Good piece of entertainment, lighten up!

Rating: Null/10 (20 May 2004)

Warning, a little bit of spoiling below.
A good, watchable piece of entertainment. There are plenty of great historical poets who have written of Troy, and most of us have a vague muddle of their story lines glued together when we think of Troy. So what if the film is not faithful to the Iliad? Makes you wonder if Virgil got a pasting in his day for re-interpreting it. Probably not, the Internet allows even the most ignorant or anal of opinions loud voice (even mine).
I think Petersen made a good call by reducing the role of the gods in the story, it seemed to me that you could see the myths being born, the godly games invented to explain the tragedy by a master storyteller (Homer) living hundreds of years after these alleged events.
I was a little annoyed that the film compressed the siege of Troy to what seemed a month or so, and also the scale of the battles seemed to be intended to inspire the awe of the LOTR, yet the number of combatants would more likely have been on the scale of a big football crowd... Say 50,000 for the Greeks and less than that for the Trojans, but again, does it really matter?
For me, I felt the doom of Hector, and King Priam's loss keenly. One of Peter O'Toole's finest scenes ever. I defy anyone who has children not to be moved by that.
But in all the hype and acid being flung at the film, I have to say I adored Rose Byrne as Briseis. I'd have sailed for her.