Troy is a 2004 epic war film written by David Benioff and directed by Wolfgang Petersen and loosely based on Homer's Iliad. It features an cast that includes Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen, Sean Bean as Odysseus, Brian Cox as Agamemnon, Rose Byrne as Briseis, Garrett Hedlund as Patroclus, Peter O'Toole as Priam, Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus, and Tyler Mane as Ajax.

It was nominated for the Academy Award for Costume Design.

Plot[link]

Prince Hector (Eric Bana) and his young brother Paris (Orlando Bloom) negotiate peace between Troy and Sparta. Paris has fallen in love with Helen (Diane Kruger), the wife of king Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), and smuggles her back to Troy with him. Infuriated, Menelaus vows revenge. Menelaus approaches his brother Agamemnon (Brian Cox), a king who has conquered every army of Greece, and now commands them. Agamemnon, who has wanted to conquer Troy for years (which would give him control of the Aegean Sea), uses this as a justification to invade Troy. General Nestor (John Shrapnel) asks him to take the legendary warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt), to rally the troops to the cause.

Odysseus (Sean Bean), a king commanded by Agamemnon, visits Phtia to persuade Achilles to fight, and finds him training with Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund), his cousin. Achilles, pondering his decision, visits his mother Thetis (Julie Christie) for advice. She tells him that, before he was even born, she knew this day would come. She also tells him that if he does not go to Troy, he will live a long, happy life and have children, but after he dies, his name will be forgotten and nobody will remember him. If he does go to Troy, he will find great glory in battle, his name will be written into history forever, but he will die there. Achilles, wanting his name to be remembered, chooses to go.

The Greeks sail for Troy. Achilles and the Myrmidons are the fastest rowers and land before anyone else. They kill many Trojans and desecrate the temple of Apollo. Briseis (Rose Byrne), a member of the Trojan royal family, is captured and taken as a prize to the Greeks, despite Achilles claiming her as a war prize himself.

Achilles and his Myrmidons do not fight the next day because of Agamemnon's unfair claim to Briseis. With Greeks surrounding Troy, Paris challenges Menelaus to a duel to settle things. Menelaus agrees; however, Agamemnon plans on attacking the city regardless of the outcome. Paris is easily defeated, and wounded. Hector intervenes and kills Menelaus. The Greeks charge the Trojan lines but are forced to fall back when they are nearly wiped out by archers on Troy's walls. Ajax is slain in the battle as well at the hands of Hector.

Agamemnon gives Briseis to his men, but Achilles rescues her. He carries her back to his tent and tends to her wounds. Briseis then tries to kill Achilles but realizes that she has feelings for him and the two make love. The next day, Achilles is readying his men to leave, much to Patroclus' indignation.

That night, the Trojans launch a surprise offensive against the Greek encampment, aiming to destroy their boats and prevent their escape. As the Greeks seem to be on the verge of defeat, Achilles appears with the Myrmidons and joins the battle, eventually fighting against Hector. All are shocked when Hector cuts Achilles' throat; Hector removes his foe's helmet, revealing the face of Patroclus. After Hector finishes the mortally wounded youth, both armies agree to end fighting for the day. Before he leaves, Odysseus informs Hector it was Patroclus whom he had killed.

Achilles, who had slept through the battle, is told by Eudorus of his cousin's death. The Greeks had also mistaken Patroclus for Achilles, since he had put on Achilles' armour and moved like Achilles. Furious, Achilles attacks Eudorus and when Briseis tries to stop him, he throws her to the ground. Later that night, Achilles lights Patroclus' funeral pyre. Meanwhile, in Troy, Hector realizes that Achilles will seek revenge for the death of his cousin, and begins making preparations to save his loved ones. He leads Andromache to a secret path out of the city, asking her to use it if the city falls. He also passes on the Sword of Troy to Paris (who has begun training in archery), claiming that the city's people have a future so long as the sword is in the hands of a Trojan.

