The movie starts with some text, givingyou some background information on Thessaly, Troy & their kings.Unfortunately, nothing is mentioned about how this war actually began.But I’ll give a short history on this for people who know nothing about Greek lore.
It so happened that the Goddess Eris was not invited for Achille’s parents’s marriage by Zeus.Out of spite, she gave a golden apple to the three Goddesses-Hera, Athena & Aphrodite.Eris said that the apple is meant for ’the fairest one’ & so this created a rift between the three immortal women.They asked young Paris to be the judge & he was confused since all the three Goddesses were beautiful, charming & intriguing.So he told them that he would give his decision based on their gifts.Hera promised to make him the king of Europe & Asia, Athena offered him skill in war, but Aphrodite declared that she would make the most beautiful woman fall in love with him.Now, what could any man want in life?Paris obviously gifted the apple to Aphrodite & he got his reward-Helen of Sparta.
Coming back to the actual movie, Troy is a peaceful kingdom which solely remains undefeated.Agaemennon(Brian Cox) of Mycenae is search of power & has conquered many Greek kingdoms except for Troy.He only waits for an oppurtunity to seize the powerful kingdom.His most prized fighter is Achilles(Brad Pitt).But the two don’t get along well since Achilles is very strong willed & stubborn.He does not fight for any king.But there’s one thing he’s obsessed with, HISTORIC FAME.Achilles wants to be remembered for eternity, that’s why he agrees to fight whenever Agaemennon requires him.He also tends to be quite amorous in his advances towards women.King Menelaus(Brendon Gleeson) is Agaemennon’s brother & is quite different from the latter.He wants to keep peace with the neighbouring Greek kingdoms.He does make a pact with King Priam(Peter O’Toole) of Troy.The Princes of Troy include Hector(Eric Bana) & Paris(Orlando Bloom).Hector is a brave commander of the forces of Troy & is very mature, strong & disciplined in his thinking.He watches over his younger brother Paris like a watchdog.Paris loves Hector just as much, but is much more playful & laidback in his mannerisms.Unlike Hector, Paris has never been to war, seen people dying in combat or held a sword for fighting.King Menelaus invites the Trojan Princes to Sparta for a celebration on their peace agreement & Paris ends up falling in love with the gorgeous Helen(Diane Kruger) who also happens to be Menelaus’s wife.Paris takes Helen with him while leaving for Troy, despite her protests.When Hector finds out about this, he ridicules Paris.Paris has had flings with many wives of eloquent men before & Hector feels Paris knows nothing about love.He takes them to Troy anyway, & Troy being a generous kingdom welcomes the new couple with warmth & affection.Hector requests his father to talk some sense into Paris & send Helen back.But Priam tells Hector that Paris has changed.If they did send Helen back to Menelaus, he feels that Paris would follow her & also die with her.Priam also informs Hector that he’s proud that Paris is waging a war for love & not for power or wealth.Hector too feels glad that his brother has finally found love, but in the wrong place.Agaemennon uses his brother & arranges a 1000 ships to attack Troy, among them being Achilles’s ship too.Achilles at first is not interested in the battle as he feels that the reason is too silly.But his friend, cousin & mother advise him that this is the only way Achilles will be remembered forever in history as a hero.On reaching Troy, he learns that Menelaus is not fighting for Helen, but for his public respect to be recovered.Achilles is disgusted & wonders why so many soldiers including him need to put their lives at risk because of Menelaus & Agaemennon.
The battle scenes are good, the entire cast is upto mark & the costumes are designed well for the particular time period.If you want to know what heroes are made off, watch this movie.