As it stands, the 2004 epic Troy currently sits at a 54% average on Rotten Tomatoes and a 56 on Metacritic. It was made in the wake of the insanely popular film Gladiator, but failed to capture the lightning in a bottle the same way Ridley Scott’s epic did. It doesn’t help that Brad Pitt actually was pretty vocal about his time on Troy as well, criticizing both the direction of the movie and how it deviated from the source material and how his time on the movie dictated what kinds of movies he would take on going forward. But despite that and that the film is not a good adaptation of The Illiad at all, there’s quite a lot of enjoyment to be had with Troy, despite its faults. So, for the 20th anniversary of the Swords and Sandals epic from the late Wolfgang Peterson, here’s a meaty editorial as to why I think this movie is a lot of fun, despite its flaws.

Troy is a loose retelling of Homer’s Illiad and stars Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as his brother Paris, newcomer (at the time) Helen Kruger as Helen of Troy, Brian Cox as Agamemnon, Sean Bean as Odysseus and Peter O’Toole as Priam, among many others. It was directed by Wolfgang Peterson and co-written by David Benioff of Game of Thrones fame. Where the story differs from the source material is that it largely ignores the involvement of the gods from the narrative and frames the narrative as a historical epic as opposed to an allegory or a fantasy. Sure, there are still priests and superstitions, but the gods do not get involved, as evidenced by Achilles decapitating the statue of Apollo without consequence. This changes the scope of the war in major ways, as the gods are actively involved with the siege and help shape certain events. The movie instead shows the heroes as mortal and flawed, a move that works well I’d argue for the sake of a movie. From the point of view of the soldiers, the Trojan War would’ve been a minute-to-minute conflict for their lives. Making it about the mortals as opposed to being pawns in the affairs of the Gods makes the movie far more grounded and relatable.

There’s also a slew of narrative changes from The Illiad that may not make the most sense if you’ve read Homer’s work first, chief among them that comes to mind is how Agamemnon and Paris die (the former dies ten years later at the hands of his wife in Greece, the latter via a poisoned arrow but is very much alive in the movie) and bringing the war down from ten years to what seems like a few weeks at best. But then the film will be sure to keep things from the source text intact, such as Achilles dragging Hector’s body back to the Greek camp after their duel.

Achilles, the greatest warrior of all time, refuses to fight for Agamemnon out of his own volition, rather than being guided by any unseen hand of destiny. Achilles is angry and kind of resentful while also being driven by ego. His desire for glory literally outweighs the concept of dying as an old man surrounded by family. But despite this, he’s swayed by love and almost gives it all up for her, which makes us sympathize and empathize with him later in the movie. Despite being portrayed as the antagonists thanks to Agamemnon’s more villainous nature, the film makes sure to illustrate that there are heroes on both sides. This war, which brought fifty thousand Greeks to the Trojan shore, is all Paris’ fault and the film makes sure to highlight him being far more meek and cowardly than his big brother Hector, who is stoic, brave, and honourable. Bana makes Hector instantly likable, which is essential as we have to feel sad when Achilles kills him in the duel. A notable change from texts from the time of Homer (but ironically, not from Homer himself) is that of Patchleus, who went from Achilles’ lover in the ancient texts to his cousin in this film. I guess Hollywood wasn’t ready to commit to that in 2004.

Troy was one of the last movies made from that era to make grandiose sets, and use thousands of extras and props for the historical epic/swords and sandals genres for quite some time. The Wall of Troy looks epic and imposing, and the armies, despite being bolstered by CGI, feel tangible and menacing. After Kingdom of Heaven failed to leave a mark on audiences with its theatrical run and 300 reinvented the genre with its heavily stylized, green screen backdrops, studios opted to make their movies with an overreliance on CGI to create style vs substance. Films like Immortals, Clash of the Titans, 300: Rise of an Empire, and so on all suffered from a lack of tangibility by having an overreliance on green screen and appealing more as action films instead of epics. The crew working on Troy made these fantastic and jaw-dropping sets, from the walls of the city to the primary square, temples, ships, etc. You feel like you’re transported to these ancient times or at the very least, brought back to the epics of the 1950s, just with far superior filmmaking techniques from a technical perspective. Ridley Scott’s Napoleon was a soft return to this style of filmmaking, using plenty of CGI but also a lot of practical footage, but unfortunately, that movie did not have the desired outcome for many.