The next day Achilles approaches the gates of Troy alone and shouts for Hector to come out and face him. Hector knows he must face him alone, so he says his goodbyes to his family and friends and then confronts Achilles. The two fight an evenly matched duel at the start, but Hector begins to tire against the relentless assault of Achilles. Eventually, Achilles slays Hector by stabbing him in the chest. He then ties Hector's body to the back of his chariot, dragging it around the city, leaving all the Trojans shocked. That night, King Priam (Peter O'Toole) visits the Greek army's camp to convince Achilles to let him retrieve Hector's body. Moved by the king's plea, Achilles acquiesces to his request and allows him to take his son to be buried, promising him the 12 days for funerary rites. He tells Priam that Hector was the best he had ever fought. Achilles lets Priam take Briseis back as well. He later apologises to Eudorus for harming him and gives him one last order: to take the Myrmidons home.

Maquette Trojan Horse, used in Troy film, a gift from Brad Pitt to the Turkish town Canakkale.

During the 12 day-truce, Troy mourns Hector's death, while Agamemmnon fumes at the loss of an opportunity to end the war once and for all. Seeing that the mad king will sooner see every one of his own men slaughtered before he gives up his ambition, Odysseus plans to infiltrate the city by building a hollowed-out wooden horse. The Greeks leave the horse at their camp, then depart, hiding their ships in a nearby cove. Priam trusts his priests that the horse is an offering to Poseidon and a gift, despite the misgivings of Paris. Assuming victory, the Trojans take the horse into the city and celebrate. A Trojan scout finds the Greek ships hiding in the cove, but is killed by the Greeks before he can spread the news. A band of Greeks led by Achilles and Odysseus come out of the horse at night, opening the gates to the city, allowing the main army to enter. The Greeks commence the Sack of Troy, massacring the inhabitants and looting buildings. The Trojan army attempts to defend the royal palace but fails, and the Greeks storm in, killing Glaucus and Priam in the process.

While Troy is burned, Paris sees Andromache, Helen, and many others escaping from Troy through the secret passage Hector showed his wife. Seeing a man named Aeneas, Paris hands him the Sword of Troy, repeating his brother's words that the Trojans will have a future as long as the sword is in Trojan hands. After seeing the survivors off, Paris heads back into the city, bow and arrows at the ready.

Achilles searches for Briseis, who is being threatened by Agamemnon. She kills him with a concealed knife and is saved from his guards by Achilles. While Achilles is helping Briseis to her feet, Paris, seeing them together and misinterpreting Achilles' actions, shoots Achilles several times before Briseis manages to stay his hand. Achilles urges Briseis to join Paris and escape from the city, then dies of the wound to the one spot on his body that was vulnerable, his heel. The soldiers arrive to see the fallen Achilles with only the single arrow through his heel, as he had removed all the others, in keeping with the myth that Achilles was killed by a single arrow to the heel. Funeral rituals are performed for him in the ruins of Troy the next day. The film ends with a speech from Odysseus "If they ever tell my story, let them say I walked with giants. Men rise and fall like the winter wheat, but these names will never die. Let them say I lived in the time of Hector, tamer of horses. Let them say I lived in the time of Achilles."

Cast[link]

Greeks members, advisers and servants (Mycenae and Sparta)

• Brian Cox as Agamemnon
  He is the king of Mycenae and the main antagonist. He is the brother of Menelaus.
• John Shrapnel as Nestor
  He is the adviser of Agamemnon.
• Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus
  The king of Sparta and husband of Helen. He is the brother of Agamemnon.
• Ken Bones as Hippasus
  He is the adviser of Menelaus.
• Siri Svegler as Polydora^{[disambiguation needed ]}
  She is a Spartan entertainer.
• Diane Kruger as Helen
  She is the queen of Sparta and wife of Menelaus. She is the lover of Paris.

Myrmidons

• Brad Pitt as Achilles
  He is the son of Peleus and Thetis. He is the cousin of Patroclus and leader of the Myrmidons. He is the lover of Briseis and the main protagonist.
• Garrett Hedlund as Patroclus
  He is the cousin and student of Achilles.
• Vincent Regan as Eudoros
  He is the general of the Myrmidon army.
• Julie Christie as Thetis
  She is the mother of Achilles and aunt of Patroclus.

