Troy Movie Reviews

Hollywood definitely has a soft corner for War flicks, especially those with guys in skirts ( Brave Heart, The Patriot, Scorpion King and of course Troy). The formula has come down to this -

-> spend enough money on the sets and costume

-> glorify central character

-> involve a good looking royalty memsaahab with No2

-> Have a monotonous symphony type soundtrack for the movie for all the dying-gory scenes

Why would one talk ill about a movie that is the costliest movie made till date ? Why won't a graphically enhanced attack by over 50,000 soldiers be impressive ? Wasn't Brad Pitt fantastic as Achilles ?

Because that doesn't make a movie a classic...

I again come back to the hackeneyed example of the Kabhi Khushi Kabhi Gham. This movie didnt lack anything. It had the stars, the songs, the sensual ooze and all the masala one expected from a ''family film'' ( I hate that term). But why does it irritate whenever someone praises it to the skies ? Because Karan Johar, and this time the Troy-maker is shamelessly taking praise for adding gloss to an existing formula and stuffing it back onto the screen.

Why was ''Spiderman'' a hit ? Because the director decided to show Peter Parker as a human being, rather than a six-pack whitewashed fighting machine. What happened to the clones that came up after that - Phantom, Kate Beckinsale....Most of them sank. So why a isspecial treatment for cutie Brad Pitt ?

What if the next director picked an even bigger plot (like the 'War that lasted a 100 years' ), showcased a million soldiers, and picked even prettier males and females for the lead roles....

Would you lump it all again and call it a masterpiece ?

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FIRST GLIMPSE OF TROY

I was in my 5th standard at school when we were introduced to the story of Helen of Troy-'The face that launched a thousand ships'. To make the characters come to life a very imaginative teacher got us to pile the class furniture in the centre of the classroom. The furniture represented Troy and had strategically placed fellow students waving rulers and creating mayhem. I was Achilles, albeit a chubby example of the great hero. Hector was not a particular friend of mine and he was slimmer and fleet of foot. The idea was to chase him around the walls of Troy and dispatch him with my sword (ruler). This was easier said than done and despite us doing numerous dashes around the classroom, Hector seemed to have the upper hand, until a friend of mine on the Trojan wall stuck out a leg and tripped him and I could then deliver the coup de grace. You can imagine I never quite forgot the story after that.

It was therefore a pleasure to revisit the battlefield decades later a la popcorn and widescreen.

TROY-THE MOVIE

My colleagues have enumerated the facts of the movie far better than I ever could. However, the story of the Iliad is one of the great Greek epics of the blind poet Homer, matched by the Odyssey which takes the character of Sean Benn, further,(he plays Ulysses or Odysseus). Achilles of course, is invincible having been dipped in a river held only by his heel by his mother. This however makes him vulnerable at the point that was not submerged-The Achilles Heel.

Brad Pitt's Achilles, is dark and menacing,arrogant and fearsome yet tender , caring and capable of showing real emotion . The part where Priam begs him for the body of his son, is outstanding.

The fights are glorious, a great deal of attention has been paid to costume and weapons and the depictions are true to the pictures on greek vases, urns and shields,that I had the good fortune to see in a trip to a museum in Boulogne.

Hector is played to perfection by Eric Bana-longing only to be a good Trojan and true prince, he is dragged into a war that goes against his noble principles, he foresees the destruction to follow and is afraid for Troy and for his family. Filial affection and his reputation as a warrior gain the upper hand and at every step towards his end, he conveys the control that he exercises. Never foolhardy he even prepares the escape route to be taken by his family and the surviving Trojans before the bitter end. A tragic figure who for me equalled and maybe ?surpassed even the character of Achilles.

Orlando Bloom-remember him in the RINGS? is ineffectual in this and I feel, a little hard done by, when a duel with Menelaus results in public humiliation in front of the woman he loves. In the RINGS he is a warrior and I daresay a heartthrob, however in this movie we have Menelaus bawling out to Helen atop the towers of Troy-'You left me for this?!'

