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The movie Troy is generally a violent film and the Iliad, one of the greatest works of the ancient Greek epic poet Homer, is sliced and lacerated hardheartedly in it. Archaeological records and all of its evidences are also no match for the assault that is presented before it. By looking at the archaeology and the story of Iliad and the movie Troy, one can see certain evidences or modifications made by the directors which are different from Homer’s. First of all, the story talks or illustrates the Trojan War.
The Trojan War is one of the most crucial and dominant series of epic poems in Homer’s novel.
By looking at an archeological point of view, it can be observed that the movie makers were trying to imitate or mimic a setting that was used in Homer’s Iliad. Homer is a poet from the 8th century B. C. , and the Trojan War occurred somewhere in the end of the Late Bronze, however, the movie was not able to show a setting fit for this era or time period effectively.
They were not successful in arranging a chronological order of the details in the movie. The statues which are all over the city of Troy are basically inspired by the 5th and 6th century.
The princess in the movie Troy wears jewelry that basically belongs to Early Bronze and not from the Late Bronze. In addition to this, the coins which were used in the movie are basically invented 5 to 6 centuries later (Rose, 2008). The city of Troy itself, in the movie, is adorned with exaggeration by the directors and producers. The city of Troy is basically covered or surrounded by a very high and thick wall. In reality, battering rams used to bring down these kinds of walls were not present in the Late Bronze.
Therefore, the construction of this kind of wall for the city of Troy in Iliad would be useless or impractical and the movie version failed to see this. There are also modifications of Homer’s Iliad in order to fit the running time for the movie Troy and basically show the events to the audience in a faster pace. First of all, the Trojan War took place for 10 years (Homer, 2006). However, the movie shows that the Trojan War just happened for about three weeks. To detail the events, the movie Troy illustrates the dispute or argument between Agamemnon and Achilles which, according to the movie, only started and lasted for one day.
On the second day of the Trojan War in the movie, Hektor was able to kill both Menelaos and Ajax. The night of the second day in the movie showed the military power of the Trojans. In the third day, Hektor was able to kill Patroklos and in the fourth day, Achilles gets revenge and brings down both Hektor and Priam (“Troy”, 2004). For Homer, all these events took place for almost nine years. In addition to this, Menelaos in the Iliad survived. Menelaos did not die and was able to return to Sparta. However, the movie omitted this to give a dramatic effect to the movie.
The movie somehow diluted the themes of death, revenge and enslavement during the ancient times of Homer. In Iliad, Agamemnon was killed by his treacherous wife. Then later on, Agamemnon was avenged by his daughters. However, the movie also omitted this. In the movie, they showed that Agamemnon was killed by Briseis during the assault on Troy. In addition to this, in Homer’s Iliad, Achilles was killed even before the great wooden horse was built. However, the movie showed that Achilles still managed to save Helen and later on was killed by Paris.
Such modification of the movie essentially shows a happier ending, rather than a tragic one as in the case for Homer’s Iliad. Moreover, this illustrates a heroic scene of saving a damsel in distress which is typical for films of heroes and villains.
Works Cited
Homer. The Iliad. Virginia: Richer Resources Publications, 2006. Rose, C. Brian. “Movie Commentary: Assessing the Evidence for the Trojan Wars. ” AIA Publications and New Media: Archaeological Institute of America, 2008. Troy. 2004. Wolfgang Petersen, et al. , May 13.
