Swords and Celluloid

Wolfgang Petersen, like the Ancient Greek tragedians before him, was inspired by the events of The Iliad and elements of the Trojan War cycle in order to create his epic film, rather than doing an adaptation of the work. Euripides used the scene in which Andromache mourns her slain husband when he wrote Trojan Women, an antiwar drama that used the Trojan War as a backdrop to expose his audience to the horrors of the Peloponnesian War, and would later be made into a film during the height of the Vietnam War.

When Troy was released in theaters, the United States was currently involved in the Iraq War, and aspects of the film are typical of an antiwar movie. Agamemnon and Menelaus, who are tribal chieftains in Homer’s epic, are portrayed as more traditional monarchs, greedy for money and power, and are not above calling upon Achilles to slay one of their own warriors simply to show off his power and strength as a warrior. Unlike in The Iliad, where King Menelaus is generally portrayed as an honorable and humble warrior who is respectful of the gods, he and his brother are greedy warmongers, reminiscent of corporate robber barons willing to start a war with the resource-rich kingdom of Troy for their own profit.

Petersen chose to leave much of the fantastic elements out of the story in favor of telling a gritty story of lives affected by war. There are no gods with active roles in this story, as there are no gods who advocate fighting a war, particularly on a kingdom as peaceful as Troy, much less instigating one. For the film’s run time, the events of the Trojan War which spanned ten years before the actual onset of the war had to be condensed into a shorter period, beginning after the movie has started. Although the prophecy that foretold Paris bringing Troy to flames was omitted, Paris still plays a direct role in starting the war when he kidnaps Helen. Achilles’ mother Thetis is a mortal woman, rather than the cunning sea goddess she was in The Iliad and her role in winning her son his own glory in war is significantly diminished.

Although Achilles is still wronged by Agamemnon as he was in Homer’s epic, the same emotions of rage that he manifested towards Agamemnon are not apparent until after his friend Patroclus’ death, nor does he seem to harbor the same degree of anger towards the Trojans after his friend is slain. In doing so, Petersen sought to make Achilles something of a mirror of Paris. Achilles, being a dutiful soldier who was wronged by his king, loses Briseis whom he loved. If Paris goes off to fight, the same could happen to him.

Brad Pitt's Achilles, unlike his epic counterpart, has little interest in basking in his own aristeia. Also less established is the idea that ancient warriors often fought to achieve their own recognition in battle and win their own spoils in war. Soldiers act much more like pawns following the orders of their kings, just as soldiers have in the string of Iraq War movies released in theaters in the years following the conflict. Achilles is not so much a great warrior on his own recognition, but rather an asset that will bring victory to Agamemnon in battle.

Paris, who is largely a coward in Homer’s epic, is something of a young idealist who finds the idea of war so absurd that he sees no harm in taking the wife of a king that his father has recently negotiated a peace treaty with. He is not a hero, at least not in the traditional sense of an Ancient Greek hero, and although he may feel that backing down from a confrontation with Menelaus was an act of cowardice, Helen reassures him, “I don’t want a hero. I want someone I can grow old with.”

Paris is simply a youth playing the part of a soldier to appease his father and his mightier brother, who would rather make love than war. Issues of war and diplomacy do not interest him in the least, as he’s content to have only the love of the most beautiful woman in the world, a mythic element that Petersen left in the film primarily because the character of Helen is immediately recognizable to most moviegoers and because such a love story seems to be what Hollywood films are made of. The Helen of this movie is also much more strong-willed and independent than her epic counterpart, caring for Paris’ wounds after his desertion on the battlefield that won him only the scorn of his family and enemies, preferring to comfort him, while the Helen of The Iliad refused to touch her husband after he left the scene of battle. In the tradition of epic movies by directors such as Ridley Scott and James Cameron, Petersen’s adaptation also needed to have a strong female heroine, therefore, the self-loathing Helen who only makes love to Paris because she is controlled by the will of Aphrodite could not function in the movie.

Petersen makes Paris the protagonist of his movie, the one who overcomes his cowardice to confront his enemy and ultimately slays Achilles before leading the surviving Trojans to safety, although he does it by his own hand, without the aid of Apollo, and like the myth, it fails to win him any recognition as a hero, although this time it is because there is no one left to congratulate him. Achilles also suffers the same mythic death, slain because he was struck with an arrow at his heel, keeping consistent the idea that there are no true heroes in war. Even the mightiest can be brought down easily and senselessly, killed over a simple misunderstanding.