Rousing,exhilarating historical action yarn

Rating: Null/10 (2 January 2005)

STAR RATING:*****Unmissable****Very Good***Okay**You Could Go Out For A Meal Instead*Avoid At All Costs
In Ancient Greece,Paris (Orlando Bloom) a member of the army of Troy,has an affair and runs away with Helen,Queen of Sparta (Diane Kruger) who is married to Menalaus (Brendan Gleeson) a soldier in the Greek Army.With fierce rivalries already waging between Kings Agamemnon (Brian Cox) of Greece and King Priam (Peter O' Toole) of Troy,this sets the course for the two to go to war,culminating with the showdown to end of showdowns between Greece's champion soldier Achilles (Brad Pitt) and Hector (Eric Bana),who wins all Troy's battles...
On the front cover of Troy,six actors are featured.By the end,four are dead.That should set the tone for the kind of roaring,battle focused epic it is.
I was a little worried 'cos the lead actor,Brad Pitt,looked a little wooden in the trailers,but in the film,he strangely comes to life and delivers a commanding if not quite Oscar worthy performance as the arrogant but conscientious soldier of Greece,tired of fighting battles for a king he has lost all respect for.He is well complimented by Bana's turn as Troy's champion Hector,who sees no glory in war and wants desperately in his soul to avoid it.In fact,the whole movie gets off on good double acts.O' Toole and Cox work well together too respectively as the mystical,God worshipping King of Troy and the selfish,unreasoning King of Greece who's values on life and liberty differ enormously.
A big problem with the film is it's length,which in turn,results in your attention getting distracted somewhat in parts.But generally speaking,this is a pleasantly surprising and thoroughly enjoyable action yarn with a lot going for it.Good score,good cinematography (in parts),good dialogue and some great battle scenes.Worth seeing.****