I finally got to see Troy (the movie) tonight. My wife had already seen it and she was unimpressed. She particularly disliked Achilles, because he's a selfish, arrogant jerk. Just like in the book. She hasn't read the Iliad, so she didn't know what to expect. Over the last 2800 years or so we've become a lot less tolerant of flaws in our heros. We demand that great deeds be accomplished by men incapable of error. This cuts two ways, both on the part of the hagiographer who plasters over the gaping flaws in a man's character, and in the critic who points them out as if this in some way diminishes the greatness of the deed. We look to the Greeks as the founders of our civilization, and their clear-eyed view of human failings should be revived. Heroes are heroic because they do great things, not because they are without failings. By acknowledging this simple fact we are better able to see the greatness in others, and the potential for greatness in ourselves.

The world just lost a man who will be remembered by history long after most of us are dust. I disagreed with much of what he did, but no amount of kvetching on my part can take away from his legacy, which is no less than to liberate the world from totalitarian communism. The Soviet Union is dead, and Ronald Reagan killed it. The rest is details.

"We look to the Greeks as the founders of our civilization, and their clear-eyed view of human failings should be revived. Heroes are heroic because they do great things, not because they are without failings."

Does this mean people should forgive Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky thing?

Does this mean people should forgive Clinton for the Monica Lewinsky thing?

No, that's a completely independent line of thought. Forgive, or don't, your call. Whichever you choose, Clinton's achievements stand. You can let your hostility lead you to misjudge the magnitude of the achievements, but they'll stand nonetheless.

Reagan did some very bad things with regard to the war on drugs, expanding assaults on traditional American freedoms in the name of an unwinnable fight driven by moral busybodyism. But the USSR is still gone, and it's going to stay gone no matter what we decide about the war on drugs. Striking the final blows that killed it was a great deed, worthy of being remembered.

My point is this: "hero" does not mean "role model," nor should it. We've conflated the two, as the Greeks did not. We should fix that. Reagan may be a role model for some, but if he isn't that makes him no less a hero.

...Clinton's achievements stand.

Indeed, though right now it's hard for me to think of any, other than at least temporarily staving off the increasing current in his party against free trade.

I suspect that historians will judge that Clinton's greatest (in the sense of magnitude, if not benefit to the nation) accomplishment was in delivering the Congress to the Republicans for the first time in four decades, and cementing the nation's shift to modern conservatism that Reagan started. Had he not done that, there is no chance that the deficit would have been reduced, or welfare reformed. If those policy goals were his intent, he certainly picked an ironic means by which to implement them...

By the way, what did you think of the movie?

What I think of the movie - It was excellent. People will kvetch about not being faithful to the book, but the book is a book, and a movie is a movie. I liked that fact that the supernaturalism was taken out, the timeline brought into consistency with what wars really were like in the late bronze age, the clearly drawn characters (Hector and Achilles were particularly good, as were Menalaus, Paris and Breseis). I didn't like the exaggeration of the scale of things - if you're going to cut the supernaturalism, why not cut the fleet to a more realistic size, say 100 ships? That would allow cutting Troy to a size more consistent with the historical remains at Hissarlik, and would justify the reliance of the army on Achilles' Myrmidons, who came over in a single ship. having 1% of the army be crack troops lead by the greatest warrior of his age could make a difference. Cut that to 0.1%, and it's not so clear.

The story has lasted 2800 years since it was written down because it's a frickin great story, and the movie kept enough of the good bits. I'd have done a few things differently, but it kept my attention and wrapped me up in the characters even though I knew how it was going to end. I'd give it 8.5 out of 10.

...why not cut the fleet to a more realistic size, say 100 ships

Maybe it was a thousand rowboats.

If they did that, they'd have to change the unit for feminine pulchritude from a millihelen to a centihelen (i.e., that amount of beauty capable of launching a single ship).

We tolerate more flaws in our on-screen heroes (Spider Man, Batman, Clark Kent in Smallville, David Creegan in Touching Evil, and even Harry Potter) to make up for the fact that, in real life, we think all our heroes must be held above reproach.

That's just not possible.

When Frank Miller and Alex Ross (I think that's his name) started their comics revolution by darkening the medium -- making it more "real life", as it were -- they were reflecting how it really is out there. Unfortunately, "out there" responded by asking everyone to be more upstanding.

The anti-hero (chaotic good or, better, lawful evil) is the ultimate good guy.