"Honor the Gods, love your woman, and defend your country (Troy)." Hector

Rating: Null/10 (11 January 2005)

Not too many months ago I watched 'Helen of Troy' which shares the mythical story with this movie, 'Troy.' Both are long, at almost 3 hours, and both are done in a grand style. This one appears to have spent more money, and has a greater number of "name" actors. I liked both about equally.
Whether one likes a movie of this sort depends on why you take time to watch it. If you want a lesson in Greek Mythology, it is better to read some books. If you want to be entertained with good acting, and realistically bloody battle scenes that are quite drawn out, then watching 'Troy' will do it for you. There's nothing new here, the story remains basically unchanged, the presentation is unique.
Brian Cox is really good as Agamemnon of Sparta, who hungers for more power and agrees to attack Troy not so much to get his brother's stolen wife Helen back, but to expand his power base. The biggest name of this movie of course is Brad Pitt as the fierce warrior Achilles. I like Pitt as an actor, but I didn't really think much of his role here. He played Achilles with some sympathy, as the scene where he cared for the Trojan girl after the soldiers had been inappropriately man handling her.
Helen was played by a relatively new face, Diane Kruger who reportedly put on a few pounds for this role to look more in character for a beauty of that era. I thought she was a very good Helen. Eric Bana was good as Hector the prince of Troy, who fought bravely before being defeated by Achilles. Orlando Bloom played Paris, the cowardly younger brother of Hector who stole Helen and brought on the war. However, near the end when Achilles was fighting a couple of Trojans inside the city walls, while Troy burned, it was Paris' arrow that pierced the heel of Achilles.
This movie did not have to be so long. The battles were shown in all the gory detail possible, and there were fairly long scenes where not much was happening. Still, for fans of the genre, a worthwhile movie.