Kings and Warriors of other Greek states (e.g. Ithaca, Thessaly e.t.c)

• Sean Bean as Odysseus
  He is the king of Ithaca and friend of Achilles. He is considered the most clever of the Greeks.
• Julian Glover as Triopas
  He is the king of Thessaly.
• Nathan Jones as Boagrius
  He is a Thessalian champion.
• Tyler Mane as Greater Ajax
  He is the king of Salamis

Trojans

• Peter O'Toole as Priam
  He is the king of Troy, father of Hector and Paris, uncle of Briseis and father-in-law of Andromache.
• Eric Bana as Hector
  He is the prince of Troy and the best warrior among the Trojans. He is the elder son of Priam, brother of Paris, cousin of Briseis and husband of Andromache.
• Orlando Bloom as Paris
  He is the prince of Troy. He is the younger son of Priam, brother of Hector, cousin of Briseis and brother-in-law of Andromache. He is the lover of Helen.
• Rose Byrne as Briseis
  She is the priestess of Apollo, niece of Priam and cousin of Hector and Paris, cousin-in-law of Andromache. She is the lover of Achilles.
• Saffron Burrows as Andromache
  She is the princess of Troy and wife of Hector. She is the sister-in-law of Paris and daughter-in-law of Priam.
• James Cosmo as Glaucus
  He is the commanding general of the Trojan army.
• Nigel Terry as Archeptolemus
  He is the Trojan high priest and adviser of Priam.
• Frankie Fitzgerald as Aeneas
  A Trojan youth.

Production[link]

Major sets for the city of Troy were built in the Mediterranean island of Malta at Fort Ricasoli from April to June 2003.^[2] Other important scenes were shot in Mellieħa, a small town in the north of Malta, and on the small island of Comino. The outer walls of Troy were built and filmed in Cabo San Lucas, Mexico.^[3]

Music[link]

Composer Gabriel Yared originally worked on the score for Troy for over a year, having been hired by the director, Wolfgang Petersen.

Yared wrote and recorded his score and Tanja Carovska provided vocals on various portions of the music, as she later would on composer James Horner's version of the soundtrack. However, after having screened the film with an early incomplete version of the score, the reactions at test screenings were against it and in less than a day Yared was off the project without being given a chance to fix or change his music, while Warner Bros was already looking for a replacement.^[4] According to Yared, his score was removed due to a complaint by the screening audience that the score was too "old-fashioned".^[5]

The replacement score was written by composer James Horner in about four weeks. He used Carovska's vocals again, and also included traditional Eastern Mediterranean music and brass instruments. Drums are conspicuous in the most dramatic scenes; most notably, in the duel between Achilles and Hector. His instrumental scenes have themes very reminiscent of Rachmaninoff's Symphony No. 1, Gustav Holst's The Planets, and Benjamin Britten's War Requiem. The score also quotes themes from Samuel Barber's Adagio for Strings and Dmitri Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony. A suspenseful note progression introduced in Willow was played numerous times in the score, particularly in battle scenes. However, the main theme of the score mostly resembles Ralph Vaughan Williams' Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis. His theme also can be heard in the song performed by Josh Groban, "Remember", on the soundtrack of the film.

Horner also collaborated with American singer/songwriter Josh Groban and lyricist Cynthia Weil to write an original song for the film's end credits. The product of this collaboration, "Remember" was performed by Groban with additional vocals by Tzarovska. The song is available on the film's original soundtrack.

A commentator, Alex Ross, claims that large portions of the score were essentially plagiarized from the pieces of which they are reminiscent.^[6]

Around the time of the film's release in theaters, Gabriel Yared briefly made portions of his rejected score available on his personal website, which was later removed at the request of Warner Brothers. Bootleg versions exist on the Internet. Yared's score has since gained much attention from the fans of film music. Several petitions were made requesting the release of Yared's score either on a limited edition CD or as a bonus feature or secondary audio track on the film's DVD. Those requests however, have been denied by Warner Bros.

Director's cut[link]

Troy: Director's Cut was screened at the 57th Berlin International Film Festival on February 17, 2007, and received a limited theatrical release in Germany in April 2007. Warner Home Video reportedly spent more than $1 million for the director's cut, which includes "at least 1,000 new cuts" or almost 30 minutes extra footage (with a new running time of 196 minutes). The DVD was released on September 18, 2007 in the US. The score of the film was changed dramatically, with many of the female vocals being cut. An addition to the music is the use of Danny Elfman's theme for Planet of the Apes during the pivotal fight between Hector and Achilles in front of the Gates of Troy.

