Please read the Iliad!

Rating: Null/10 (5 December 2004)

OK, I can skip the-striking nonetheless-absence of gods.Let's just accept that the director had a more "human"v version in mind. But the most well known war of mankind just couldn't have lasted 2 weeks! Mercy, please! According to the Iliad-which along with the Odyssey have been for thousands of years the bedtime story as well as an essential part of every Greek child's education,so please excuse my anger-it lasted 10 years. Of course the epic covers a period of some days,as far as action is concerned,but couldn't the film have started in a more explanatory way rather than this completely fictional and ridiculous battle?For instance there could have been the dramatic sacrifice of Ifigenia, Agamemnon's daughter, ata the port of Avlida, so that the wind would blow and allow the Greek ships to leave.Personalities who have inspired the greatest Greek tragedies such as Klitemnistra,Agamemnon's wife who along with her lover killed Agamemnon on his return to Greece,not being able to forgive him the sacrifice of her child, and Electra and Orestes,their other two kids-the former killed his mother and her lover to avenge his father's death-are nowhere in the film. Just for your information, Achilles was no cold-blooded warrior,he was also a king and his Mirmidons were his army, not a bunch of stupid warriors. Another point where I was on the verge of breaking the screen was that of Achilles's death.The man died before the Greeks entered Troy, which is why the Greeks resorted to the solution of the Trojan horse. And of course he didn't fall in love with the slave,because no Greek man gave a damn about women,especially a foreigner and especially in times of war.Achilles was in love only with himself and glory.Paris did kill him- but he was killed immediately after-by hitting his only mortal part,his left heel. Menalaus went back home WITH Helen-we meet them later in the Odyssey. Another detail that could have added emotion to the film but was not seen,was the moment when Laokoon, a Trojan priest of Apollo, warned the king Priam "fear the Greeks when they offer gifts" when the latter decided to accept the horse.That very moment two large snakes came from the sea and drowned him and his two sons-sent from Poseidon,the god of the sea who was on the side of the Greeks. There are countless details and many important things that have been left out or distorted-such as the apple of Discord and the three godesses Athena, Venus and Hera who claimed it ,with Venus winning it by promising Paris the most beautiful woman on earth, or the numerous Greek kings that are seen nowhere in the film though thoroughly described in the epic poem. All in all, I must say I can't be objective on commenting on the film ,as for anyone who has seen it after having read Homer's masterpiece it is a complete disappointment.