Epic Classic that deserves all due credit.

Rating: 7/10 (8 November 2005)

I didn't bother to watch this in the cinema or to buy it; I was informed by friends that it was a waste of time, that the acting was wooden, it was jumping on the LOTR bandwagon.
But having watched it last night, well! This is truly an epic and deserves all the awards it got.
The Director Wolfgang Petersen has taken Homer's Iliad and turned it into something the whole family can enjoy. Now, I myself have read and adored both the Odyessy and Iliad, and that is one of the reasons I was so sceptical about watching Troy - I thought it would be one of the Hollywood adaptations in an attempt to cash in - and it probably was! But damn, did they do a good job!
Brad Pitt does an excellent performance as Achilles, showing the emotions and turning the legend into a real person with real emotions. His love scenes are not overplayed, and his battle scenes - well, Mr Pitt, your training certainly paid off this time!
The real performer in this is Eric Bana. I'd not seen him in anything before, but his emotional levels that he brought to the role of Hector had me thinking that I'd follow him to death, damn it! As with Pitt, he does some wonderful acting with Saffron Burrows, who plays Andromache, his wife - perhaps not the perfect appearance, but an excellent performance - and his moments on the battlefield are awe-inspiring.
Orlando Bloom does a far better job than I'd anticipated. His Paris is not the snivelling coward nor terrible cruelty, but I'd rather hoped to see some more emotion - some of his performance just doesn't quite hit it, though you are left shaking your fist at him when it ends. Perhaps it is the script writer's fault, however, that rather than being guided by the gods - which admittedly would not have fitted with the film - he suddenly becomes a hero.
SPOILERS AHEAD: Without a doubt the best sequence in this starts when Hector kills Patroclus, and ends when Achilles gives his body back to Priam. The performances from every single actor had me in tears. When Hector and Achilles come face to face, you are torn between who to support - Achilles in his grief, or Hector in his courage? Peter O Toole shows off his talent in this one scene, and as for the scene where Achilles cries over Hector's body - wow! I was gob-smacked by this surprising show of talent from Pitt.
END OF SPOILER.
All the performances are decent and this is a film I would definitely recommend - over and over again.