Excellent

Rating: 10/10 (6 January 2005)

The fascinating thing about this movie, and what made it brilliant to me, is the fact that they portrayed the Trojan War and the famous characters in a realistic fashion. They tried to portray the story that inspired the myth, not the myth itself. Achilles was never shown to be an indestructible superman. Just perhaps the greatest warrior of his time. As I watched the battle between Hector and Achilles, I felt as though I was observing through a time machine and watching two of the greatest warriors of that age fight. Surely an epic match such as that would spawn embellishment, exaggerations, and stories for centuries to come. Achilles death was poignant in the fact that he died from arrows to the chest, but pulled these out before he succumbed. When he was discovered dead by his comrades, the only arrow visible was the one from his Achilles tendon. This could have been the start of the myth of the Achilles heel. We all know that the Greek Gods never existed. This is why they are left out of the movie except when only spoken of. So if the Trojan war actually happened, if Achilles actually existed, he was a mere mortal with extraordinary fighting skills. All in all, a great movie with awesome performances by Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and Peter O'Toole.