Troy

Troy squeezes a ten-year war into what seems like a few weeks and removes the gods entirely, turning the story into a human drama of pride, love and politics. Brad Pitt makes a brooding, magnetic Achilles, and Eric Bana is excellent as a decent, dutiful Hector, whose duel with Achilles is the high point of the film.

Readers of the Iliad will notice many changes. Characters who survive in the myths die here, and the film is more interested in spectacle than in the moral depth of the poem. Peter O’Toole’s brief scene as Priam, begging for his son’s body, is the closest it comes to Homer’s power.

The 2007 director’s cut is longer, darker and generally considered the better version.

Our verdict

An enjoyable blockbuster that may send viewers back to the original.