In the end it is Odysseus who cleverly plans the Greek victory.

Very Very watchable.

Beware of Greeks bearing gifts-Beware of gifts bearing Greeks.

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''Troy'' movie is somewhat based on the real life story of the Greeks in ancient history (the exact date, I do not know). It is a story of a war that killed thousands - for the egos of a few. Love / Romance, ego, jealousy, the need to be remembered are the causes that lead to bloodbath of grand scale on the land of Troy.

The story starts with narcissistic Achilles played by the hunk Brad Pitt, who is a great warrior and owes allegiance to no one, but to his tribe - the Myrmidons. Agamemnon is the king of Greece. His pride and ego are now attached obsessively to Troy - the one land that is yet to be conquered. Troy is known for its fierce independence and its great army ruled by King Priam played by Peter O-Toole and his two sons - Hector played wonderfully by Eric Bana and Paris played by Orlando Bloom

Hector and Paris are shown to be in Sparta as guests of the Sparta King Menelaus (also the brother of Agamemnon). Menelaus is not with Agamemnon and has aligned himself with Troy. This arrangement is completely altered after Paris runs away with the beautiful wife (Helen played by Diane Kruger) of Menelaus. All hell breaks loose. Menelaus makes a pact with Agamemnon and both decide to attack Troy - each with his own reasons. Agamemnon wants to bring down Troy and humiliate its king. Menelaus wants his wife back, so that he can kill her for the humiliation he has suffered.

Returning back to Troy, Paris and Hector are welcomed by their father Priam with an irony of a situation that a peace mission has now been converted into a preparedness for war.

The scenes in this movie are breathtaking. The thousand great ships of Agamemnon travelling the ocean to Troy. The war scenes on the land of Troy - the thousands of soldiers on each side, the battle between Menelaus and Paris. Plus, the battle of Hector and Achilles.

Most of all, the movie doesn't insult the intelligence of the movie goer. This story takes no sides, shows no mercy to anyone. It is just a gruesome tale of human spirit at its worst and sometimes at its best.

There are some scenes in this movie that shook me up. Like the scene where Paris gives up the battle against Menelaus (for who is to keep Helen) in front of the armies of Troy and Agamemnon, and returns injured to the feet of Hector. Paris, completely humiliated in front of his brother, father and most of all Helen. Menelaus tries to kill Paris with a final blow. But Hector interrupts this challenge and kills Menelaus himself - thus breaking the laws, the pacts and the honour - for his brother. wow!

All in all, the movie is treat to watch - from start to the end.

Brad Pitt playing Achilles is at his best. His narcissistic behavior - the obsessiveness with carving his name in history, his love for - Briseis (Rose Byrne), a Trojan priestess, (captured when the Greeks come on the shore of Troy with Achilles attacking the Temple of the God worshipped by Troy people). Most of all - his gross insensitivity with the consequences of the war - all making you love and hate him at the same time.

Eric Bana as Hector is complete believable. You can sympathize with him or with Achilles - and that can really tear you apart. Both brave men - fighting for opposite sides - for a cause that knows no logic or sense.

The final scene of Troy falling to the Greeks is a sumptuous end to a very well filmed movie.

Troy will leave you with neither Good or Bad feeling. It just makes you feel different about the way you perceived movies to be. I liked the experience, and hopefully - you will too. Enjoy!

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Troywas a disappointment.

As usual, the post production and trailers far surpass the movie itself.

I left the movie half-way to prevent a total flop-formation in my mind, as I have a personal vision of what the theme of Troy, Illiad etc was all about.

This movie just wasn't quite it.

Achilles was made out to be larger than life ( probably to coax Brad into doing the movie in the first place. )

Maybe they should have named the movie ''Achilles of Sparta ''.

I think they could have interwoven the involvement of Gods in mortal lives a little better, and would have provided for some interesting visuals.

