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Shades of Ajax: In Search of the Tragic Hero in Modern War Movies

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Locating Classical Receptions on Screen

Part of the book series: The New Antiquity ((NANT))

Abstract

Ajax rarely puts in an appearance on screen and when he does turn up it is usually in his epic guise as the staunch defender of the Greeks from the Iliad. Despite the recent upsurge in popularity of Sophocles’ tragic version of the hero on stage his madness and suicide have proven hard to translocate onto the big screen. But, what happens if we go on a search of the ancient hero in post 9/11 war movies? Bakogianni grapples with the question of how far we can take Classical Reception and argues for a more inclusive approach. This chapter draws on Adaptation Studies and meme theory to argue that we can form meaningful connections between the ancient Ajax and modern screen portrayals of warriors.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    I use the term ‘deep’ deliberately, referencing Shane Butler’s work on ‘deep classics’, as defined in the introduction to his 2016 collection of the same title: 1–19.

  2. 2.

    The play is hard to date and scholarly opinions vary considerably with dates ranging from the 450s to 420s BCE. For a useful summary of the varying views see Rosenbloom (2014: 1256–77).

  3. 3.

    Hesk (2003: 150–62), Reid (1993: 78–80), and Rosenbloom (2014: 1261–62).

  4. 4.

    On the play’s rise in popularity in recent times see Treu (2017: 30 and 61–66).

  5. 5.

    A notable example of how Ajax can successfully be utilized as a powerful tool to spark discussion of these difficult topics is the Theatre of War project, which uses readings of the play as a starting point for discussions with veterans, their families, and the wider public. http://theaterofwar.com/projects/theater-of-war/overview (accessed 17/06/2017). This topical interpretation of Ajax will be discussed further below. For the connection between ancient drama and healing, see Hartigan (2009). Two notable contemporary adaptations of Sophocles’ play are Ellen McLaughlin’s Ajax in Iraq (2011) and Timberlake Wertenbaker’s Our Ajax (2013) which examine modern conflicts through the prism of the ancient play. In his review of Our Ajax, Michael Billington wrote: ‘The play … offers a compelling picture of the damage war inflicts on the individual psyche, and of the insane demands it places on the leaders as well as the led.’ https://www.theguardian.com/stage/2013/nov/08/our-ajax-review (accessed 24/03/2017). His verdict testifies to the success of Wertenbaker’s adaptation which translocates the ancient tragic hero to a modern setting.

  6. 6.

    Elliott (2013: 22).

  7. 7.

    https://eidolon.pub/its-time-to-embrace-critical-classical-reception-d3491a40eec3 (accessed 17/06/2017).

  8. 8.

    Porter (2008: 480).

  9. 9.

    Martindale (2013: 176).

  10. 10.

    http://www.colgatecommercial.com/brands.aspx?brand=Ajax (accessed 19/06/2017).

  11. 11.

    Another indicative example is Ajax AFC, one of the oldest football teams (founded in 1900), based in Amsterdam. The Dutch team’s logo is an image of the ancient hero that emphasizes his strength and prowess as a warrior: http://english.ajax.nl/streams/ajax-now.htm (accessed 19/06/2017).

  12. 12.

    At the time of writing I was not able to review the BBC’s Troy: Fall of a City (2018–), apart from noting that the cast list did include Ajax (played by Garth Breytenbach).

  13. 13.

    For an analysis of Ajax in Troy see also Treu (2017: 66–67).

  14. 14.

    Menelaus and Agamemnon being the other two. Audience members with knowledge of the classics would not have expected these heroes to die.

  15. 15.

    For a discussion of the classical echoes in HBO’s television series, see Haimson Lushkov (2017: 3–12) and Evans and Potter’s discussion in this collection (45–54).

  16. 16.

    For a discussion that uses Troy to demonstrate the importance of moving beyond the concept of authenticity see Solomon (2007: 85–98).

  17. 17.

    See also Monoson (2014: 140).

  18. 18.

    Leitch (2013: 167).

  19. 19.

    On meme theory see also Susan Blackmore’s The Meme Machine (1999) and Kate Distin’s The Selfish Meme (2005). On memes as mental viruses see Leitch (2013: 167–68).

