"Der geheimnisvolle Schatz von Troja" or "Trojas Gold" or "Schliemann & Sophia" or "The Hunt for Troy" is a German television film from 2007, so it has its 10th anniversary this year. Director is Dror Zahavi and I have not seen too much from him, but writer Don Bohlinger is somewhat known for his script work on "Das Experiment", but this one here is something entirely different. First of all, it runs for almost three hours, so you could call it a mini-series somehow with 2 episodes of 90 minutes each. The star here is German actor Heino Ferch and well this does not always mean the best as many films prefer to depict him as some determined alpha male and carry the film like that instead of coming up with convincing plots and character development. And sadly, this is also the case here, at least partially. But if you take a look at the other names attached to this project, then well you should know what to expect here as the likes of Kanies, Koeberlin and Michelsen for example are somewhat known for appearing in films that are on the pseudo-important side and take themselves more seriously than they have any right to. And it is true for this film too. But on a more positive note, we also have the stunning Mélanie Doutey in here, even if her character is the epitome of female love interest writing, and Justus von Dohnányi, who gives maybe the best performance from the cast and shows that he can also do a good job as a villain.
German small screen "epics" are frequently known for including real events to make the film more relevant and important when the filmmakers cannot. And this is really a negative deal-breaker here. I am pretty sure that the majority of story-telling and writing here in general had nothing to do with what really happened before and after Schliemann's discovery of Troy. It is all included for dramatic purpose, but from the historical perspective, the movie is entirely worthless if we look at stuff like the couple faking their deaths or about JvD's character not existing as a whole apparently. It would have been a far better choice to turn it into a completely fictitious film without references to actually existing people, but then they maybe could not have attracted audiences in quantity, which is very sad really and says a lot more about the easily-entertained seeing historic relevance in here than about the filmmakers. Another problem is the lack of shades. Ferch's main character is a bit of a superhero again as always, but all he really is in most of his film's is a poor man's Schimanski. And the final clapping moment by JvD certainly wasn't enough to see him as anything other than downright evil and sinister. Overall these 3 hours are not a failure as they actually had some decent moments, but from a neutral perspective the Schliemann and Troy references are failures and I just cannot give the film a positive recommendation, even if I were close to at times. But it's definitely not a film for people interested in history and old civilizations. It also could/should have been kept down at 140-150 minutes, maybe less with stronger focus. Watch something else instead.
German small screen "epics" are frequently known for including real events to make the film more relevant and important when the filmmakers cannot. And this is really a negative deal-breaker here. I am pretty sure that the majority of story-telling and writing here in general had nothing to do with what really happened before and after Schliemann's discovery of Troy. It is all included for dramatic purpose, but from the historical perspective, the movie is entirely worthless if we look at stuff like the couple faking their deaths or about JvD's character not existing as a whole apparently. It would have been a far better choice to turn it into a completely fictitious film without references to actually existing people, but then they maybe could not have attracted audiences in quantity, which is very sad really and says a lot more about the easily-entertained seeing historic relevance in here than about the filmmakers. Another problem is the lack of shades. Ferch's main character is a bit of a superhero again as always, but all he really is in most of his film's is a poor man's Schimanski. And the final clapping moment by JvD certainly wasn't enough to see him as anything other than downright evil and sinister. Overall these 3 hours are not a failure as they actually had some decent moments, but from a neutral perspective the Schliemann and Troy references are failures and I just cannot give the film a positive recommendation, even if I were close to at times. But it's definitely not a film for people interested in history and old civilizations. It also could/should have been kept down at 140-150 minutes, maybe less with stronger focus. Watch something else instead.