( similar to some of the spiritual ecstacy mixed with battle scenes in The Messenger - Joan of Arc starring Mila J )

Those of you who've seen it will know what I mean.

Frankly the cinematography with its sweeping shots of the Trojan beach etc as well as production design of Troy, hardly looked like a city that had been thru so many wars, but a rather freshly painted set on Platform 6 Studio 3 in Warner Bros.

And yes Paris was a wimp, hardly worthy of Helen ( demi-godess herself ).

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Nurture your mind with great thoughts; to believe in the heroic makes heroes.- Benjamin Disraeli

A hero is no braver than an ordinary man, but he is braver five minutes longer. - Ralph Waldo Emerson

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INTRODUCTION

It is a well-known fact that many classic books have a cranky movie version. Only a select few, like the LOTR, To Kill A Mocking Bird, Moby Dick and all have exceptional movie versions. Homer’s Iliad and Odyssey were classics. Many of the characters in Greek Mythology are adored so much and so are the incidents. Achilles, Helen of Troy, Trojan horse, Zeus and the list goes on and on. Sometimes one would expect a heart filling picturization of an epic in the proportion of LOTR or Ramayan when you love it to the core.

I was relieved of those expectations, when I heard a lot about this movie before I visited the theatre. I visited AMC 22 theatres in Pepsi Forum in Montreal downtown couple of weeks back, when my wife insisted on seeing “Main Hoon Na”. Much to my joy and to her disappointment, the last screening had already started and was 30 minutes into the movie. I had no choice but to choose to watch “Troy”. I went in with lesser expectations.

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THE PLOT

Plot is surrounding the Trojan war around 1193 BC. The Prince of Troy, Paris (Orlando Bloom), falls in love with the most beautiful Greek woman Helen (Diane Kruger). Helen runs off with him to Troy, much to the dismay of her husband Menelaus who is the king of Sparta. Menelaus is the brother of the menacing and mighty king Agamemnon. A fleet of 1000 ships into leads them troy carrying the mighty hero, Achilles (Brad Pitt). Achilles is fighting for Agamemnon to fulfill his obedience for Odysseus (Sean Bean). Paris has an exceptional warrior as his brother – Hector (Eric Bana) and a loving dad Priam (Peter O-Toole). The rest of the story is surrounding the war and Briseis, who falls for Achilles. For the benefit of the viewers, I shall stop at this point

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ANALYSIS

Wolfgang Peterson, the director of the movie, has given so many classics such as The Perfect Storm, Outbreak, In the Line of Fire and Das Boot. The expectations were huge. This film was supposed to do wonders to Brad Pitt, just like what Gladiator did for Crowe. Peterson has lost sight totally, I think, whilst making this film, due to so many issues such as Iraq war and all. In my opinion, this film-lacked soul from the moment “go”. You do not see mighty war and a graceful picturization of the Trojan war and it looks like an anti-climax, especially if you have watched “The Return of the King” and all.

This film failed to impress me because

~ The movies settings and art direction were OK but not enough.

~ The screenplay was kind of hollywoodised and lacked some momentum.

~ The casting was awful. One may think Paris (Orlando Bloom) was a fool a fool to have fallen for a woman like Helen (Diane Kruger). She does not look so divine, as touted by the epic. The miscasting is so visible, except for Eric Bana who fits the bill perfectly as Hector.

~ The war scenes are quite mediocre and the Trojan horse does not look as mightily described in the books (I read the translated version a while ago)

~ The dialogues were not depicting the period of occurrence.

~ The fight scenes and depiction of Troy was not great. Troy definitely looked like the Sierra Nevada deserts in California (where it was filmed) and Morocco.

~ The clothing did not look authentic or the time that was depicted. One is left to wonder whether the weapons shown using would have existed as per the epic

~ The killing of Achilles is shown in a mediocre fashion. His weakness (his heels are his weakness, due to the holding of his heels by his mother when dipping in river Styx when he was a kid)

~ Agamemnon was shown in a cranky manner.

