end.

As a pacifist, director Michael Cacoyannis felt a deep affinity with &apos;The Trojan Women&apos;, the first play in the trilogy and had staged it in the 1960&apos;s. Having previously filmed a magnificent version of Euripides&apos; &apos;Electra&apos; in stark black and white with Greek actors, he has here a larger budget, glorious colour and a starry international cast but it is not nearly as effective.

Hecuba is one of those &apos;woe is me&apos; characters. Granted, she has a great deal to be woeful about but the playing of her presents a daunting challenge to any actress brave enough to take it on. Katherine Hepburn varies the moans and groans well enough and her gritty professionalism sees her through. Her lament over the corpse of her grandson Astyanax is great film acting. The character of Andromache represents fidelity and virtue and this is captured very well by Vanessa Redgrave but she is played as a symbol rather than a flesh and blood character and this dimishes ones sympathy for her. Genevieve Bujold plays &apos;mad&apos; Cassandra and has an excellent duologue with Hecuba before being carted off. Ironically if Cassandra&apos;s prophecies had been heeded and not dismissed as mere ravings the Greeks would not have been able to pull the Trojan Horse trick! The one who comes out best is the Helen of Irene Papas. This stunning artiste had already excelled as Electra for this director and as Antigone for Jorgos Tzavellas and her casting here is inspired as she is the complete antithesis of what we expect the character to be. She is strong, manipulative and sexually confident. If any face could &apos;launch a thousand ships&apos; this is it! Her betrayed husband Menelaus, intends killing her but she knows and we know that of course he won&apos;t!

Cacoyannis has made a noble attempt to bring this powerful and poignant material to a wider audience but the film alas is weakened by poor editing, an intrusive score by Mikis Theodorakis and a female chorus that simply gets in the way. Ah, woe!

https://m.media-amazon.com/images/M/MV5BZjIyOGY3ODAtNTgyNC00YzFlLTlmNDktNGRiMTMzN2QwZTMwXkEyXkFqcGdeQXVyNzU1NzE3NTg@._V1_.jpg

Euripides has always been regarded as the most 'modern' of Greek dramatists and although, for a man of his time, he took little part in either politics or war, it is surely no coincidence that his Trojan War trilogy was written during the protracted war between the Delian and Peloponnesian Leagues which would eventually subjugate Athens and bring its Golden Age to an inglorious end.

As a pacifist, director Michael Cacoyannis felt a deep affinity with 'The Trojan Women', the first play in the trilogy and had staged it in the 1960's. Having previously filmed a magnificent version of Euripides' 'Electra' in stark black and white with Greek actors, he has here a larger budget, glorious colour and a starry international cast but it is not nearly as effective.

Hecuba is one of those 'woe is me' characters. Granted, she has a great deal to be woeful about but the playing of her presents a daunting challenge to any actress brave enough to take it on. Katherine Hepburn varies the moans and groans well enough and her gritty professionalism sees her through. Her lament over the corpse of her grandson Astyanax is great film acting. The character of Andromache represents fidelity and virtue and this is captured very well by Vanessa Redgrave but she is played as a symbol rather than a flesh and blood character and this dimishes ones sympathy for her. Genevieve Bujold plays 'mad' Cassandra and has an excellent duologue with Hecuba before being carted off. Ironically if Cassandra's prophecies had been heeded and not dismissed as mere ravings the Greeks would not have been able to pull the Trojan Horse trick! The one who comes out best is the Helen of Irene Papas. This stunning artiste had already excelled as Electra for this director and as Antigone for Jorgos Tzavellas and her casting here is inspired as she is the complete antithesis of what we expect the character to be. She is strong, manipulative and sexually confident. If any face could 'launch a thousand ships' this is it! Her betrayed husband Menelaus, intends killing her but she knows and we know that of course he won't!

Cacoyannis has made a noble attempt to bring this powerful and poignant material to a wider audience but the film alas is weakened by poor editing, an intrusive score by Mikis Theodorakis and a female chorus that simply gets in the way. Ah, woe!

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