The story of Troy? You're having a laugh

Rating: Null/10 (21 May 2004)

I knew that Hollywood would tamper with the story of Troy in some form or another, but not to the extent that they complete debased the story as told by the father of modern western literature.
It's not all doom and gloom, I enjoyed a lot of the movie, once I shut my mind to the fact that it had very little to do with the stories told about the war and it's characters.
Where do I start? The siege of Troy lasted 10 years, in the film it lasted a couple of weeks. On the first day of major battle Hector kills Menelaus and Ajax. Interesting! Menelaus survived the war and returned to Sparta with Helen, Ajax fell on his on sword at a later date.
Odysseus thought of the Wooden Horse plan a long time after Achilles had been killed, therefore Achilles was not involved in the sack of Troy Paris DID NOT survive the war, and certainly didn't escape with Helen.
On to Agamemnon! Petersen has completed ignored the fact that a series of plays was based on Agamemnon's return from Troy. Aeschylus's Oresteia was based on the return of the king home, his murder by his wife, and the revenge wrought by his son. But oh no, Agamemnon dies in the sacking of Troy! There are other occurrences in the film which made laugh and despair at the same time, but I'm only covering the really major screw ups.
Surely Hollywood did not have to tamper with the stories to this extent??
I thought the acting, overall, was very good, as you would expect from such a stellar British cast. The only weak link was Pitt, and normally I think he is excellent. He couldn't cope with the rage and anguish within Achilles tormented soul, and sometimes it appeared that he was reading off cue cards, so stilted was his delivery.
The battle scenes were good, although a little LOTR. Indeed in a scene near the end I really thought it was LOTR; Sean Bean was hacking his way through a room, whilst Orlando Bloom was firing arrows into the melee.
If you want to switch off for 2+ hours it might be worth seeing. If you want to learn more about the stories surrounding Troy, or you already know them, then don't bother. Then again, most people these days are too ignorant to have heard of Troy, Homer, The Iliad etc... which is why the film the will be a success it does not deserve to be.