Completely historically inaccurate

Rating: 3/10 (13 February 2005)

Troy was intended to give insight to the Greek culture and the mythological battle of Troy to those unfamiliar with the ancient Aegean world. However commendable its intent, the movie did not accurately achieve this goal, despite their efforts to incorporate truthful artistic and architectural elements. Historically, the movie is completely inaccurate, bending commonly known facts about the Trojan War into material suitable for pleasing the audience. The movie did get some pertinent facts correctParis did in fact kill Achilles, Hector did kill Patroculus, and the Greeks did hide their ships behind a cliff while waiting for the wooden horse ambushhowever, anyone who has read scholarly works on the war, Homer's The Odyssey, and other Greek dramas can point out other facts the movie has misconstrued. Firstly, many scholars confer that the war lasted approximately ten years; however, the movie makes it appear as if the war took only a few weeks to occur. When Achilles was dispatched to Troy, he was only fifteen years old, obviously not a fact the movie wanted to portray by casting Brad Pitt in this role. Paris did kill Achilles by shooting his heel and then shooting his chest; however, in the movie, this occurred during the wooden horse ambush. Achilles, however, was killed before the wooden horse was even built, thus making it impossible for him to appear within the horse. In the movie, moments before Achilles's death, his love interest, Briseis, kills Agamemnon by stabbing him in the throat. However, this is impossible as The Oresteia by Greek dramatist Aeschylus could never have existed. Agamemnon did not die at Troy, rather returned to Ithaca, where he was murdered by the lover of his wife Clytemnestra. Additionally, two more deaths were wrongfully accounted in the movie; Priam was not killed by Agamemnon, nor was Meneleus killed by Hector.
There are many, many more facts the studio overlooked or changed; I won't even begin to touch upon the inaccuracies of the art and architecture used in the film. Obviously, this movie was created solely to generate money for the studio and to provide eye candy to women and gay men. For those familiar or even somewhat interested in this movie, avoid it like the plague. Everyone else who wants a popcorn movie closer to fiction than anything else, this is for you.