Alternate Best Supporting Actor 2004: Peter O'Toole in Troy

Peter O’Toole did not receive an Oscar nomination for portraying King Priam in Troy. 

Troy tells the story of the Trojan war.

It is always fascinating with any sword and sandal film how easy it is to be a Quo Vadis instead of a Ben-Hur, a Samson and Delilah instead of a The Ten Commandments…a Troy instead of a Gladiator. Where the tone and aesthetic skewed just slightly one way or another makes it feel just silly dress up rather than any kind of captivating rendition of the type. As already noted Troy struggles within it falling into that dress up quality more frequently than not with the performances particularly frequently falling into that stilted attempt to sound almost too regal or legendary or whatever, it doesn’t work. The most notable exception to this situation is the legendary Peter O’Toole in the role of the Trojan King, the father of Paris (Orlando Bloom) and Hector (Eric Bana). Paris who creates the problem by taking Helen (Diane Kruger) from her actual husband, leading to the Greek army of Agamemnon (Brian Cox attempting more so the Ustinov/Laughton method for these things though I wouldn’t say he’s entirely successful as such) to invade Troy. Hector on the other hand is the great warrior and the responsible brother dealing with the weight of war. Priam stands then as the often stoic regal figure which O’Toole is more than happy to provide. O’Toole importantly just gives the utmost devotion to creating a genuine gravitas to the proceedings and doing his best to make you believe this world. O’Toole does achieve this as he finds the right combination between the regal but with enough of honestly a relaxed quality to not become that stiff quality a few of his co-stars struggle with. 

O’Toole is able to establish Priam as the old King with some wisdom but maybe too much of a connection to the old ways. O’Toole in a way presents a degree of a front as the wise King while we get more within certain moments where O’Toole thrives in bringing humanity within the legendary qualities so to speak. As we have O’Toole successfully delivering the words of Priam’s belief in the god Apollo where he can match the sort of elevated tone in every word of his delivery. O’Toole importantly makes it look easy which is in a way part of it, he doesn’t need to seem as though he’s dressing up as this man, he is this man. O’Toole takes it further however when we have the additional moments of the director’s cut where you see the love Priam has for his son Hector combined with his reason for that earlier devotion. When Priam tells of his prayer to Apollo that he believed saved the very young Hector’s life, O’Toole offers a quieter delivery where there is this strict sincerity of a father finding strength within that belief and most importantly the sense of the love for his son within the story. Contrasting that perhaps a bit, even though the film doesn’t do much with it, is O’Toole reactions during Paris’s one sided losing fight against Helen’s actual husband Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), where we mostly see him trying to maintain that kingly grace yet when Paris shows obvious cowardice in the fight, O’Toole temporary disgust is just a great moment from the actor where you see most intense genuine emotion that Priam must keep down. An intriguing bit that sadly doesn’t get too much development beyond that moment. 

An even greater moment comes as a series of circumstances leads the greatest Greek warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) to seek revenge for his cousin killed by Hector, as we see Achilles call out Hector for a one on one duel. Before Hector goes, knowing the likelihood of his fate, we get two moments from O’Toole where he manages to express the sides of the character in each. As first we have him wish for luck from Apollo essentially where O’Toole delivers it with the firm conviction of the caring king and devoted worshipper. Followed by a great bit of physical work where we see this quick, emotional and really instinctual extra moment where the man is shown behind the king. O’Toole in his hurried delivery bringing instead of the regal quality, the warmth and desperate love of a father one more time to a son he knows he’ll likely never speak to again. A notion that is only all the more powerful when Hector is not only killed by Achilles, but Achilles makes a mockery of his corpse by dragging Hector around on his chariot. This leads to not only O’Toole best scene but easily the best scene in the entirety of the film as Priam sneaks into the Greek encampment to ask Achilles for his son’s corpse to allow for a proper burial. 

O’Toole’s amazing in this scene bringing such a potent combination of qualities. As we sense the overriding grief beneath every word and his eyes carry the heartbreak of a man who would never fully recover from this loss. Yet Priam’s first action is to kiss Achilles’s hands, the hands that killed his son and supplicate himself. O’Toole finds such power in his quiet and nuanced delivery of each word of true wisdom and warmth as he appeals to Achilles’s humanity with such a pure sense of belief in the greater nature of man. When speaking of Achilles’s own father’s death it isn’t pester but rather connect with the sense of regret of an older man who has seen so much pain and death in the world. O’Toole manages to create even warmth to this killer of his son in the moment, finding still while projecting such striking grief and creating a true poignancy of the moment of the father believing in humanity in what should be in his moment of greatest doubt. O’Toole is able to combine such overwhelming vulnerability as so much of his physical work is of a man near a complete emotional breakdown in the way his lip quivers, however countered with the strength in his voice of a man who believes he will succeed in this task. It feels a wholly natural combination of a man empowered by his grief, which naturally is no easy idea to convey, yet that always feels convincing thanks to the greatness of O’Toole. I mean O’Toole is so great in the scene that Pitt, in maybe the least of his performances, even becomes decent in the scene almost seemingly in reaction to what O’Toole is delivering. It is extraordinary work in the scene from O’Toole particularly within a film that is filled with so much of it is overwrought and stiff. O’Toole wholly elevates that scene to think you’re watching a much better film than you are through his great talents as a performer. A talent that I would say in the theatrical cut in particular is underexploited outside of the scene, though the more than crumbs he gets from those deleted moments thankfully do allow O’Toole to elevate himself beyond a one scene wonder and reactor who knows how to sell the material. O’Toole elevates every moment he does have to create a captivating portrayal of the King as a king but also a man, with one extraordinary scene that is worthy of mention along with the very best of his illustrious career.