Troy (film)

Troy (Troy in Spain and Latin America) is a 2004 American-British epic film., directed by Wolfgang Petersen and starring Brad Pitt, Sean Bean, Diane Kruger, Eric Bana and Orlando Bloom. It is based on Homer's Greek epic poem The Iliad, but also includes material from its continuation, The Odyssey, also by Homer, and The Aeneid, by Virgil, in addition to other sources. Likewise, the film incorporates in its story complete divergences from the myth presented in the Greek works, removing several of the fundamental elements of its plot.

The film tells a story starring Odysseus, Hector, Paris and Achilles where the Greeks face off against the Trojans and the cultural values of aristocratic and warrior Greece are shown, including the appearance of the Trojan horse.

Plot

The story is narrated by Odysseus, king of Ithaca, one of the lands loyal to the hierarchy that is formed throughout Greece. Agamemnon, the absolute king of the Greek hierarchy, tries to conquer all the lands in order to dominate, and on many occasions he wants to have the help of Achilles, the best warrior in Greece. However, there are always setbacks on Achilles' part, such as on one occasion when he is called to fight against the best warrior of the last kingdom that Agamemnon tries to conquer. Despite everything, Achilles goes to the fight and manages to win, although he makes it clear that he did not fight out of loyalty to Agamemnon, whom he hates for being an arrogant and tyrant hungry for territory, but simply to save thousands of innocent people.

At the same time, in Sparta a party is held in the palace of Menelaus, Agamemnon's younger brother, where Prince Hector of Troy and his younger brother Paris are guests to consolidate peace between Spartans and Trojans. Everything seems to be going well between the representatives of both kingdoms, but Hector finds out that Paris has relations with Helena, wife of Menelaus, whom he convinces to go with him to Troy. The next morning the two princes leave at dawn and after an emotional conversation, Paris reveals to Hector that he has sneaked Helena into the ship, which angers Hector since he knows that the Spartans will go after her and that this will cause a fight. war between Greece and Troy.

Menelaus discovers that Helen has fled with the Trojans and, enraged, meets with his brother Agamemnon, whom he asks for help in conquering Troy and taking Helen away. Agamemnon accepts, delighted by his desire to gain absolute control of the Aegean Sea. However, his friend Nestor tells him that Troy has never been conquered due to his mighty strength; the city itself is protected by high walls and the fact that it is prepared to maintain a siege for a period of ten years occurs, so he recommends that he seek the support of Achilles and his myrmidons from the Achaean territories.

Agamemnon knows that he and Achilles hate each other, so he sends Odysseus to try to convince him to join the cause of Greece and bring the Myrmidons with him as his great allies in this war. When Odysseus manages to track down Achilles, he is training with his cousin Patroclus, who turns out to be a promising combat apprentice and works hard to be a myrmidon. At first, Achilles, with a very proud character, refuses Odysseus's requests due to his exacerbated hatred against Agamemnon, but finally he feels quite convinced by the honor and glory that he will bring to all of Greece and agrees to participate in the war. war when his mother, Thetis, predicts that though he will die in Troy, his name and mighty deeds will be remembered forever.

In Troy, Hector, Paris, and Helen receive a grand welcome from the Trojans. King Priam receives Helena kindly, but then speaks alone with Hector to decide what to do with her. Hector insists that the smart thing to do would be to return Helen to Sparta, but Priam dismisses her idea, believing that if they did, Paris would go after her and Menelaus would kill him. Finally the King decides to face the Greeks when they arrive, trusting that his people will continue to live thanks to the superiority of Troy based on its high walls and the strength granted by the god Apollo.

After two days, more than a thousand ships full of all kinds of warriors from all over Greece, be they of Athenian, Theban, Corinthian, Macedonian and even Spartan origins for example, appear off the coast of Troy. The Greeks quickly take over the beach, set up a huge camp and at the same time face a group of Trojan soldiers under the command of Hector, with Achilles and his myrmidons having a special role in the battle. In addition, it can be seen that Patroclus demonstrates in good form what he has learned during his training, and Odysseus brings out a very remarkable strategy during the combat, among other events, making the newly arrived Greeks take advantage of the battle. At some point, Achilles allows Hector and his remaining Trojan soldiers to return to the city. Patroclus and the Myrmidons sack the temple of Apollo, capturing a Trojan priestess named Briseis (a cousin of Hector and Paris) and handing her over to Achilles, but Agamemnon spitefully snatches her away, intending to make her his slave. Outraged by this, Achilles decides that he and his myrmidons will not intervene in the war until Agamemnon implores him to.

