A typical "Sword and Sandal" epic enlivened by gorgeous Brad Pitt!

Rating: Null/10 (29 May 2004)

Small Spoilers!!!!!
This film is no different than the "Sword and Sandal" films of the 1950s and 1960s. This movie is not very profound, though I think it tries to be. It's sort of fun to watch and kinda soapy too. All the women will love seeing Brad Pitt nude and all the men will enjoy the battle scenes (or vice versa).
The things I don't like is that by the end of the movie, the story totally veers off the original mythology of the fall of Troy. I can forgive them for not including the character of Cassanda, but I found it hard to forgive them killing off King Menelaus by the hand of Hector! In the original mythology, King Menelaus lives, gets his runaway wife, Helen back home and kinda lives happily ever after. When they killed off Menelaus, I knew then that this movie was not going to follow "The Illiad" at all.

I think the director of this film wanted to show the evil of greed (Agamemnon wanting to conquer Troy) and the stupidity and brutality of war. This movie tries to be serious about these themes, but doesn't quite come off that well.
Brad Pitt is very good as Achilles. Alot of critics said that Brad Pitt is miscast as Achilles, but I don't think so. His portrayal of Achilles is right on the money. Achilles is arrogant, brutal, self-confident, battle-weary but honorable warrior, and that is absolutely portrayed to perfection by Brad Pitt. Brad's got this long-haired blonde beauty look going that definitely makes all the females' hearts beat faster (I know mine did)!
Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom gives very good performances to characters that weren't written very deeply. Peter O'Toole is terrific as King Priam. The best scene in the movie had to be King Priam humbly asking Achilles to give back his son's body so his son could have a proper burial. The two actors, Brad Pitt and Peter O'Toole play off each other nicely in this scene. I felt that was the one true moment in the film that felt authentic.
This movie is like, two and a half hours long. Way too long in my opinion. The audience around me was getting fidgety, and so was I. When the heck was that legendary trojan horse coming? And when that horse do make it into the walls of Troy and the soldiers all popped out of it, it was anti-climatic.

This film is no way a powerful epic. It should've been better written. This movie when it comes out in your local video store, is going to be an excellent rental. In my humble opinion, I think this movie will play better on the small screen.
I give this movie a C+.