Not for serious cinephiles

Rating: 1/10 (28 May 2004)

Oh dear, where do I start with this one? I watched it yesterday and it was so bad, its producers should pay viewers to sit down and fill the theaters.
Let's start with how it measures up to Homer's epic. It doesn't. It portrays events in a totally different manner, unrelated to the Iliad.
Second, let's go to historical accuracy. It is commonly accepted that the Trojan war happened circa 1200 BC, although the archaeological evidence and the astronomical information given by Homer point to about two thousand years earlier.
During those times, Greece's cultural phase was the Minoan/Mycenean. The wall paintings in the Minoan and Mycenean palaces and the archaeological findings show us exactly what armor, shields and weaponry were used back then by Greeks. Instead, in the film we see slightly modified versions of weaponry of the Classical period. The same goes with naval vessels. Myceneans, Spartans, Minoans etc. did NOT have triremes. But I digress... Hollywood isn't about historical accuracy; it's about selling a spectacle, no matter if it's utter trash.
Let's go to acting. The only half-decent acting in this film was done by Peter O' Toole; the rest were abysmal.
Character descriptions and depictions? That's a laugh.
In short, anyone who respects cinema and views it as an ART and not as a shallow pastime for uneducated plebes should avoid this film.