Eliezer Rivera Hernandez 1

Troy (the movie) and The Iliad

Throughout time men have waged war. Some for power, some for glory, some for honor - and some for love. (Http://troymovie.warnerbros.com). Troy, a Warner Bros movie released in May 14th, 2004, was a film produced by Wolfgang Petersen, Colin Wilson , and Diana Rathbun, written by David Benioff , and also based in Homer's Iliad. Directed by Wolfgang Petersen. This movie has several characters from the Iliad, the table below is a list of them.

Actor/Actress Brad Pitt Eric Bana Orlando Bloom Rose Byrne Peter O'Toole Diane Kruger Sean Bean Brian Cox Julie Christie Saffron Burrows Garrett Hedlund Brendan Gleeson John Shrapnel Nathan Jones James Cosmo Julian Glover Vincent Regan Trevor Eve Tyler Mane

Character Achilles Prince Hector of Troy Prince Paris of Troy Briseis King Priam of Troy Helen of Troy Odysseus Agamemnon Thetis Andromache Patroclus Menelaus Nestor Boagrius Glaucus Triopas Eudorus Velior Ajax

Actor/Actress Jacob Smith Siri Svegler Lucie Barat Ken Bones Manuel Cauchi Mark Lewis Jones Nigel Terry Owain Yeoman Luke Tal Matthew Tal Louis Dempsey Joshua Richards Tim Chipping Desisava Stefanova Tanja Tzarovska Alex King (III) Frankie Fitzgerald Adoni Maropis

Character Messenger Boy Polydora Helen's Handmaiden Hippasus Old Spartan Fisherman Tecton Archeptolemus Lysander Scamandrius Scamandrius Aphareus Haemon Echepolus Singing Woman Singing Woman Apollonian Aeneas Agamemnon's Officer

From: http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808444810/cast

The director and producers consider this movie a love story, based on the Iliad. As a result of the modification made to the storyline we can see many differences between the movie and the Iliad. We can get an idea about the book by watching the movie, but mainly we are able to pick out the names and their role in the story. In contrast with the Iliad, Troy left out the interaction between gods and humans and gods and gods. Although the producers do not explain why they decide to leave the gods out of the movie, a good assumption could be it was a way to make the story more realistic, so the movie could focus in showing love and reasons for a war. The movie begins with Priam and Agamemnon talking about ending the war between the Trojans and the Greeks. Both kings agree to have one of the best fighters in each army in a battle, and Priam asks ... and if my man wins? Agamemnon's answer is simply ... we leave Thessaly for good. Priam chooses a giant man called Boagrius, who sends heroes fleeing, according to Priam. Agamemnon calls for Achilles, who is not in the Army, and a soldier notifies Agamemnon that they just sent a boy for Achilles. While Achilles is getting ready, the messenger asks Achilles if it is true that his mother is an immortal goddess, so here is where the viewers get a the only clue about Achilles' past and nature. When Achilles gets to the battle field, Agamemnon talks about Achilles' irresponsibility. Achilles decided not to fight for the Greeks, after Nestor talks to Achilles and asks him to fight for the men in the army and not for Agamemnon. Achilles decides to fight but before he faces the Trojan he tells Agamemnon ... Imagine a king who fights his own battles. Wouldn't that be a sight. Here is where we see how irreverent Achilles is to his king. However the king seems to