The next day, the huge army of Greece appears before the walls of Troy, so Priam, Hector and Paris face Agamemnon, Menelaus and the other Greek kings, who demand the immediate return of Helen, that Troy agree to unconditional surrender before the great hierarchical alliance of Greece and that the Trojan soldiers go on to fight for Agamemnon in exchange for respecting the lives of its inhabitants. Hearing Menelaus' demands, Paris feels guilty about the situation, which is why he proposes that he and the Spartan king fight a death match for the right to Helen. Eager for revenge and counting on him to win, Menelaus agrees, but not before secretly planning with Agamemnon that the Greeks will attack Troy anyway as soon as Menelaus murders Paris. Menelaus humiliates and wounds an inexperienced Paris, who finally cannot contain his fear of him and tries to flee.

Outraged by the cowardly attitude of Paris, Menelaus prepares to kill him, but is treacherously killed by Hector. In the ensuing battle, Trojan archers kill many Greeks, and Hector kills the mighty Ajax. Faced with the superiority of Troy and at the insistence of Odysseus, Agamemnon has no choice but to (reluctantly) order a retreat to the camp. Once there, Odysseus claims to Agamemnon that if they want to have a chance of winning the war, they must do everything possible to regain the loyalty of Achilles and his myrmidons. Some of Agamemnon's men try to torture Briseis and sexually abuse her, but Achilles defends her and takes her to her tent. They become lovers, and Achilles decides that he and the Myrmidons will return to Greece the next day despite Odysseus' pleas for them to stay and fight.

That night, during the council and despite Hector's opinion that it is a bad idea, Priam orders a sortie to retake the Trojan beach and force the Greeks to board their ships and flee, in order to prove that Troy is completely superior. Much to the surprise of both the Greeks and the Trojans, the Myrmidons join the battle, led by someone who appears to be Achilles. Hector fights against him and cuts his throat but when he removes his helmet he discovers that the one who fell during the battle was not really Achilles, but Patroclus, who has been wearing his cousin's armor (noting that the latter was already killed). consumed by his pride and stubbornness) to lead the myrmidons cleanly by taking his place. Devastated, the Greeks and Trojans decide not to fight anymore for that day, and Odysseus lets Hector know that Patroclus was Achilles' cousin.

When the real Achilles learns that Hector has killed Patroclus, he is enraged and swears that the prince of Troy must die in revenge. Getting an idea of what is going to happen to him, Hector goes with his wife Andromache and after an important conversation, he shows her a secret tunnel to get out of Troy, telling her to use it to escape with her son and all the Trojans she can. in case he dies and the city falls.

The next day, Achilles appears before the walls of Troy and angrily calls Hector, who comes out to face him and turns out to be a worthy combatant but even so, the best warrior in Greece makes a more strategic move and manages to launch himself at cold-blooded against the crown prince of Troy, taking advantage of his great resistance and strength, killing him with the tip of a spear and piercing him with his sword, getting Patroclus' memory to be avenged. Then, as a warning to the Trojans, Achilles ties Hector's lifeless body by the feet to a rope and takes him as a trophy to the Greek camp, dragging him with his chariot to Priam's anguish and Paris' frustration, being the latter the one who would swear revenge for the death of his older brother.

At nightfall, Priam slips out of Troy incognito, disguised as a beggar, sneaks into the Greek camp and meets with Achilles, whom he pleads with to allow him to take Hector's corpse back to Troy to arrange a proper funeral for Hector. his son also asks for a time of truce between Greece and Troy. Although Achilles stubbornly does not want to agree to anything that Priam asks for the death of Patroclus, the Trojan king makes him see that his desire for revenge against Hector was not entirely justified. Shocked and ashamed by his actions, Achilles finally agrees, allowing Briseis to return with Priam to Troy and promising a 12-day truce while they mourn Hector's death. Later Achilles gives permission to his myrmidons to return to Greece, but he decides to stay in Troy, arguing that he has a pending battle.

Upon learning of Achilles' friendly actions with Priam, Agamemnon is enraged and claims that he will conquer and destroy Troy and all its inhabitants "even if it costs him 40,000 warriors from Greece". Alarmed that Agamemnon could lead to their destruction, Odysseus comes up with a very ingenious way to conquer the city without more warriors falling. During the 12 days that the truce lasts, the Greeks build a large wooden horse and hide their ships to give the impression that they have decided to leave Troy in surrender mode, leaving some soldiers already dead from the plague on the beach.