~ The legend of Hector is not shown with some soul.

~ Miscasting is so bad that you start to detest the name of “Helen of Troy”

~ The scene of desecration of Apollo lacked some mystical touch

~ An Immortal like Achilles is shown in a high-school kid with bad blood. This is atrocious.

However, the movie had its moments, especially.

~ The mighty scene of 1000 ships sailing in sea together

~ The war of the Trojan and Greek forces was nice. The reason for the same is that it looked real with many real men fighting, instead of CGIs

~ Brad Pitt looked like a real warrior and he put a lot of weight and muscles

~ Eric Bana is classic and his dialogues are superb

I think I have said enough. As far as acting is concerned, Eric Bana and Brad Pitt have done nice jobs. Everyone else is average. The accents of the actors are funny and you can see the mix of English, American and Australian accents in this film all along.

The music score is above average and the editing is bearable.

As a corollary, it would be foolish to compare Troy with Gladiator or Ben Hur or such hugely popular movies. They all had souls. I definitely felt it was missing in this film. One reason is the length of the film and it is too long. They could have done away with the compressed version detailing the necessary. Obviously, Scott could have done an excellent job compared to Peterson, in my opinion.

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TECHNICALITIES

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CONCLUSION

All in all this is a average flick. In my opinion, you can go for better films than this one. You are better off with them. I will not recommend it personally. On the other hand, watch it if you want to see a movie version of this great epic.

I hope you liked the review. Do comment, if time permits

KALIL

PS:- Ancient Greek history can be read from the following link https://ancienthistory.about.com/library/weekly/aa100599.htm

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History is the version of past events that people have decided to agree upon. Napoleon Bonaparte

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I was fortunate to see this epic drama before it is released in India. Not pirated VCDs but in a good cinema hall itself. But after seeing the movie I was disappointed that I wasted 3 hours of my precious time.

People who have not read Homer's classic Illiad can 100% avoid this film. This film will only keep them wondering whats so great about Achilles, Hector, Ajax and the numerous warriors on both the sides. Only thing the movie does is keep on repeating that Achilles is greatest warrior, Hector is greatest hero, time and again, without proving it. Just forget the Illiad, and then people will wonder, whats so great about Hector and Achilles? The movie shows no greatness of both. Even the movie doesn?t show the battle skill of anybody. The devastation Hector made in Greek side and Achilles in the Troy side.

Junk stuff.

Woldgang Peterson can now happily concentrate on making trash movies like Air Force 1 and Perfect Storm, that leaves no impressions in the minds of movie goers. Troy only leaves a big void in our mind, perhaps filled with only remorse about watching the same.

The way he had portrayed Agamemnon the King of Greece is pathetic. Resembles Amrish Puri in Mr India. Was the great King a cruel and beastly soul like this? I can never swallow that. Same goes with majestic Priam of troy. See how misfitting O'Toole is in that role!!

Eric Bana as Hector and Brad Pitt as Achilles?.Orlando Bloom as Parris and some giant wrestler as Ajax...None have the great Greek looks and features. looks like a group of homeless ugly gypsies. Missing the chiseled features of Greeks that we are so familiar with. None are handsome in the costumes. Totally dull and dirty.

Those who have enjoyed the story of Troy and its fall will hate this movie the most. Others may forget this as another ordinary Hollywood war drama.

No comments about the romance that Achilles has with a Troy Princess and the climax that resembles just like a Mithun Chakraborthy starrer.

I hope to see somebody like Peter Jackson remaking the wonderful epic.

Wolfgang Peterson has proved himself to be a below average director, who can not help but make epic stories look soap operas.

Strictly Avoidable.

I'll be back .... :-(

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When I caught my first glimpse of the trailer of Troy, I knew immediately that I just had to watch it. I was just beginning to re-read the original Iliad for school, and that shot of the camera zooming out and panning around to showcase the thousand ships the Greeks had mustered against Troy set the tone of my expectations for the movie. Apparently, everyone around me had more or less the same expectations, because I was brought along to see it twice: once with my cousins, and the other time with my parents.