be an obsessive man and he does not, in fact, like Achilles either. Achilles is the man that Agamemnon hates the most in the movie. In these first chapters of the movie we get most of the basic background information we might need, and the essential information for a reader of the Iliad. This information includes bits of information such as: the Greeks are attacking Troy, Achilles' mother is an immortal goddess, Achilles wants his name to be remembered in history by fighting wars, Achilles is an irreverent soldier, and Agamemnon and Achilles are not friends, and they seem to hate each other. As mentioned before, the movie has some decided differences in comparison with the book. In the movie, the Trojans and the Greeks get together and celebrate a new alliance. During this celebration is when the producers introduce Hector and Paris to the story, and here is when the viewer is able to see that Helen of Sparta and Paris, price of Troy, are having an affair or a relationship. After the party, the Trojans return to their land, but in the ship Paris tells Hector, his older brother and the head of the Trojan army, that he loves Helen of Sparta and she is in the ship with him. Hector wanted to return Helen, but Paris persuaded him not to do it. In this scene of the movie we get the sense of a loyal and nationalistic Hector who thinks beyond his family and his own interests and he considers the future of Troy and the Trojans. Hector does not want another war but rather desires to live in peace. At this point, the movie has not introduced all the characters yet, while the book not only introduces all the characters in the first chapter but also gives details of the characters' lives and their main role in the story. Also, the book does not start with a war like the movie, so the book gives us time to get to know each character and also to understand the function of each god. In the Iliad, the gods play a very important role, while in the movie they just mention the gods but there is not interaction between gods and their favorite humans. The only interaction between a

goddess and a semi-human is when Achilles talks to his mother Thetis. However the producers do not blatently revele that Thetis is indeed a goddess but rather the viewer has to guess from the beginning of the movie, when the messenger questions Achilles regarding his mother. In the movie there is not a clear establishment of reasons for the poor relationship between Agamemnon and Achilles but one's best guess is that Achilles does not respect his king because he views Agamemnon as arrogant and ambitious. In the movie, Agamemnon takes Briseis away from Achilles, but it is not a big deal because it does not occur at the beginning of the movie, and also Achilles appears not to give too much value or importance to it. In the book, the bad relationship between Agamemnon and Achilles is because the king took Achilles' price, which is the woman that they he had as a slave. Hector is portrayed as a family man in the movie, which is not true at all in the book. Hector is more arrogant and fierce in the book, in fact he can actually be compared Achilles in terms of dangerousness and amounts of people he slayed in each battle. In the book there is a scene where Hector talks to his wife and his little son, but other that he has no mercy with his enemies. Hector wants to be a hero just like Achilles and in reality, his fierceness and success in battle proves that he is. In the movie Menelaus is killed by Hector when Paris is fighting Menelaus while Paris is portrayed as a coward and an unskilled fighter. In the book Hector does not protect Paris from Menelaus but rather he encourages Paris to fight Menelaus so they can solve the dispute about Helen of Sparta because he views that as Paris' responsibility. The consequence of Hector's action is another war. Agamemnon claims that the Trojans did not respect their agreement, so he has the right to take Troy. Of course this is just what happens in the movie.

In the movie, Achilles participates in all the wars which he does by himself and with his army. In the book we go through about 16 chapters where the Trojans and the Greeks are fighting wars in which Achilles does not participate. The reason why Achilles returns to war in the book is because of the death of his cousin. In the movie Achilles is more removed from the Greeks, but he is always watching them and also protecting them. In the book Achilles does not care about the war anymore, and like in the movie the only thing that makes him fight in a war again is the death of Patroclus, Achilles' best friend in the book. With Patroclus' death, Achilles goes crazy, and decides to fight and kill any Trojan in his way. In the movie they did not really put too much emphasis on showing how Achilles grieves for his friend but rather the viewer gets the sense that Achilles grief is more because he raised Patroclus as young brother and now has lost him but it is also true that Achilles does not get as crazy like in the book. In the book it points to a strange relationship between Achilles and his companion who is older than Achilles. One of the biggest difference between the book and the movie (as mentioned before) is the lack of interaction between the gods and the humans, and the gods themselves. When Achilles is grieving and suffering over his companion's death, his mother decides to come to help her son. Also, the gods feel a great sense of pity for Achilles, and when he does not want to eat, the gods fill his stomach with rich nutrients. Aphrodite is noticeable in the book too in the way that the goddess is always protective with Paris, and the reader almost gets the sense that Paris is going to be safe in any situation while Aphrodite is on his side. Hera and Athena are in favor of the Greeks, and this appears to cause problems between the gods. Zeus seems not to understand Hera and Athena and passionately hates the Trojans. Zeus knows that Troy is going to be defeated, and that many of the heroes such as Achilles and Hector are going to die in this war. Zeus seems not to favor either army, but sometimes he has to act in

