More Details

Studio:Warner Home Video

Product Description

In 1193B.C. the dandy Trojan prince Paris (Bloom) irresponsibly spirits away the unhappy wife of Menelaus (Gleeson), the Spartan king. Demanding the return of Helen, the Greeks launch a thousand ships and lay siege to Troy. Under the command of Agamemnon (Cox), revered warrior Achilles (Pitt) leads the Greek forces against the Trojan defenders, commanded by Hector (Bana), who carries the fate of his nation on his shoulders.

 

 

• Actors

Brad Pitt, Orlando Bloom, Eric Bana, Diane Kruger, Brendan Gleeson, Julian Glover, Brian Cox, Sean Bean, Peter O'Toole, Julie Christie, Nigel Terry, Trevor Eve, Saffron Burrows, James Cosmo & Tyler Mane

• Director

Wolfgang Petersen

• Year

2004

• Screen

Widescreen

• Languages

English

• Closed Captions

Yes

Amazon.co.uk Review

There are many reasons to recommend Troy as a good ol' fashioned Hollywood epic, especially if you've never read Homer's The Iliad. Dispensing with Greek gods altogether, this earnestly massive production (budgeted at upwards of $200 million) will surely offend historians and devoted students of the classics. But there's politics aplenty in the grand-scale war that erupts when Trojan prince Paris (Orlando Bloom) makes off with Helen (blandly beautiful German model Diane Kruger), wife of Spartan ruler Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), whose brother, the Greek king Agamemnon (Brian Cox) prods him into enraged retaliation. Greek warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) brings lethal force to his battles (and there are many of them, mostly impressive), and his Trojan counterpart, Paris's brother Hector (Eric Bana), adds even more buffed-up beefcake to a film so chock-full o' hunks that there's barely room for Peter O'Toole (doing fine work as Trojan king Priam) and even less for Julie Christie, appearing ever-so-briefly as Achilles's melancholy mother. The drama is nearly as arid as the sun-baked locations (Mexico and Malta) that stand in for the Aegean coast, and many critics suggested that Pitt (who valiantly tries to give Achilles some tormented dimension) was simply miscast. But when you consider that Wolfgang Petersen also made The Perfect Storm, there's nothing wrong with enjoying Troy as a semi-guilty pleasure with a touch of ancient class. --Jeff Shannon

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