Entertaining epic, even if it doesn't exactly follow the legend

Rating: 8/10 (4 April 2006)

"Troy" is a big time epic such as used to turned out regularly in the 50's and early 60's. Of course, the old epics were made without the advantage, or curse, of CGI. A top flight international cast really get into the ancient characters and armor. Brad Pitt might be a little to pretty for Achilles, but he's better than I expected. Orlando Bloom is very good as Paris, the cause of it all. Eric Bana is a heroic Hector and Peter O'Toole is perfect as the tragic and noble King Priam. Helen Kruger is super-desirable as Helen, "the face that launched a thousand ships". Brian Cox is the aggressive and arrogant Agamemnon, Brendan Gleeson is great as his blustering brother, Menelaus, Helen's cuckolded husband. Possibly the best performance is by Sean Bean as the crafty Odysseus, who finally comes up with the idea for the Trojan Horse that finally ends the siege. "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts, or in this case, gifts bearing Greeks". The battle scenes are exciting and well staged, they're based on historical data and are accurately executed. The only quibble is that the film doesn't follow "The Illiad" completely, several major characters are killed before their time.All in all a very lavish, exciting and well done spectacle.