  Even bad movies/books/plays etc. have the ability to make one think, as evidenced this weekend by sitting through Troy and finally finishing "Skinny Legs And All" by Tom Robbins (for a full account of that ordeal, go to Recommended Reading). Both stories heavy-handedly addressed the issue of motivation. Why do we do the things we do?
Both Skinny Legs and Troy beat the dead horse of faith and messianic hopes with the bluntest possible objects. Faith is DUM. Whatever. But neither really explored the more interesting aspects of that behavior, such as why intelligent, otherwise rational people would put their fate in the hands of Apollo, the 2nd coming, or Zionistic lunacy. Why would people do that? That is interesting. What's not is the cookie cutter role of the zealot. What is it that allows these people to ignore reality, and what is the reality that they percieve? Brad Pitt's character (who seems to have taken the Keanu Quaalude Cocktail; What the fuck happened to Fight Club?
12 Monkeys? ) Achilles operates solely for the glory of his own name. Which might be interesting if you could get him to quit pouting, spouting cliches, and showing you the side of his naked ass long enough to care. The only interesting character in Troy is Paris, whose purpose is the valiant pursuit of tail. I love the bravado, the cowering, the opportunistic killing of a "hero".
That is the true face of humanity. It's the opportunity, the luck that lets a lesser man (and we're all lesser men) make the name for himself. We want to be brave, to fight an impossible fight, but no one wants to die. And faced with the option to save your life, you or I would cower at our savior's feet. And that is fucking interesting. 
