Trojan Horse

Rating: 7/10 (4 December 2010)

Wolfgang Peterson could have made a terrific film, but alas he cast Brad Pitt as Achilles. The movie looks great, the action is wonderful, the outfits, and the sets are all marvelous. Allowing Pitt to come in and create Achilles as a brooding Californian was a bad mistake. Eric Bana is fantastic as Homer and every time Bana raises the movie above the mediocre realm--Pitt brings it back down in his scenes. Pitt is awful in this movie and he darkens what could have been a great film. The other complaint about the movie is the fight between Homer and Achilles. You have the two most powerful and skilled warriors in the fight and you let Achilles beat him too easily and brutally. Bana's performance deserved more---but we gave in to star power. Had the fight been more evenly matched, you may have felt something for Achilles afterwards--as it is, who cares about him and his quest for glory.