L'ira di Achille

There's something of the Jack Palance in Gordon Mitchell's performance as the legendary "Achilles" living out the last of the ten years of the Trojan War. He is stiff, and wooden and succeeds in dragging down this otherwise colourful and competent historical drama to little better than a standard sword and sandals effort that looks good; has the scale and the costumes - but drags, frequently, during it's two hour rather wordy depiction. Even the rivalries between him and Agamemnon (an even more wooden Mario Petri) and the Trojan Hector (the best of the bunch by far in Jacques Bergerac) don't really catch fire. I may have blinked and missed it, but there is no sign of Helen at all! It is a shame, it has the makings of a better effort but the casting and irritating score just condemn it to lower medicrity.