Troia: A Queda de Uma Cidade

Laghfably anacronistic, badly directed, badly played. What a mess; and yet it was made by professionals who should have known better..It's a mystery. Easily one of the worst flicks in recent filn history.

I just couldn't believe what I was watching in Netflix. This series is so wrong, so outrageously disrespectful to Homer's immortal Illiad that I had to write this review. The directors-writers-producers-whatever and whoever they were (-like a gang-) seem to have deliberately chosen to disfigure the masterpiece - perhaps the highest work of literature ever created. A cultural murder was, apparently, perpetrated in this "Troy-The Fall of a City". Just about every actor is miscast, starting with Paris/Alexander himself who does not look any bit "in love " with Helen at all! As he prepares to go back to Troy I got a feeling that Helen hid herself in that coffin out of boredom, not really for love - neither she, nor he seems to have been taken by the turmoil of an intense passion. Paris is such a modern boy ! Does he like soccer? Videogames? And Helen, though quite pretty, could not possibly be "...the most beautiful woman of the world" promised by Aphrodite. Ah!... Aphrodite promised. But didn't deliver... A certain discomfort invades the viewer from the start as he is confronted with so much bad acting, bad casting, bad timing in the events. Sorry to say that - but it MUST be said - Achilles SHOULD be someone hairy and blond - like a lion, as Homer explicitly wrote in his story. Achilles was "golden" like a lion! Nestor, an important character in the Illiad looks just like a street dweller that I see everyday somewhere in Rio de Janeiro where I live. Why this ? BBC managed to offend Homer, the Greeks, and all of humanity who read this immortal tale of war and love. AS some reviewers already noted, this awful TV series made the movie "Troy" (which contains many mistakes) with Brad Pitt, Eric Bana and lovely Diane Kruger shine like a jewel forever!!!!

Why such a title for my review you may ask.

Well I am Greek and apparently it's only racist and deemed to be cultural appropriation when you switch the color of a historic character if he's not white. Never mind the fact that the whole thing was horrible in every way possible.

The Iliad is a historic masterpiece, and with the story fully laid out for them, the writers managed to butcher it.

NOT RECOMMENDED.

I so badly wanted this to be good, but the first episode , is a warning that even makes Cassandra redundant. I found the acting wooden, the storyline a mess, the script dreadful. The two main characters Helen and Paris, devoid of any charisma, thus the very idea of a 1000 ships sailing to rescue her laughable. The least of my worries based on this first episode, is the casting of Achilles , and others . How on earth can this second rate production, hit our T V screens , when one recalls TROY from a decade ago, perhaps using George Martin for advice might have saved time and money !!!!

As a Greek and a thinking capable woman, this show offended me in the depths of my soul. First of all, what the heck was that story with Paris? Secondly, wtf was wrong with Cassandra? Cassandra was not a child when Paris was born and she couldn't foresee things as a child because she got that "charisma" AFTER Apollo cursed her for not sleeping with him. And I'm 100% sure Apollo was no paedo. Then, ok, as a Greek I can accept black Achilles or a black Zeus in the name of diversity but I can't accept Menelaos walking around with an umbrella (a bloody crinoline, not just a simple umbrella). And in Greece people didn't walk around with umbrellas because of the sun, generally. We don't take protection from the sun and we never did. Also wtf with the Indian king and silk room in Sparta? The known world for Greeks at this time was Minor Asia and perhaps black sea. It took us almost 7 centuries until Alexander the Great found out what was beyond the known world. A redhead Aphrodite, seriously people, a redhead? Red hair in ancient Greece was considered barbaric and they even made Scythian slaves to die their hair black (seriously, this was more offending than the black Zeus or Achilles). Naming spices from East? What East, which spices????? Cumin and turmeric and women paint their nails with "liquid" gold? We're talking about bronze age, ok maybe the most advanced bronze age in Europe, but still it's bronze age. The only thing I liked as a Greek was the depiction of Helen, finally no more blonde, blue eyed, Dinaric type actresses. But what was wrong with all of her dresses and hairstyles? She looked like she came out of Vogue magazine where the main theme was feathers and leather, how to wear them this season. Probably the costumes we had in highschool were more true to the originals and better sewn than those they wear in the show Literally, with 500 euros you could find better costumes and better scenery. Palaces are almost empty, people eat in floors (uhm, we didn't do that usually, that's an eastern habit). And finally the story. Ok, BBC look, you can't take Romeo and Juliet and make something OUT of it, you can adapt it, you can give it a certain "color" but you can't forge it. And you cannot do the same with Iliad. You cannot change the story and the events, you cannot kill people (poor Ifigenia never died and placed as a bloody mess on coals) and most certainly you cannot bring disgrace in one of the most important Epic Poems of humanity. This is blasphemy, this is hybris , this is by far the worst adaptation of Iliad I've ever seen. It hurt my eyes, my mind and my soul, as a human being and a Greek. I don't know who wasted money on that but if you ever read this, ask for your money back, it was a fiasco. And finally, what's wrong with the women on this show?? Uhm, hello, we used to be the victims back then, we didn't shout to our parents and most certainly we couldn't encounter our fiancé before wedding, we didn't had a tongue like Hermione because this would mean we wouldn't have tongues at all. If you have a lot of free time and you want to watch this, just don't. Read the original version instead which is more than enough.