"Troy isn't a story of heroes and villains, its view of human nature, war, anger, and revenge."

Rating: Null/10 (9 January 2005)

As we all know "Troy" was recently released on DVD, and for those of us who missed it on the big screen (like myself) we really missed out on a great film.
I am now amazed as to why this film got so much negative reviews when it was released?!. It's far superior film compare to "Gladiator" which was just awful. Again here on IMDb there are more negative reviews, I really wonder what are you people comparing this film to?..how many films like these are made in Hollywood today?. Troy isn't a story of heroes and villains, of good triumphing over evil, but of flawed, selfish men locked in a deadly struggle in which there can be no winners, only losers. In contrast to Gladiator, which celebrated revenge and vilified its antagonist, Troy sees in the pursuit of vengeance only tragedy and deceit, and its one great occasion of nobility is a heartbreaking moment of shared humanity between sworn enemies.
Maybe the director and the writer didn't or couldn't do Homer's "The Iliad" the way it was written. Homer's cast of characters Â— Zeus, Aphrodite, and other luminaries of the Greek pantheon are missing. Offended purists should note that Director Petersen's is not the first recounting of the Trojan War to tell the story from a mortal point of view; Shakespeare did the same centuries ago. No good movie about the Trojan war has ever actually been made, even at the height of Hollywood's sword-and-sandal period. Lots of things can go wrong in a sword-and-sandal picture, and many of them did in Robert Wise's 1953 Helen of Troy, probably the most notable previous cinematic stab at the tale other than TV version of "Helen of Troy" which wasn't that bad but still doesn't even come close to TROY.
For one thing, the screenplay by David Benioff retains the basic contours of the established story. That's not to say important liberties aren't taken, but on the whole major plot points are preserved. This applies not just to the two elements everybody remembers, the Trojan horse and Achilles' heel (though Achilles' heel is not actually from Homer), but also to such plot points as the falling-out of Achilles (Brad Pitt) and Agamemnon (Brian Cox) over Achilles' Trojan comfort woman Briseis (Rose Byrne); a critical sequence in which one soldier is mistaken for another; and an eerily topical incident involving the abuse of an enemy soldier's dead body. Just as important, key themes and outlooks common to various stories from Homer to Shakespeare carry over into the film, including a tragic view of human nature, war, anger, and revenge.
Many of the battle scenes are riveting, especially a dramatic early scene involving a spectacular stunt and the bravura showdown between Achilles and Hector (Eric Bana), one of the best duels I've ever seen. The drama is engaging; unlike Gladiator, which expected us to root for the hero, Troy asks us only to appreciate the characters' conflicts and situations. And Peter O'Toole as the Trojan king Priam steals the entire film with one single scene with Brad Pitt' it was probably the most emotional part of the film.
So we can all sit back and complain how bad this film was made and how it failed, and never really take into consideration that for a Blockbuster Hollywood film (which is only focused on making money)this film managed to deliver on both levels. How many films of this scale do that in a year? or in a decade?. We all want Hollywood to make more epic films like these and because of the historic or nostalgic value of it, at least TROY managed to achieve something which is very essential in our time..... war, anger, and revenge..sounds familiar?.