I had seen the TV movie version of the Odyssey (the one starring Armand Assante as Odysseus and Isabella Rossellini as Athena) before, and appreciated the fact that it stayed true enough to the original to earn very minimal nitpicks from me. I had the same hopes for Troy. I had hoped that it would stick to what Homer had written, down to the last spear stab and decapitation - well, not really down to that detail, but at least true enough that I didn't have to go, ''That didn't happen!'' every ten minutes or so.

However, I was sorely disappointed in that matter. This would have been a rather angry review, had it not been for the fact that at the end, they placed the blurb, ''Inspired by Homer's Iliad'' instead of ''Based on Homer's Iliad.'' Had it been the latter then I would have been very, very sore.

Still, that does not stop me from pointing out the many discrepancies that I saw throughout the movie. Since it would be too time-consuming to write of them in paragraphs, I thought that it would be simpler to just list them all out.

These nitpicks are arranged in no particular order:

a. There is no Port of Sparta. Sparta is a landlocked country, famed for its infantry and not its navy. A look at ancient Greek history will prove this.

b. Hector was not present when Paris was at Sparta. In fact, it can be said that Hector never once set foot on Spartan soil.

c. When Odysseus went to talk to Achilles, the latter was not at Pthia - he was at the court of another Greek king where his mother, Thetis (who, by the way, was an immortal Sea-Nymph and not an aging mortal), forced him to dress up like a woman in the hopes that her son would be able to avoid his fate, which was to die before the walls of Troy. The original story about this shows more of Odysseus' legendary cunning than was shown in the movie.

d. Briseis was not in any way related to Hector and Paris; neither was she a priestess of Apollo. The latter honor went to a woman named Chryseis in the original Iliad.

e. There was no mention made of a Sword of Troy in the Iliad.

f. Menelaus and Agamemnon did not die - at least, not in Troy. Menelaus survived the Trojan War, and went back home with Helen. Agamemnon, on the other hand, survived the Trojan War, but when he got back home to Mycenae he was murdered by his wife.

g. Achilles never stepped walked in Troy - Paris had already killed him before the creation of the Trojan Horse.

h. Paris did not survive the Trojan War - he was shot to death by Philoctetes, who was the best archer of the Greeks.

i. Achilles was never really that in love with Briseis. He never really loved any woman that much, save perhaps Polyxena, princess of Troy, for whom he was willing to end the Trojan War if she married him. Supposedly, when Troy finally fell, his ghost asked for her soul, and she was sacrificed on his tomb.

And yet, in spite of all these discrepancies, the movie was a very enjoyable one. As long as one forgot everything one knew about the original Iliad, it was really a very fun thing to see.

In my opinion, the best characters were Hector (Eric Bana) and Odysseus (Sean Bean). Since I read the Odyssey first, I was a fan of Odysseus from the get-go, but Hector quickly became one of my favorites after I read the Iliad.

When I first found out that Sean Bean had been cast as Odysseus, I had some qualms about him being able to play my favorite character properly. But after watching the movie, I was pretty much satisfied. My only complaint is that Odysseus was such an under-used character - he certainly deserved more screen-time. I would also have appreciated it if they had let more of Odysseus' cunning show.

Hector's character in the movie was a bit nobler than how he was portrayed in the original. The movie shows more of the non-warrior side of Hector, portraying him as a dutiful son, a loving husband and father, and a loyal servant of his country. This makes Hector a very sympathetic character - more sympathetic, in fact, than Achilles.

Due to his pretty, almost feminine features, Orlando Bloom made a very appropriate Paris. Standing next to Eric Bana's Hector, they show a difference that was made very clear in the original: Hector is the warrior, while Paris is only good for seducing women (in fact, Hector makes a statement along that line in the original).

