An often rousing and emotionally engaging epic, but could clearly have benefited from a stronger and more equal emphasis on its many themes, subplots, and characters.

Rating: Null/10 (15 May 2004)

*** out of ****
The die-hard Iliad fans who won't appreciate or condone the many changes and liberties Wolfgang Petersen's adaptation takes with the original literature should probably stay away from Troy, but I think they're missing the point entirely. Having read The Iliad myself and having just seen Troy, I am convinced this is probably as good an adaptation as one can get.

To atually maintain rigid levels of faithfulness would require the story to be divided into at least two fairly lengthy films, but believe me, there's only so much interest this particularly small-scale war can hold for so long (for crying out loud, despite boasting armies in the dozens of thousands, it's fought over a relatively small stretch of unappealing land). What director Petersen and writer David Benioff have merely done is condense the tale, tossed out almost all elements of the supernatural, and focus mostly on Achilles' desire for glory, giving him an even further human emphasis than the Homeric tale.
For those unfamiliar with the famous tale, Troy is set over three thousand years ago, an ancient time when the many nations of Greece have been all but conquered by King Agamemnon (Brian Cox). With only one kingdom remaining, Thessaly, Agamamenon calls upon his greatest but most rebellious warrior, Achilles (Brad Pitt), lord of the Myrmidons, to fight for him yet again. In swift combat, Achilles kills Thessaly's reigning champion in a matter of seconds, and all of Greece is united under the power-hungry Agamemnon's rule.
Meanwhile, in Sparta, the King's brother, Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), has just made peace with the leaders of Troy, who are represented by the princes Hektor (Eric Bana) and Paris (Orlando Bloom). But the peace lasts no more than a day when Helen, who has fallen in love with Paris, is smuggled aboard the Trojan ship on its return home. Upon this discovery, Menelaus wages war, asking his brother to join him. This being the perfect opportunity to either crush or rule Greece's rival nation, Agamemnon accepts the offer.
The Greeks plan to launch a thousand ships, but to ensure victory, Agamemnon uses Odysseus (Sean Bean) to enlist the aid of Achilles, who reluctantly agrees to join the expedition so that his name and glory may be remembered for all time. Upon arrival at the beaches of Troy, the Myrmidons push back Hektor and his men, and take prisoner the priestess and Trojan King's (Peter O'Toole) niece, Briseis (Rose Byrne). Achilles develops a sexual and romantic relationship with Briseis, which makes him question his outlook of the war and his reasons for fighting, but an act of violence against one of his men will propel him back into the war and against the Trojans' honorable and reigining hero, Hektor.
At the heart of Troy is the story of Achilles, but the film tries to cover considerably more plots and themes than just his battle for reputation and immortality and his consequent romance with Briseis. There's the love of Paris and Helen, the honor and strength of Hektor, the brotherly love of Hektor and Paris, the fatherly love of Priam, the greed and debauchery of Agamemnon and Menelaus, and an assortment of many characters who are given the short shrift compared to Achilles and the leaders of Troy.

Therein lies the film's major flaw; with so many character, so many converging storylines, there's only so much one can accomplish with a running time of 163 minutes. The storytelling is occasionally somewhat choppy, especially in the opening, in which Paris and Helen are shown as already being in love without actually showing how this relationship developed beyond the fact that each is considered exceedingly attractive for his and her respective genders.
The uninitiated will probably find themselves slightly disoriented and bombarded with the many characters that are awkwardly introduced, each new addition inserted at the most opportune moment simply because he or she has to play an important role to the outcome of the story later in the film (i.e. Odysseus, Patroclus, Andromache, etc.).
But as distracting as these flaws are, there's no questioning that the core subplots the film does choose to focus on are the most compelling ones. There are many interesting relationships in the film, none more so than Achilles' burgeoning love for Briseis, which brings out a conflicting sense of duty, if not necessarily loyalty, among both. Brad Pitt and Rose Byrne have such good chemistry that their moments together work, especially their final, poignant scene together. Despite many reports to the contrary, Pitt is actually quite good as Achilles, supporting his character well through his many internal (and external) conflicts.
As Hektor, Eric Bana excellently portrays the film's most effortlessly likeable character, a hero whose every move is torn between love for his soldiers and his brother, and deciding what's best for Troy. Orlando Bloom also impresses as the semi-cowardly Paris who discovers the backbone and drive to fight. Peter O'Toole delivers perhaps the film's best performance as King Priam of Troy; an emotional scene between him and Achilles might just be enough to land O'Toole a supporting Oscar nod, though it's a bit too early to tell.
The film's numerous action sequences are rousing and keep the film moving at a surprisingly fast pace; while most of the massive-scale battles are a little too short to truly satisfy (the exception being the terrific siege sequence goes badly for the Greeks), it's the one-on-one fights that deliver genuine thrills and even suspense. Three such showdowns are very impressive, Paris vs. Menelaus, Hektor vs. Ajax, and the best of them all, the battle between Hektor and Achilles, the most exciting and freshest take on ancient combat I've seen since Gladiator.
This fight between each kingdom's best warrior is representative of what works so well in Troy, it develops its main characters as genuine humans and doesn't choose sides over whom is hero and whom is villain (clearly, the Greek kings are meant to be the film's "boo-hiss" bad guys, and not the warriors they command). For that, this film is leagues more complex and complicated than any summer blockbuster I've seen this decade.

Visually, the film is spectacular without being totally engulfing, which is a bit of a pity. For all the money spent on the production, I didn't quite find myself drawn into this ancient world as much as I would have liked (probably because, as I said earlier, it's almost exclusively set on a small stretch of land). It is, in fact, only in the climax that one can totally immerse himself in the film's reality, because of the imminent and wide-scale destruction, frantic behavior, and overwhelming emotions that are displayed.
Also working as visuals, Troy boasts the most attractive cast in recent memory, with Pitt, Bana, and Bloom appealing to the female audience and Rose Byrne, Saffron Burrows, and Diane Krueger displaying the literal beauty of the time period. I am particularly smitten with Byrne, whom I hope to see in future works. Watch Troy for its cast and its great action, which combine for a highly entertaining if heavily flawed picture.