Various shots were recut and extended. For instance, the love scene between Helen and Paris was reframed to include more nudity of Diane Kruger. The sex scene between Achilles and Briseis is also extended. Only one scene was removed: the scene where Helen tends to the wound of Paris is taken out. The battle scenes were also extended, showing much more of Ajax's bloody rampage on the Trojans during the initial attack by the Greek Army. Perhaps most significantly was the sacking of Troy, barely present in the theatrical cut, but shown fully here. Characters were given more time to develop, specifically Priam and Odysseus, the latter being given a humorous introduction scene. Lastly, bookend scenes were added: the beginning being a soldier's dog finding its dead master, and the end including a sequence where the few surviving Trojans escape to Mount Ida. In one of the commentary sequences, the film's writer, David Benioff, said that when it came to deciding whether to follow Iliad or do what was best for the film, they always decided with what was best for the film.

Reception[link]

When the film was completed, total production costs were approximately $175,000,000. This made Troy one of the most expensive films produced in modern cinema. It was screened out of competition at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival.^[7]

Troy screenings have earned US$133,378,256 in the United States.^[8]

Troy made more than 73%^[8] of its revenues outside the U.S. Eventually, Troy made over US$497 million worldwide,^[8] placing it in the #60 spot of top box office hits of all time.

Troy met mixed reactions by reviewers. Rotten Tomatoes gave it an average approval rating of 55% from a base of 215 reviews,^[9] while Yahoo! Movies gave it a critic rating of "B-" based on 15 reviews.^[10] Roger Ebert, who disliked what he saw as an unfaithful adaptation of the Iliad, gave it two stars out of four. Ebert claimed that Troy "sidesteps the existence of the Greek gods, turns its heroes into action movie clichés and demonstrates that we're getting tired of computer-generated armies."^[11]

Box office totals[link]

• Budget – $175,000,000^[8]
• Marketing cost – $50,000,000
• Opening weekend gross (Domestic) – $46,865,412
• Total domestic grosses – $133,378,256
• Total overseas grosses – $364,031,596^[8]
• Total worldwide grosses – $497,409,852

Accolades[link]

2005 ASCAP Film and Television Music Awards

• Won – Top Box Office Film — James Horner

2005 Academy Awards

• Nominated – Best Achievement in Costume Design — Bob Ringwood

2005 Japanese Academy Prize

• Nominated – Best Foreign Film

2005 MTV Movie Awards

• Nominated – Best Fight — Brad Pitt & Eric Bana
• Nominated – Best Male Performance — Brad Pitt

2005 Motion Picture Sound Editors (Golden Reel Award)

• Nominated – Best Sound Editing in Foreign Features — Wylie Statesman, Martin Cantwell, James Boyle, Harry Barnes, Paul Conway, Alex Joseph, Matthew Grime, Steve Schwalbe, Howard Halsall, Sue Lenny, Simon Price & Nigel Stone

2005 Teen Choice Awards

• Won – Choice Movie Actor – Drama/Action Adventure — Brad Pitt
• Nominated – Choice Movie Actor – Drama/Action Adventure — Orlando Bloom
• Nominated – Choice Breakout Movie Star – Male — Garrett Hedlund
• Nominated – Choice Movie – Drama/Action Adventure
• Nominated - Choice Movie Fight/Action Sequence

See also[link]

• Epic film
• Greek mythology in popular culture
• List of films based on poems
• List of historical drama films

References[link]

Further reading[link]

• Petersen, Daniel (2006). Troja: Embedded im Troianischen Krieg (Troy: Embedded in the Trojan War). HörGut! Verlag. ISBN 3-938230-99-1.
• Winkler, Martin M. (2006). Troy: From Homer's Iliad to Hollywood Epic. Blackwell Publishing. ISBN 1-4051-3183-7.

External links[link]

Wikiquote has a collection of quotations related to: Troy (film)

• Official website
• Troy at the Internet Movie Database
• Troy at AllRovi
• Troy at Rotten Tomatoes
• Troy at Metacritic
• Troy at Box Office Mojo