Sadly, Brad Pitt delivered a disappointing performance as Achilles. As the main character of the whole movie, I had expected him to do some pretty good acting. Unfortunately, his performance was as stiff as the shaft of Achilles' javelin. Instead of me adoring Achilles, I ended up adoring Hector.

As can be expected from a movie as grand and as costly, as this, the special effects were superb. As I mentioned before, that wide shot of the Grecian fleet sailing to Troy was an effective attention-grabber. The battle scenes were also well shot and well executed, so cinematography gets plus points from me. I will say the same for the musical score, which was quite appropriate and unobtrusive during crucial scenes.

Overall, Troy is a good epic movie: grand in scope, and lavish in production. But, as is often the case with movie adaptations based on literary works, leave all you know about the original behind, because you might end up having to nitpick on everything and end up not enjoying it for what it is.

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It's ancient Greece. The passion of two of lovers, Paris, Prince of Troy (Orlando Bloom) and Helen (Diane Kruger), Queen of Sparta, ignites a war that will devastate a civilization. When Paris spirits Helen away from her husband, King Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), it is an insult that cannot be suffered. Familial pride dictates that an affront to Menelaus is an affront to his brother Agamemnon (Brian Cox), powerful King of the Mycenaeans, who soon unites all the massive tribes of Greece to steal Helen back from Troy in defense of his brother's honor.

But in truth, Agamemnon's pursuit of honor is corrupted by his overwhelming greed - he needs to conquer Troy to seize control of the Aegean, thus ensuring the supremacy of his already vast empire. The walled city, under the leadership of King Priam (Peter O'Toole) and defended by mighty Prince Hector (Eric Bana), is a citadel that no army has ever been able to breach.

One man alone stands as the key to victory or defeat over Troy - Achilles (Brad Pitt), believed to be the greatest warrior alive. Arrogant, rebellious and seemingly invincible, Achilles has allegiance to nothing and no one, save his own glory. It is his hunger for eternal renown that leads him to attack the gates of Troy under Agamemnon's banner. But it will be love that ultimately decides his fate.

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Name: Troy

Produced by Warner Brothers.

Opening date, in Canada and the United States, March 14, 2003

Directed by: Wolfgang Peterson.

The Screen Play was written by David Benioff.

The Score was written James Horner.

Viewing Time: 3 hours

Rated: R

.:The Stars:.

Brad Pitt is Achilles.

Eric Bana is Hector, (the older son of King Priam).

Orlando Bloom is Paris, (the younger son of King Priam).

Peter O'Toole is King Priam.

Diane Kruger is Helen.

Brian Cox is Agamemnon.

Brendan Gleeson is King Menlaus.

Siri Svegler is Polydona.

Nathan Jones is Boagruis.

Ken Bones is Hippasus.

Plus a cast of thousands!

This film was based on the Iliad that was written by Homer.

.:My Review:.

Both Troy and Sparta have been at war for ten years. King Priam is tired of the wars and travels to Sparta to try and make peace.

While they are there Paris sees Queen Helen, of Sparta, (wife of King Menlaus). She is not happily married, and is enhanced by Paris' good looks. They fall in love.

Only Hector seems to notice that they sneak out of the dinning hall every night, as soon as the evening meal is finished, and the dancing girls begin their show.

The Kings finally agree on ending the war. The night that the people of the delegation from Troy, will set sail for home, Paris asks Helen to come with him.

With the help of her servant she is able to slip out of the Palace and onto the ship from Troy.

Paris only tells Hector what he has done, when they are far from shore.

By then King Menelaus has discovered what happened. He asks his brother Agamemnon to gather all their allies and help him get Helen back.

Achilles and his young cousin are asked to join them. At first he refuses. Both he and his mother are psychic. His mother tells him, ''Many people come to earth and when they die, their names are forgotten. If you go, I will never see you again, but your name will be remembered forever.''

That is the only reason Achilles has been fighting for years, so he and his cousin join the Spartans.