After the time of truce ends, Priam together with Paris and some generals go out to check the result of the decision that Greece would make. The Trojans, when they see the few soldiers dead and without traces of the camp, end up believing that Greece has finally surrendered to the superiority of Troy and has left never to return. Really verifying that only the horse is there, Paris tries to dissuade them from destroying it, but he is not listened to and everything is left to Priam's decision, since the horse is considered an offering from Greece destined for the god Poseidon. Priam decides to introduce the horse into the city to take it to the temple of Poseidon, despite the fact that Paris himself and the Trojan general Glaucus do not agree at all, thus considering a supposed victory for Troy.

That night, when the Trojans believe the war is over, in the center of the city, the Greeks who had hidden inside the horse, led by Odysseus, come out ready and willing to attack the sleeping sentinels. Then they give a signal with a torch and open the doors, thus allowing all the warriors of Greece under the command of Agamemnon to enter the city en masse, thus beginning the Sack of Troy. Andromache takes Helen and the other Trojans through the tunnel Hector showed her, but Paris decides to stay in Troy to fight and search for Briseis, who has disappeared. Thus, he gives the sword of Troy (sword that his father had previously given him) to a young man who also flees the city, and who turns out to be Aeneas (the protagonist of the Aeneid ), giving him instructions to protect refugees in their absence and find them a new home.

In the sack Priam and the general Glaucus are brutally murdered by Agamemnon and Odysseus, respectively, while waging a final defense in the Trojan palace, but Briseis manages to suddenly kill Agamemnon. Achilles finally finds Briseis (whom he had been looking for), but before he could speak to her, the warrior receives several arrows from Paris, the latter believing that his cousin was going to be attacked and incidentally being willing to fulfill his oath of revenge against the one who had murdered Hector in cold blood (the first of them in the heel, which in understood terms turns out to be his only weak point). Achilles already feels mortal and completely weakened, and just before he dies he says goodbye to Briseis and encourages her to flee the city. Although the priestess refused to leave the city where she was born, she and Paris successfully flee the place just before the Greeks find the body of Achilles already lifeless. In the end, the few surviving Trojans led by Andromache and Paris are seen to set out during the light of the new dawn to an unknown destination; while the Greeks, in the center of the destroyed city, hold funerals by cremating the corpses of their fallen warriors, being Odysseus who takes care of the corpse of Achilles and ends the story by mentioning how lucky he was to coincide in time with the best warrior of Greece and Hector, tamer of horses.

Cast

Performer	Character	Fold actor	Fold actor
Brad Pitt	Achilles	Ricardo Tejedo	Daniel García
Eric Bana	Hector.	Raúl Anaya	Eduard Farelo
Orlando Bloom	Paris	José Antonio Macías	Roger Pera
Diane Kruger	Helena	Erica Edwards	Graciela Molina
Brian Cox	Agamemnon	Emilio Guerrero	Josep María Ullod
Sean Bean	Odysseus	Salvador Delgado	Pere Molina
Brendan Gleeson	Menelao	Gerardo Reyero	Marco Lluís
Rose Byrne	Briseida		Núria Trifol
Peter O'Toole	Príamo	Rogelio Guerra	Julio Núñez
Garrett Hedlund	Patroclo		Jonatán López
Vincent Regan	Eudoro	Ricardo Brust	Gonzalo April
Saffron Burrows	Andromaca		Mercedes Montalá
James Cosmo	Glauco	César Arias	Eduardo Muntada
Tyler Mane	Ayax the Great
Ken Bones	Metaponto Hipaste
Julie Christie	Tetis	Laura Tores	Rosa Guiñón
Frankie Fitzgerald	Area		Albert Trifol Segara
Julian Glover	Triopas		Miquel Cors
John Shrapnel	Néstor	Blas García	Fernando Guillén
Nigel Terry	Archeptolemus		Jesus.

Themes

Unlike Homer's original poem, where Menelaus recovers Helen at the end of the war, and takes her back to live with him, in this film Paris and Helen manage to escape Troy together. The film thus privileges love over honor, contrary to Homer's text, where honor is the most important value.

From a cultural point of view, the film follows Homer by ignoring any kind of homoerotic relationship between Achilles and Patroclus (as in general any character). Also, by presenting them not as lovers but as simple relatives, specifically cousins, adheres to the Greek mythical tradition, which in any of its genealogical variants presents the two heroes as cousins (as Patroclus is the son of Menoetius and this half-brother of Aeacus, grandfather of Achilles) or even first cousins (if it is accepted that Patroclus's mother was not Aegina, but Polymela, daughter of Peleus).