The sound design in Troy is also phenomenal, giving the illusion to the viewer of the deadly weight of the weapons used at the time. Blades clang against shields with a thunderous clang, really selling the illusion that the actors are using weapons and not props. During the Achilles and Hector duel, Pitt and Bana did their own stunts and had to learn to use a spear, a weapon much more difficult to use than a sword, which is Hollywood’s go-to weapon of choice. The music is also epic and perhaps one of James Horner’s best compositions for my money. The huge brass sections, romanticized strings, and thundering drums really deliver a sense of scale and antiquity.

Where the movie truly shines though is in its action. From the beach assault to the first attack on the city of Troy, the movie is firing on all cylinders. The practicality of the action grounds it in reality and the countless extras help with the sense of scale. But it’s the duel between Hector and Achilles that’s the highlight of the movie. Pitt and Bana opted to not use stunt doubles for the fight, as evidenced by their characters removing their helmets, to commit to the role. Both actors also agreed to a gentleman’s bet, paying the other $50 for minor hits and $100 for major hits. Pitt ended up paying Bana $750 after the six-day shoot was complete.

On Brad Pitt’s critique of the movie, I found one comment to be interesting, in the sense that I disagree with his assessment completely. Pitt may have been a little salty over Troy, as he was forced into the role for backing out of another movie, but had this to say on the direction:

“What am I trying to say about Troy? I could not get out of the middle of the frame. It was driving me crazy. I’d become spoiled working with David Fincher. It’s no slight on Wolfgang Petersen. Das Boot is one of the all-time great films. But somewhere in it, Troy became a commercial kind of thing. Every shot was like, Here’s the hero! There was no mystery.”

I think that was the point though, Achilles is considered to be the greatest warrior who ever lived, a living legend. So the late Wolfgang Peterson would’ve wanted to frame him as such, there shouldn’t be much in the way of mystery around how Achilles is framed. Propping him up as a hero to the Greeks and a terrifying threat to the Trojans makes sense then and I’m not sure why Pitt is critical of this aspect in particular.

As much as I do enjoy this movie, it’s not without faults and it’s only fair that I address them. Bennioff’s script also lacks focus from time to time and it also relegates a lot of the women characters in the film as prizes and trophies to the men. Helen of Troy is literally seen as a prize or possession by both Orlando Bloom’s Paris and Brendan Gleeson’s Menelaus while Rose Byrne’s Briseis spends most of the film as a prisoner of Achilles and the Greeks and her romance with Achilles feels unbelievable and unearned.

There is a director’s cut available for Troy but it’s difficult to recommend for one singular reason. While it’s far more gory, something I think should’ve been included in the already R-rated theatrical cut to emphasize the brutality of bronze weaponry, the duel between Hector and Achilles is different in this version due to Horner’s score, which was a simple drum rhythm, being completely replaced by a far more generic track from Tim Burton’s Planet of the Apes movie. Not to knock on Danny Elfman, but the new score in this scene completely damages the scene, which is one of the most critical scenes of the film and one of the most entertaining. I have no idea why the original track was swapped out for this. That aside though, the director’s cut is still a great cut of the film, one for its increased emphasis on the horrors of war but it also sheds more light onto the motivations of the characters. So if you can get past the radical change to a key scene’s score, check that one out.

So if you’re looking for an adaptation of the Illiad, this movie will not be for you and if you’re a scholar of Homer, you may actually hate this movie for how radically it changes the source material. But if you can get past some of the stiff acting and wooden dialogue, there’s certainly a fun movie to be had here. It’s not as strong as the director’s cut of Kingdom of Heaven or Gladiator (next up in this series), but for a film that’s all about spectacle while paying homage to the epics of the 1950s and 60s, this one is certainly entertaining enough.