Loosely Based

Rating: 3/10 (16 May 2004)

This is not the epic film that will be shown in schools across the land as Homer's Iliad. It will be cast into the scholarly mix for discussion and critiqued as a shallow 21st Century interpretation. One redeeming quality was that the romance of the Gods was removed and Agamemnon's thirst for Conquest was well portrayed. The strategic trade location of Troy was not however used as justification, a pity. This was an entertaining film loosely based on Homer's epic and no more true to the story than Kevin Reynolds' Count of Monte Cristo from 2002. This is not the story of the Trojan War, no more than Reynolds told Dumas' story. Ten years of fighting condensed into about 3 weeks doesn't do justice to Homer's wonderful story. I won't begin to list the many inaccuracies, considering Achilles appearance within the walls of Troy clearly means David Benioff was not charged with bringing Homer's story to the screen, but rather keeping Brad Pitt in the story as long as possible.
But to be fair, considering the running time of a little over 2.5 hours, the story was well delivered in the beginning and developed some characters very well (Achilles, Hector(Eric Bana was excellent), Paris, Agamemnon, and Menelaus). However as the film continued it seems to rapidly become a vehicle for Brad Pitt, who while wonderfully portraying Achilles, seems to have forgotten the story was not entirely his own. Sean Bean was admirable as Odysseus, but probably miscast and the character was far too little used.
In the end my hopes were dashed and I regretted shelling out my $7 for anything more than some decently choreographed fight scenes.
Considering how we've been spoiled by the Lord of the Rings, the bar has been set much higher when translating novels to the screen. Hollywood failed to deliver on perhaps the greatest story of all time and cranked out a glitzy, glammed package with Brad Pitt on the cover. While Pitt's performance was excellent, Wolfgang Petersen & David Benioff let him and us down. But at least they give Homer a writing credit, though it probably has him wishing he could cross the river Styx and bring Hades to Hollywood.