Each of the tribes has at least one boat and when you see them on the screen, they seem to cover the entire Aegean Sea.

King Priam lives in a fortress, and the walls have never been breached.

I will end here, and if you want to find out what happens and see an epic movie, you'll have to go see it.

.:What I Thought:.

I thought the cinematography, the stunts and the music were fabulous.

Brad Pitt, Peter O'Toole and Eric Bana played their parts very well.

Orlando Bloom seemed like a wimp, and you would never believe Helen would fall in love with him.

Brendan Gleeson looked like a greasy slop!

Diane Kruger stands around looking like a beautiful Barbie Doll.

Sean Bean, (who plays a big part in Greek mythology), is not in many scenes, and that was strange, because he is an important god.

The battle scenes and the tricks that are used by both sides are amazing.

.:My Conclusion:.

I did enjoy Troy, and I would see it again, (when I can rent it).

Thank you for reading my review.

©LL2004

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Saw Troy first day first show and wasn't disappointed. I like epics and the story of Illiad had fascinated me since I was a kid. The movie starts with the introduction of Achilles(Brad Pitt) as the greatest warrior alive and with a fight which lasted less than 30 seconds.

As the plot unfolds, we are exposed to other charecters in the play - the brave Hector (Eric Bana), the handsome Paris (Orlando Bloom), beautiful Helen (Diane Kruger), King Prium (Peter O'toole), Greek king Agamemnon(Brian Cox) and host of other charecters like Odyessus, Ajax, Menelaus etc.

Brad Pitt was good as Achilles but somehow his yankee accent didn't seem to quite synchronise with the epic times. Eric Bana, I found was wonderful maybe the charecter he portrayed that of Hector, brought the best in him. The story is about the queen (Helen of Sparta) who betrayed her husband(Menelaus) and fled to Troy (north west of present day Turkey) with prince Paris of Troy. To avenge his insult, Menelaus, the king of Sparta requested the help of the greedy and ambitious king Agamemnon who summoned his greatest warrior Achilles and other greek kings and princes to invade toy and bring back Helen.

Hector as the prince of Troy and heir to the throne prepared to defend Troy as a 'thousand ships' apporoached the beaches of Troy. Well I don't want to spoil the movie by giving too much of the story, but there are some battle scenes which are worth your money like Paris vs. Menelaus, Hector vs. Ajax and Achilles vs. Hector. There were some good dialogues like which transpired between King Prium and Achilles.

I wish someday some hollywood director is pursuaded to make a movie out of a even greater epic 'The Mahabharat'. It will be impossible to squueze it down to 2 hours 40 minutes like Troy so probably something like the Lord of the Rings (three parts taken together) would do justice.

There are similarities between the two epics(Troy and Mahabharata), I can imagine Brad Pitt taking the role of Arjun and Eric Bana of Hector. In Troy there are no single hero- was it Achilles but then he was arrogant and a tragic hero, was it Hector but he was in the losing side or was it Odeysseus but he didn't have too much role to play in Illiad (Based on which the movie Troy was made).

To sum up I was quite satisfied to sit through the full length of the movie, Indians are used to long movies and long epic tales ...I still remember myself glued to the sunday television when Mahabharata was televised.

A good start to summer movie season (coming up Shrek 2, Spiderman 2, Day after tomorrow)

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Troy, is a movie based on the epic, The Illiad by Homer, a Greek poet. It tells the story of the Trojan war, fought between the Trojans led by Hector and the Greeks led by Agamemnon.

Troy features Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen, Brad Pitt as Achilles, Sean Bean as Odysseus , Peter O'Toole as King Priam, Brian Cox as Agamemnon among others. The movie is directed by Wolfgang Petersen and the screenplay has been written by David Benioff.

