Some years back, I had watched and been reasonably impressed with the director's similar ELECTRA (1962), being likewise a Greek tragedy; after the debacle of THE DAY THE FISH CAME OUT (1967), he must have felt safe dealing with the classics (this one derives from Euripedes). The resulting film, however, is quite a chore to sit through – made palatable by Mikis Theodorakis' brooding score and the fact that it looks good – as we get 106 minutes of the women of fallen Trojan soldiers after the famous 10-year war with Greece bemoaning their fate (it is dedicated to people standing up to oppression everywhere), being herded off as slaves to the conquerors, and tearing each other apart (which rather belies its possible secondary intention as a feminist statement) while waiting to be shipped!; the film, then, ends with the burning of Troy.
Though featuring a stalwart cast, only Katharine Hepburn as Hecuba, wife of the late King Priam, appears all the way through; the rest – Genevieve Bujold as her mad daughter Cassandra, Vanessa Redgrave as her daughter-in-law Andromache (wife of the Trojan champion Hector, slain by the Greek demi-god Achilles) and Irene Papas as the famed Helen Of Troy (she left her Greek husband Menelaus for the Trojan prince Paris, also deceased, and over whom the whole battle was waged). Still, each lady is allowed one scene in which to shine: while Papas makes for probably the strongest Helen ever, the role allows the actress (a Cacoyannis regular) to display an atypical sensuousness; Redgrave, on the other hand, comes across as strident and altogether too stagey!
As for Hepburn herself, ever since 1956's THE RAINMAKER, she had been mostly participating in highbrow stuff (notably adaptations of Tennessee Williams' SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER {1959} and Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT {1962} and the probe into medieval British royalty that was THE LION IN WINTER {1968}): though such films undeniably added to her prestigious label of Grand Dame of the acting profession, her idiosyncrasies – which were irritating in her more standard vehicles – tended to become all the more evident within this heightened environment! Incidentally, having mentioned British royalty, it is worth pointing out that both Hepburn and Redgrave had portrayed Mary Stuart while both Redgrave and Bujold had played Anne Boleyn (with Papas being Catherine of Aragon to the latter's younger replacement)! The only two men to get significant parts here are a necessarily restrained Patrick Magee as Menelaus (goaded by Hecuba to punish Helen's infidelity and, by extension, the sorrow she caused to all concerned by putting her to death) and Brian Blessed as his gruff but conscientious herald (he is sickened, for instance, by the fact that he has been ordered to eliminate Redgrave's young son in expiation but which he cannot bring himself to refuse from carrying out).
Though featuring a stalwart cast, only Katharine Hepburn as Hecuba, wife of the late King Priam, appears all the way through; the rest – Genevieve Bujold as her mad daughter Cassandra, Vanessa Redgrave as her daughter-in-law Andromache (wife of the Trojan champion Hector, slain by the Greek demi-god Achilles) and Irene Papas as the famed Helen Of Troy (she left her Greek husband Menelaus for the Trojan prince Paris, also deceased, and over whom the whole battle was waged). Still, each lady is allowed one scene in which to shine: while Papas makes for probably the strongest Helen ever, the role allows the actress (a Cacoyannis regular) to display an atypical sensuousness; Redgrave, on the other hand, comes across as strident and altogether too stagey!
As for Hepburn herself, ever since 1956's THE RAINMAKER, she had been mostly participating in highbrow stuff (notably adaptations of Tennessee Williams' SUDDENLY, LAST SUMMER {1959} and Eugene O'Neill's LONG DAY'S JOURNEY INTO NIGHT {1962} and the probe into medieval British royalty that was THE LION IN WINTER {1968}): though such films undeniably added to her prestigious label of Grand Dame of the acting profession, her idiosyncrasies – which were irritating in her more standard vehicles – tended to become all the more evident within this heightened environment! Incidentally, having mentioned British royalty, it is worth pointing out that both Hepburn and Redgrave had portrayed Mary Stuart while both Redgrave and Bujold had played Anne Boleyn (with Papas being Catherine of Aragon to the latter's younger replacement)! The only two men to get significant parts here are a necessarily restrained Patrick Magee as Menelaus (goaded by Hecuba to punish Helen's infidelity and, by extension, the sorrow she caused to all concerned by putting her to death) and Brian Blessed as his gruff but conscientious herald (he is sickened, for instance, by the fact that he has been ordered to eliminate Redgrave's young son in expiation but which he cannot bring himself to refuse from carrying out).