  20. 20.

    Deborah Cartmell’s work in the field of Adaptation Studies has informed my theoretical approach. See in particular, Cartmell (2012: 8–9).

  21. 21.

    Bryant (2013: 50).

  22. 22.

    http://www.filmreference.com/encyclopedia/Romantic-Comedy-Yugoslavia/War-Films-HISTORY.html (accessed 16/6/2017).

  23. 23.

    To name but a few examples, In The Valley of Elah (2007), Stop-Loss (2008), The Messenger (2009), Green Zone (2010), Lone Survivor (2013), and Kajaki: The True Story (2014). See also McSweeney (2017: 5–6).

  24. 24.

    Crosthwaite (2009: 180).

  25. 25.

    Bakogianni (2015: 1–2).

  26. 26.

    Readings of Aristophanes’ Lysistrata were performed in fifty-six countries in 2003 in the lead-up to the War in Iraq, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/2814295.stm (accessed 22/7/2017).

  27. 27.

    In an article written in the Guardian during the Chilcot inquiry into the Iraq War in Britain, Charlotte Higgins argued that ‘The Iliad still has much to say about war, even as it is fought today’, https://www.theguardian.com/books/2010/jan/30/iliad-war-charlotte-higgins (accessed 22/7/2017).

  28. 28.

    Lawrence A. Tritle’s From Melos to My Lai: War and Survival examines the impact of war on soldiers from classical times to the end of the twentieth century.

  29. 29.

    Colonel Philip Lisagor’s opinion piece ‘What the War Classics Teach Us About Fighting Terrorists’ is one such example. The US Army veteran, who served three tours in Iraq, argues in the Cicero magazine (another classical connection) that America has much to learn from Thucydides’ and Herodotus’ accounts of war. http://ciceromagazine.com/opinion/war-classics-and-the-war-on-terror/ (accessed 22/6/2017).

  30. 30.

    Pritchard (2010: 6).

  31. 31.

    Gaut (2005: 638–40).

  32. 32.

    For a discussion of the slippage between these two definitions of the hero as applied to Ajax, see Finglass (2011: 42–44).

  33. 33.

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/2016/nov/21/ang-lee-billy-lynns-long-halftime-walk-iraw-war-films-american-sniper (accessed 11/12/2016).

  34. 34.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/awards (accessed 28/1/2017).

  35. 35.

    Hedges (2002: 3).

  36. 36.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0887912/awards (accessed 28/1/2017).

  37. 37.

    http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2179136/awards (accessed 28/1/2017).

  38. 38.

    http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0000142/ (accessed 20/6/2017).

  39. 39.

    Most notably in Gran Torino (2013) in which Eastwood played on his macho image and audience expectations to deliver an unexpected ending. He plays a Korean War veteran who at the end sacrifices himself to save a young man. He does so not by using a gun as in his earlier roles, but by inciting the gang persecuting his friend to shoot him dead in public, thus engineering their arrest.

  40. 40.

    This metaphor is used, with permission, from Lt. Col. Dave Grossman’s book On Combat (2008: 180–81). See also: https://www.killology.com/ (accessed 20/6/2017).

  41. 41.

    Ajax’s half-brother Teucer is also a bowman, which is part of the reason he is less well respected. In battle he takes shelter behind Ajax and shoots arrows at the Trojans.

  42. 42.

    Holmes (2003: 405).

  43. 43.

    Boggs and Pollard (2016) argue that this is typical of the portrayal of Muslims in American Sniper (192–93) and more generally of ‘the enemy’ in American movies (37).

  44. 44.

    https://www.theguardian.com/film/filmblog/2015/jan/20/why-american-snipers-historical-dishonesty-misleads (accessed 20/6/2017).

  45. 45.

    Wertenbaker’s Our Ajax is a case in point. The play features an Ajax ‘whose soul belongs to his men’ (2013: 24) and who takes responsibility for every fatality caused by his ‘decisions’ in battle (54).

  46. 46.

