Troy (2004): Homer's Ancient Iliad with Brad Pitt as Achilles
Directed by Wolfgang Petersen, Troy (2004) is a loose re-telling of Homer's Ancient Epic poem, "The Iliad." Focusing on the wooing of Helen by Paris, and the resulting bloody Trojan War, the film plays up the action and seemingly disregards the strong supernatural role played by the Greek Gods in the original story text. Nevertheless, the grand-scale battle scenes are spectacular and the set designs beautifully recreate the look of the Ancient world circa 1200 B.C. The all-star cast is great, including Brad Pitt as the great warrior Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Brian Cox as Agamemnon, Diane Kruger as the beautiful Helen of Troy (the face that launched a thousand ships), Sean Bean as Odysseus and Peter O'Toole as Priam.
