Maxime to Papa, as he recalls the film "Troy"

A while back, I let Maxime watch "Troy", with Brad Pitt and Peter O'Toole. I have been much slower than I believe most fathers in letting him see violence. But I have to do it, so I do it slowly and judiciuosly. As best I can.

Since "Troy" is a historical film, of sorts — I guess half-legend, half-history — and since Maxime was learning about the Greeks in school, I thought this would be as good a film as any to ease him into seeing violence. He had seen some such films already, to be sure. But this film takes it to a more personal level, I guess due to Achille's intensity, his all-war mentality, so I held off on this one for a while.

While not a masterpiece by any stretch, there are elements of the film which are exceedigly well-done. It also happens to have not one, but two, of the very best hand-to-hand combat sequences in all of period-set films, at least to me. First, the scene where Achilles kills the giant with astonishing alacrity -- the very brevity of the battle is what shocks, and makes it truly memorable. The other is the famous battle between Achilles and Hector.

So, at least we would be viewing the violence in the context of some good film-making and choreagraphy (and I pointed out aspects of this, to help him see it objectively, as a craft, and not so much as real life), and the fights are not overly violent. At least not violence just for the sake of it.

So Maxime and I were sitting around one day, and that film came up (we had watched it about 6 months prior), and he was trying to remind me about it. I didn't immediately grasp what film he was referring to, which is not acutally surprising, since anyone who knows Maxime well knows how his mind works, which is circuitous, not always direct, and his description of people and events can be very entertaining.

Maxime: "The film with that battle scene."

Papa: "What film?"

Maxime: "With the two soldiers and the fort."

Papa: "Not sure I understand what you mean. What century, what country?"

Maxime: "You know, that Greek movie, with Black Pitt."