The Movie Vs. the Epic

Was any living person around for the ancient times? No, and no one truly knows what happened, but epics like The Iliad, written by Homer, allows one to visualize what it was like and lead filmmakers to try and create accurate depictions in their movies. Troy, directed by Wolfgang Petersen, is a movie that retells the story of The Iliad or at least it is an attempt to. Although the movie Troy does make a realistic representation of life during the ancient times, it leaves out a huge and very important part, the Gods.

Does the setting make a person believe Troy is an accurate depiction of the ancient times? Between the clothes, stone buildings, armor, weapons, ships, and chariots, the viewer should easily be able tell that the setting is of the ancient times. Also in the start of the movie and changes between cities the viewer is shown the years around the time that these events are taking place (c. 1200 bc.). The armor and weapons definitely give a better effect towards the war and the reality of it. Their clothes make it believable also, because they all wear togas, which is simply a huge cloth with a hole for your head and a belt is most often worn around it. The ships and chariots are both made out of wood, and fifty men have to row these ships to Troy. The one thing that doesn't seem to fit is that they're always so clean. A person can understand the kings and princes to be so clean, but the warriors? They're never sweaty or dirty throughout the war before the Trojan War or the exhausting boat trip to Troy, except in a few battle scenes towards the end of the film.

Emotions are a part of everyone's life and cannot be understood by just reading. The movie Troy plays out the people's emotions perfectly. There is a great fear in the people of Troy as the run and screams for their lives, when they see the thousand ships coming towards them. The warriors all have honor and confidence in their eyes. They also have a great respect for one another, by fighting face to face and not just running up and stabbing someone when their back is turned. The two greatest scenes of emotion are: 1. When Achilles friend is killed, he tearfully mourns for him and then angrily gets his revenge, 2. When the proud, confident king of Troy sees his city falling and burning the sadness just over powers him with tears. These emotions can't be truly seen by only reading Homer's epic.

To truly depict the validity of the movie Troy according to Homer's epic, The Iliad, we must view the main focal points. Troy seemed to have a main focus on love, power, honor, and respect, while The Iliad had a huge focus towards the Gods. Another thing to point out is that the movie starts with Paris taking Helen to Troy and makes it seem that the war only lasted a few weeks. The Iliad starts in the tenth and final year of the war with a plague over the Achaeans because Agamemnon, their king, refuses to return a priest's daughter. This action sparks a fight between him and their greatest warrior Achilles. Homer shows in his epic that the Gods are the cause for all of this: "And who of