The movie begins with Agamemnon's quest for dominion over all of Greece which was split up into several provinces warring among themselves. This is the first scene where one of the Epic Heroes, Achilles(Pitt) is first imposed upon the audience in a not so subtle way. This is also where I encountered my first disappointment with the movie. Achilles was raised the Spartan way, and the movie shows him lying on a bed of fur after a night of carnal pleasure with two women. For somebody who's been raised like a Spartan, the lust for battle is foremost and above all luxury.

The first battle scene shows Achilles disposing of a much bigger man in a casual manner, while challenging others to confront him in battle. I have to concede that the introduction to Achilles's character as a man obsessed with his own glory and supremely confident in his own invincibility has been well done.The movie also depicts very well the conflicts within him(when he says to Patroclus that the images of the men he killed call out for him from across the river Styx) and his knowledge of his mortality in later scenes.

Menelaus is negotiating a peace treaty with Troy, represented by its princes Hector(Bana) and Paris (Bloom). The movie doesn't show the dalliance of Paris and Helen (Kruger), the wife of Menelaus, focusing only on the night before Helen elopes with Paris. This is a good aspect, since the focus of the Illiad is on the war and not on Helen.

One of the good scenes of the movie is where Paris decides to tell Hector that he has brought along Helen with him and tells him that he (Paris) wouldn't ask Hector to fight his battle, to which Hector replies that Paris already has asked him to fight his battle. They reach Troy where Priam greets them and we get a glimpse of Briseis, the Trojan princess who plays a significant part in the momentum of the war. Menelaus approaches his brother Agamemnon for help in retrieving Helen and Agamemnon who has been aspiring to conquer Troy couldn't have asked for a better excuse.

A mighty army is assembled and Agamemnon who has been reluctant to include the rebellious Achilles is persuaded by the words of his counsel that ''for the greatest war we need the greatest warrior..'' Achilles meets with his mother Thetis, the sea nymph who reminds him of his choice of a short but glorious life over a long and peaceful life and tells him that he will not return from Troy but will be immortalized by his actions in the Trojan war.

The scenes which show him landing first on the beach of Troy and the first confrontation between Hector and Achilles are very well shot. Achilles withdraws from the war because of his contempt for Agamemnon and also due to the confiscation of his ''prize'' Briseis by Agamemnon. The war turns adverse for the Greeks when Hector wreaks havoc and kills Patroclus who fights in Achilles's armor, thinking him to be Achilles.

The best scene of the movie is where Priam (O'Toole) comes to the tent of Achilles to ask for Hector's body, so that he may be cremated with the proper rites. The dialogue between Achilles and Priam has been very well written and O'Toole demonstrates as to why he's still not lost the ''Lawrence of Arabia'' touch.

The fight scene between Achilles and Hector has been filmed very well and I'm surprised that they have borrowed the signature swordplay of Achilles from the martial art form Kalaripayatt. The rest of the movie shows Odysseus's invention the wooden horse, the looting of Troy and the death of Achilles.

Another reason for my disappointment with this movie is how some of the scenes fly off on a trajectory from the book. Achilles was killed on the battlefield from an arrow shot by Paris and guided by Apollo, the sun god and protector of Troy. But he's shown as being killed inside Troy, while rescuing Briseis from Agamemnon. Also the movie entirely circumvents the involvement of the Gods in the battle.

On the whole, the movie was good and the actors were well cast with Pitt and Bana meeting the physical requirements of battle scarred warriors, visually. Both of them play their roles well and Hector seems to have been Homer's real Epic Hero. Achilles is a warrior's warrior, but Hector is the compassionate warrior and follows all the rules which Homer laid down for a character to be called a hero.

Helen is often a tough role to cast, because you need a woman of unearthly beauty to effectively essay the role and beauty lies in the eye of the beholder. For me the movie fell short of my expectation, because the Illiad was one of the earliest books I read and childhood impressions are hard to erase.

A better movie on the Trojan war is ''Elektra'', as Mr. Ebert pointed out, but it is too much of an offbeat movie to bring the Illiad to the general audience. This movie achieves that and as always myths are open to translation simply because of their anachronistic nature.

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