    The meaning of the title of the film is relevant here. In an interview for The New Yorker Mark Boal explained that a hurt locker is ‘somewhere you don’t want to be’, http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/magazine/8555318.stm (accessed 9/2/2017).

  47. 47.

    Konstan (2014: 8).

  48. 48.

    Belfiore (2000: 102–3). A famous example is Jocasta in Oedipus Tyrannus (c. 429–425 BCE) who kills herself once it becomes common knowledge that she married her son. For the feminization of suicide in mainstream cinema and the cultural stereotypes it projects and reinforces, see Aaron (2014: 76–82).

  49. 49.

    Belfiore (2000: 104).

  50. 50.

    Ajax’s sword is labeled ‘slayer’ (815), see also Michelakis (2010: 102).

  51. 51.

    Or to be more precise an enemy with whom Ajax has exchanged gifts, so they have entered into a guest-friendship, following their inconclusive duel, as discussed above. See also Belfiore (2000: 114) and Naiden (2015: 90–91).

  52. 52.

    Garrison (1991: 24).

  53. 53.

    Doerries (2015: 68).

  54. 54.

    Wertenbaker (2013: 6).

  55. 55.

    http://www.combatstress.org.uk/medical-professionals/what-is-ptsd/ (accessed 20/6/2017). Symptoms include: flashbacks, bad dreams, bad thoughts, feeling emotionally numb, guilt, depression, worry, showing no interest in activities one enjoyed in the past, having trouble remembering the traumatic event, feelings of helplessness, dwelling on the unfairness of the situation, distrust, viewing the world as malevolent, no hope for the future, alienation, no sense of identification with others (terminal uniqueness) difficulty returning to normal life, and lack of attachments/broken attachments. Another pertinent symptom for our discussion is hyper-vigilance; the subject is easily startled, feels constantly on edge, experiences sleep problems, and can become aggressive in both thought and deed.

  56. 56.

    Melchior (2011: 209 and 211).

  57. 57.

    http://ancientgreeksmodernlives.org/ (accessed 20/6/2017).

  58. 58.

    For example, as I was working on this chapter I watched an episode of the popular television series Versailles (S1, episode 5) in which Philippe I, brother of Louis XIV, after his service in the army displays a number of classic PTSD symptoms. He exhibits erratic behavior throughout the episode, particularly as he feels that his brother did not appreciate the sacrifices he and his men made in the war. Toward the end of the episode Philippe suffers from aural and visual flashbacks of battle sparked by a firework display. Louis remarks: ‘The war still rages in you’ to which his brother replies: ‘It will never cease’ before walking away in anger.

  59. 59.

    Shay (2002: 149).

  60. 60.

    The first edition of the DSM to include PTSD is DSM-III published in 1980: https://www.ptsd.va.gov/professional/ptsd-overview/ptsd-overview.asp (accessed 20/6/2017).

  61. 61.

    Shay (1994: 167).

  62. 62.

    The film glosses over Chris Kyle’s contempt for the people of Iraq and his unwavering belief that he was on a righteous Christian crusade evident in his 2012 autobiography (Lawrence and Jewett 2017: 36).

  63. 63.

    Shay (1994: 169).

  64. 64.

    Holmes (2003: 400).

  65. 65.

    For Glenn W. Most ‘a scene of madness is the very essence of Greek tragedy’ (2013: 398).

  66. 66.

    MacEwen demonstrates how Athena and Odysseus act as Ajax’s ‘judges’ (2006: 304–5).

  67. 67.

    MacEwen (2006: 301).

  68. 68.

    For examples of the view that Ajax dies offstage see Hesk (2003: 101–3), Battezzato (2015: 223–43), and Garvie (2015: 33–34), who argues that a dummy must have been substituted, building on his earlier comments (1998: 203–4).

  69. 69.

    Ajax was a local hero in Athens (Hogan 1991: 178) whose statue was displayed in the Athenian agora.

  70. 70.

    For a solution to the problem of how the suicide could have been staged see Liapis (2015: 121–58).

  71. 71.

    Liapis (2015: 154–58).

  72. 72.

    Doerries emphasizes the fact that Sophocles himself served as a general and that his audience was made up of Athenian veterans (2015: 70).

