ok spoilers following....
Troy the movie is supposed 2 document the sacking of the city of Troy (modern Turkey)
that happened in about 1200 BC by the Greeks...
The same story is being told by Homer in his epic poem entitled the Iliad...
in any case my personal view is that the director and/or producer of the
film should follow 1 of the 2 following directions:
a) a realistic representation of the Iliad that would try 2 explain the historical
reality of this era giving us a glimpse into the social and financial state of
affairs of the Achaious (Greeks) and the rest of the "known" world according
to Homer (Phoinikes, Persians, Kares, Leleges etc) and their struggle
for domination of the Aegean Sea and the Black Sea...
b) an exact copy of the epic poem with godly intervensions and paraphysic
phenomena that are so common in Homers "world"... The technology 4 that
exists and if properly done we'd talk about a super-production that would
blow Jackson's Lord of the Rings out of the water...
Its obvious that the director Petersen (Das Boot) tried 2 go 4 the first
option but in my opinion his story-telling and representation of the Iliad
was severely lacking in pretty much everything...
I understand that a book (much less a poem) has 2 change in order
2 be adapted in the big screen but apart from the actual names of the
characters the film had little 2 do with the Iliad...
I explain myself....
i) scenery-costumes-weapons...
the represantion of the above has little 2 do with Greeks or Trojans of
the period that the war is taking place... Its more reminiscent of Persian
or Pharao-egyptian kind of style...
ii) social and political structures...
it presents a society where women were participating in war counsils
(something unheard of at the time), where battles were observed
high above the castles, gods where under scrutiny etc...
iii) Achilleas (not Achilleus) is not a champion in Agamemnon's army...
in fact he was the king of Phthia in Thessaly, the Myrmidons were not
mercenaries/buddies of Achilleas but they were the fearsome army of Thessaly,
Achilleas never sets foot inside Trojan walls as he gets killed way b4 the
war is over by Paris and a poisoned arrow in his heel (hence the
Achilleus heel meaning weak spot)..
he is represent as a killing machine instead of the complex emotional and tragic character the Homer wrote about...
iv) Patroklos was not the younger (in fact he was older) cousin of Achilleas but
instead his close friend (some say with strong homosexual tendencies towards him)
v) Brysieis is just a slave girl that was captured during a greek raid
and she wasnt a priestess of any kind or had any relation 2 Hektor
vi) Hector's sister, Cassandra the mad or the prophet is nowhere 2 b seen
vii) Agamemnon was never killed by Brysieis but instead he came home
victorious and he was killed by his cheating wife and her lover (hence the
beatiful tragedy Oresteia that tells that story written by Aischylous)
viii) Menelaus was never killed by Hektor in Trojan soil.... Instead he came
home victorious with his wife Helen...
ix)Ajax (which reminds me more of a viking than a greek king) was never
killed in a battle with Hektor which ended in a stalemate... He commited suicide after he lost a wager
with Odysseas about the fallen Achilleas shield and armor and went mad...
x)Hektor stole the armament of of the fallen Patroklos after he killed him
xi)Hektor was never in Sparta 2 negotiate peace... in fact Paris didnt
even go there as a prince, he was a mere farmer b4 he finds out
about his true identity, that was ostracised from troy since it was foretold
that he will bring pain and suffering to his people...
xii)Nestor the wise king of Argos was a counselor in Agamemnon's court
xiii)Priam was not killed by Odysseas but from Neoptolemos (Achilleas son, yes he wasnt there either)
xv)half a dosen of other major characters were not even mentioned with
the most noted absentees being Diomedes and Ajax the Telamon
Personally i havent read the Iliad since i was 13 yrs old and i can vividly
remember all of these major (for me) flaws of the film...
All the above is sm of the infinite chaos and stupidity that takes over the
entire film and it more reminescent of series like Hercules and Xena
but with a lot higher production costs...
i apologise 4 the long post but i just had 2 get that out of my sytem
