Troy is a very bad movie inspired by a very good story

Rating: 1/10 (15 May 2004)

Wolfgang Petersen and the creative team behind Troy seem to think that despite changing the beginning, middle and end of the story, despite dropping half the major characters (namely, the Gods), despite changing the motivations and attitudes of the remaining ones, and despite completely altering the "point" of the story (the nobility and tragedy of war), they have a right to still call this movie "Troy" and claim that it was inspired by Homer's poems.
The Homeric epics, and the entire cycle of myths surrounding the Trojan War have been with us for nearly thirty centuries. One would think that this would make them a "good story," but apparently this is not Mr. Petersen's or his screenwriter's view. Not willing to adapt to the story, to serve a story that is much bigger and nobler than them, they decide to lower the story to their level, to change it completely, to vulgarize it with standard Hollywood elements, hoping that the brand name of "Troy" plus a nude Brad Pitt plus blood and sex will give them a big profit.
I don't doubt that they will succeed. But, as the recent success of the Passion has shown, there is also a big market out there for people who aren't dumb and enjoy seeing the "real thing". Petersen had a chance to put one of a handful of Great Stories to celluloid, but instead he decided to give us the entirely forgettable mess that is "Troy".
Brad Pitt is a good actor and physically impressive, but he is not a king, nor does he have the nobility of Achilles. He plays Achilles like a pumped-up preppie with an attitude problem. Orlando Bloom, a usually good actor succeeds into turning Paris into a "man" that no self-respecting woman could ever love, let alone Helen, the most beautiful woman of her time. As for Helen, to say that Diane Kruger's performance is wooden would be an insult to wood. This Helen is no temptress, she is just a runway model pretending to be something which she does not comprehend. Certainly, everyone in this movie admires her beauty, which makes Ms Krueger's insufficiency at the role even more painful to watch.
I will not spoil the ending for you, but let's just say that -if you've read Homer- there's not five minutes in this movie where some distortion is not carried out by the director. But, he saves the best and most audacious changes for last.
Mr. Petersen has also blatantly cast a decidedly northern European group of actors in the role of all Greeks in this movie, including his German compatriot Ms. Krueger in the role of Troy. The unabashed Nordic idealism of his choices is eerily reminiscent of Nazi-era Aryanism, which saw in the Ancient Greeks the racial brethren of the modern Teutons. It appears that Mr. Petersen has internalized the racist ideology of the Nazis, reproducing it faithfully on screen.
The cinematography is excellent, the stunts are excellent, some action choreography is excellent. With the exception of these, there is nothing of value in "Troy". It is not just a bad adaptation, but also a bad movie in itself. Do not endorse the destruction of good stories by supporting the mess that is Troy.