Very impressed

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2004)

A superb movie all around...I thoroughly enjoyed the experience. It seems most of the bad reviews on this film are coming from those who either wanted it to be 100% "historically accurate", or people who seem to just despise Brad Pitt for some reason (jealousy?). Either way, I myself am not a big Pitt fan, although I was pleasantly surprised to see he pulled off the role of Achilles much better than I had expected. Arrogant, cocky, yet at times sulky and emotional...he hit it imo. As for not sticking totally to 'The Iliad', well, I don't know if I could sit through an 8 hour movie because that's what it would take basically. Sure, Agememnon and Menelaus did not die at Troy, but in this case it made the movie better, which is more important to me. The fact is, most of the major events, battles, and characters were depicted accurately...much closer than say, Gladiator for instance. Paris and Hector in Sparta, Helen to Troy, the battles, Hector killing Petriclus, Achilles rage and then killing Hector, dragging his body in front of the walls of Troy, Priam going to Achilles' tent, etc, etc...bottom line is the main points were covered and I expect a certain amount of stray from the story to begin with. Sticking to Homer's version 100% would have made the movie longer and maybe even boring at times (we do not even know how accurate 'The Iliad' is to begin with!). I went to see this movie hoping for an epic spectacle with a fair amount of historical accuracy and not for The Iliad on screen. I got exactly what I wanted and much, much more.