favor of one of the two heros (Achilles or Hector). In the book the morals, hierechy and ethics of the gods are not completely clear: they argue, they betray each other, they make secret pacts, and also the father of the gods seems not to be in control at all. Zeus is tricked by Hera and the god of the dreams once, which makes the reader wonder who is in control of the destiny and wellness of the this earth. While someone who watchs the movie before reading the book might find the book boring or overly violent, someone who had read the book first and then watched the movie would find the movie diferentiating too much from the real Iliad. Both cases are helpful if the reader wants to understand the Iliad better, we can see that there are many love stories in this epic. In the book these love stories are not as clear and remarked as they are in the movie, but a reader would find rather interesting all the love involved in the war. Even the gods have relationships (Zeus is married to Hera) and other gods and goddesses have been involved with humans sexually (Thetis and Peleus). So in both the book and the movie we learn that love was present in wartimes in Troy and Greece. The movie and the book definitely take seperate paths when they become to the end. A viewer who has read the book would notice that Troy has not fallen at the end of the book, and Achilles still living. Hector is the one whose time has come, and basically here is when the book ends. Priam and all the Trojans are in grief for the death of their prince and head of their army. In the movie almost everyone dies, and Troy is defeated. Also the movie includes scenes of the Trojan Horse which is not mentioned on the book. The movie is more a combination of various epics, so in that way they could show how does Achilles die, and also how Troy has fallen. Although the movie has a different ending, and the story is different from the book, the producers were careful when they picked locations, the number of soldiers, and even the

reconstruction of the city of Troy. According to the producer and the people involved in the creation of the city of Troy, all the elements involved in the movie were not exactly a simple task to create and utilize. First, they needed to create a real army. Second, the creation of a city walls and structure, and third selecting a location suitable for this story. The creation of the army was not an easy task for the producers since they had to hire 800 people in total. It took them three weeks to have all the people coordinated like a real army a goal that obviously required hours of training and work. They first started practicing formations, and marching, then the second week they started using tools, and the third week they practiced with weapons. In addition they worked hard to make the fighting look real. Another problem related to the army was the creation real looking weapons, the core of the problem was that the weapons do not belong to this era, those weapons had to be created for the bronze era. The producers tried to rely on historical evidence, so they could have their elements more tied to the real bronze age. The movie received good critics about the realism of the city since the viewer get the sense that the city was indeed real, and the feeling that he/she is seeing a city of the bronze age with all the details of that time period. For the creators of this city it was not an easy job, they had to dig deep into history and research about Greek history. They even had to visit some ruins in Greece and surrounding islands, so they could gather enough information from archaeologists and historians for building more accurate cities, tools, ships, and even statues of gods and goddesses. Watching the movie gives the sensation of reality to those people who have read the book. People can make more sense of the book when places and cities are being described. Also, it helps to understand how the society worked at that time. From a historical context the movie could be a good support to the Iliad in the sense that the reader would feel that he/she knows the

way the city was built and also they way society and religion responded to war and common situations in the Bronze age.

References
Troy. Dir. Wolfgang Petersen. Perf. Brad Pitt, Eric Bana, Orlando Bloom, Rose Byrne, Peter O'Toole.Warner Bros. Pictures Distribution, 2004. Troy the Movie. 2006. Warner Bros Pictures. 15 September, 2007 < http://troymovie.warnerbros.com>. Troy (2004)-Movie Info Yahoo! Movies. 2007. Yaho! Inc. 12 September, 2007 <http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808444810/cast> Homer. The Iliad. Trans. Stanley Lombardo. Indianapolis/Canbridge: Hackett, Publishing Company, Inc., 1997.