A Review of the Movie Troy

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With its beautiful actors, breathtaking scenery and costumes, the movie Troy is a movie for Hollywood that is sure to be a box office hit. Troy, based on the Iliad, has proven to be a very loose adaptation of Homer's classic and one cannot help noticing the major differences between the book and the movie.

One of the most noticeable differences between the book and the movie is the absence of the Gods. In Homer's Iliad, the Gods played a major part in the Trojan War. Though the viewers are made aware that the characters believe in the Gods, the only God we see in the movie is Thetis, Achilles' mother. The omission of the Gods from the movie may give the audience a chance to view the characters more believable, however by omitting the Gods, the viewer did not get the full history of the characters.

Possibly the only reason Thetis was in the movie was because she was the main reason Achilles decided to fight in the war against the Trojans. In both the book and the movie, it was Thetis who told Achilles that if he fought in the war, he would die young, but his name would live on for thousands of years. This seemed to be the theme throughout the movie and the book.

I didn't think the movie gave enough background information on Price Paris and Helen of Sparta. The movie showed Helen trapped in a loveless marriage with a man twice her age. Paris, the beautiful prince of Troy suddenly shows up in her bedroom and convinces her to leave her husband and go to Troy with him. The movie does not let the viewer know that Helen was a reward to Paris for choosing to give a golden apple to the Goddess Aphrodite instead of the Goddess' Hera or Athena. However, the basics were the same. Helen went with Paris, her husband, Me...

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...ry ends with Hectors burial. The movie Troy is very different. After the twelve-day mourning period, the Spartans trick the Trojans into thinking they were all dead from a disease. The Spartans left behind a gigantic wooden horse. The Trojans take the horse back to Troy and while everyone sleeps, the Spartans (who have been hiding inside the horse) open the gates of Troy to let in their army and burn Troy to the ground. In the process, Prince Paris sees Achilles trying to get Briseis to safety and Paris kills Achilles.

Though we do see some similarities between the Iliad and Troy, these similarities are very loosely based. I think the movie made the characters seem less barbaric and some of the sets, especially the city of Troy, seemed a bit too elaborate. The movie, though enjoyable, was definitely not a factual representation of Homers classic Iliad.

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