  73. 73.

    For a close analysis of the scene, see Hesk (2003: 74–95). For examples of the view that Ajax has genuinely changed his mind, see Webster (1969: 96–97) and Davidson (forthcoming, 2018).

  74. 74.

    The debate is a long-standing one; Jebb as far back as 1896 observed that the hero’s monologue ‘has divided the opinions of critics’ (xxxiii). In his view, Ajax ‘deliberately deceives his hearers (1896: xxxv). In contrast, Stanford argued that Ajax changes his mind, but acknowledged that this scene is problematic, especially the hero’s ‘ultimate intentions’ (1963: xxxvi). Garvie in his commentary on the second episode (646–92) weighed scholarly opinion and concluded that Ajax has not changed his mind but is forced by circumstances to act like the men he despises (1998: 184–86). Finglass agreed that despite his eloquence Ajax never changes his course (2011: 328–29). Hesk drew attention to how easy it is to simply ‘hear what we want to hear’ (2003: 95) and believes that the scene exemplifies the failure of human communication.

  75. 75.

    Deleuze (1994: 17).

  76. 76.

    See also Michelakis’ argument that Ajax ‘becomes himself’ through the act of dying (2010: 102).

  77. 77.

    Garvie (2015: 39).

  78. 78.

    MacEwen (2006: 301).

  79. 79.

    As early as 1963, Stanford argued that Ajax exhibits psychological symptoms in a manner familiar to modern observers, including erratic changes of mood, a deep depression and feelings of hopelessness and a pervasive sense of injustice (290).

  80. 80.

    Garvie (2015: 39).

  81. 81.

    Hall (2010: 314).

  82. 82.

    The findings of a study by Brigham Young University researchers suggest a link between feelings of loneliness and suicide, http://time.com/3747784/loneliness-mortality/ (accessed 22/7/2017).

  83. 83.

    https://www.ptsd.va.gov/public/problems/ptsd-suicide.asp (accessed 22/7/2017).

  84. 84.

    Doerries (2015: 101).

  85. 85.

    In Plato and the tragedians madness is portrayed as God-given (Harris 2013a: 10). See also Saïd (2013: 366).

  86. 86.

    On the importance of Ajax’s hubris towards Athena as a key element of his downfall see Finglass (2012: 66) and Woodruff and Meineck (2007: xix). On this as a Sophoclean innovation see Hogan (1991: 180).

  87. 87.

    Harris (2013b: 306).

  88. 88.

    For example, Harris (2013b: 285).

  89. 89.

    Treu (2017: 68).

  90. 90.

    On the importance of remaining open to such transfers of narrative elements see Leitch (2012: 91).

  91. 91.

    Minier (2014: 16).

  92. 92.

    Safran and Cyrino (2015: 2). See also Mark W. Padilla’s monograph Classical Myth in Four Films of Alfred Hitchcock: ‘mythic thinking—stories that operate as interpretive lenses—can produce original readings of twentieth-century movies that otherwise do not reference them’ (2016: 2).

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Acknowledgments

This chapter is dedicated to the memory of my paternal grandfather who fought in World War II, but never felt able to share his experiences. I owe a debt of gratitude to several colleagues for their help, my co-editor Ricardo Apostol, and the Humanities staff at Roehampton University, who invited me to present a first draft of this work in their seminar series, especially Susan Deacy, Mike Edwards, and Marta Garcia Morcillo. I was also privileged to present this paper at the Federal University of Rio de Janeiro for the Program of Studies in the Representation of Antiquity (PROAERA). Many thanks are due to the colleagues and students who attended my presentation and contributed to the lively discussion, in particular my fellow Hellenists Henrique F. Cairus, Beatriz de Paoli, and Tatiana Ribeiro. As always, many thanks are due to the wonderful staff of the Library of the Institute of Classical Studies, University of London.

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Correspondence to Anastasia Bakogianni .

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Bakogianni, A. (2018). Shades of Ajax: In Search of the Tragic Hero in Modern War Movies. In: Apostol, R., Bakogianni, A. (eds) Locating Classical Receptions on Screen. The New Antiquity. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-96457-7_7

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