Where are the Oscars???

Rating: 8/10 (11 June 2011)

Historians are sharply divided on the question of whether or not the Trojan War actually occurred - and if it did, which archaeological site is actually Troy. Discoveries made at the beginning of the 21st century provide new evidence of several armed battles in the right area at the right time - but definitive proof is hard to find, due largely to the historical practice of constructing one city on the ruins of another. Homer's Illiad (and other similar epics depicting the Trojan War) were written hundreds of years after the Trojan War supposedly occurred, and are of little use in determining factual historical events as they included many mythological elements: gods such as Apollo, Zeus, and Hera were central characters in the story who drastically affected the course of the war by killing and/or saving individual people during the conflict. The producers' decision to eliminate all mythological elements from the story gives their film an air of historical authenticity not present in the original works. The best epic in decades.