Hélène de Troie

As a big fan of mythology and the Iliad, I'm pretty surprised by how nitpicky people are being on the details. Having taken a "Mythology in Film" course, I can safely state the following:

1) It's not supposed to be "The Iliad," it's "Helen of Troy." 2) It's a film. Made 3,000 years later. Targeted at an entirely different audience. 3) Greek mythology tends to be greatly inconsistent anyway, depending on your source. 4) Patroklus is never mentioned to justify Achilles's rage against Hector. So what? If Achilles hadn't withdrawn from war, he would've killed Hector anyways. And having him withdrawing and re-entering into the war would only have distracted from the main story (Helen) without really adding anything.

There's a difference between myths and literature. One can stray from the literature of a story while staying true to the mythology of it. The Iliad itself was constantly being reinvented by generations of oral poets who changed the story every time they performed it. Back in ancient times, a person who merely recited the story verbatim would be considered an inferior, because he'd merely be a copycat rather than a storyteller.

When it comes to the spirit and tradition, "Helen" shines. For instance, in the Iliad, Achilles compares Agamemnon taking Brisius to Paris taking Helen. In the film, the comparison is made literal. Brilliant. Then you have themes and scenes taken from the Orestia. Three or four different ideas are brought together in the span of one.

"Helen" may be a bit loose with the details, but it shows a good understanding why those details took place, and stays true to capturing their motivations. Just because they don't follow the material exactly doesn't mean they don't know it really, really well. The same is true for a lot of other film productions, from "Desire Under the Elms" to "O Brother Where Art Thou" to "Medea" and even "Clash of the Titans."

All and all, a good flick, I was pleasantly surprised. My only real complaints was the casting of Achilles (I assume they were combining his character with Ajax/Diomedes) and the fact that Hector never gets to actually beat anyone in combat (That was disappointing, to say the least).

Greek warriors attack and besiege Troy when Paris takes Helen and both of them escape. This mythological fantasy finds Helen , the beautiful wife falling in love with prince Paris , an event that leads to the siege of Troy .Director John kent Harrison picked two bright young stars Matthew Mardsen and Sienna Guilery to play the lovers in this breathtaking Tv story in 2 episodes of the Trjan War and the motives led up to it. As Greek warriors under command of Agamenon, Ulysses , Achilles and Menelao get to hide out in the Trojan Horse with fellow fighters and then get those Trojanswhen they take the wooden beast into the city and they are successful.

After a hardworking shooting and budget enough the results were only fair and passable.the picture ignores script for lavish effects , most of them made by means of computer generator.In the picture appears several historical and mythological characters played by notorious actors as Priamo:john Rhy Davies ,Agammenon : Rufus Sewell, Achilles: Joe Montana,Hector:Daniel Lapine,Theseus: Stellan Skarsgard, Clymnestra: Katie Blake , Menelao : James Callis Hecuba: Marian Dabo, and the Medium Cassandra performed by Emily Fox.

These events about Troy war has been adapted several times such as :Italian version titled Trojan Horse 1962 by Giorgio Ferroni with Steve Reeves Juliette Mayniel Lidia Alfonsi Mimmo Palmara. Rendition by Robert Wise with Rossana Podesta Jacques Sernas Brigitte Bardor Stanley Baker Cedric Hardwicke . TROY by wolfgang Petersen with Brad Pitt Diane Kruger Rose Byrne Orlando Bloom

I can't believe that the writers of this miniseries read any of the myths or the Iliad itself. The inconsistencies were truly amazing. But I guess it didn't matter, as the plot seemed to revolve around fighting and nudity. First of all Cassandra could not have told her father to kill the infant Paris; she did not receive her powers until she was a young woman. Apollo wanted her; she said yes and received the gift of prophecy; then, when she refused him, he could not take it back but cursed her that no one would believe her. Helen was not kidnapped by Theseus! Clytemnestra had three children, and Orestes and Elektra helped her wreak her vengeance for the death of Iphigenia. The gods & goddesses took a much more active part in the war, with Aphrodite telling Paris where to shoot Achilles and Athena guiding Odysseus, her favorite. The arrow in the heel meant nothing without the explanation. Agamemnon took Cassandra as part of his spoils. Hector had a wife, Andromache, whom he adored. Where was she? Where was Ajax?This was just too far from canon. One thing I did like was the loving relationship between Clytemnestra and her daughter Iphigenia; it was very understandable why she would kill Agamemnon.

As for the actors, Helen was not that beautiful. It was good to see John Rhys-Davies, but he was too thin and did not look well. Maryam D'Abo was made to look too old--an older actress should have been cast. She's still a Bond girl to me! Achilles was overplayed, and there was no reason for him to be bald. I did like Odysseus, however.

I'm not really sorry I watched it, just a little ashamed of myself for sticking out the whole four hours.

The Helen of Troy miniseries on USA today failed apparently because the writer lacked the nerve to tell the classic story, and instead made up his own. Instead of using Homer's Illiad as a starting point, the TVsters seemed to turn to the 1956 film as the primary source--turning the seduction/kidnap of Helen into a big ol' love story.

So many key elements were missing: the interventions of the gods, the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon, the killing of Patroclus in Achilles armor, Achilles subsequent killing of Hector, etc. This was the storyline of what we know of the myth of the Trojan War.

And major characters are triviliazed or disappeared: Hector's glory on TV is as a second banana to Paris; mighty Ajax gets a mention, little more; Diomedes, Nestor, Idonmoneus are absent. On the Trojan side, Aeneas, Sarpedon, Glaucus, Deiphobus and others are equally invisible.

Agamemnon is seen, not as a hero with the fatal flaw of hubris but a Hitlerian monster. Menaleas, a strong warrior in the Illiad, seems like he attended all the sensitivity training classes avaiable to the Achians, (the Greeks were referred to as "the Ageans" in the series), but wasn't much of a fighter.

But my biggest beef is with the character of Paris (Helen seemed commonplace, but acceptable). Paris was not much of a hero in the Illiad; actually, he was a bit of a feckless bounder. Helen's feelings toward him were decidedly mixed, with lust, pity, and contempt thrown together. Hector upbraided Paris on several occasions for his cowardice and sloth, but then, Paris occasionally entered the fray as an experienced soldier as well.

I sense the writers chickened out of grappling with a different kind of plot, and thereby missed an opportunity. The difficult interplay among the Greek heroes, the complicated moral choices on both sides, the tragic savagery of war, while existing to small degrees in the series, took back seat to a more or less conventional love story.

Too bad. Production values were fair, and some of the elements were there to make something better.

There were several images that were important in the movie. Helen really stood out to be the most beautiful woman at that time but there were a lot of differences from the text. In the movie, what she showed the audience was a childish lady who suddenly turns into a flirt. Sometimes, it is also hard to grasp her true emotions probably because this flirt image has enveloped her identity in the movie. What I admired about Paris was not his cute face. It is true that he looks fit for the character of Paris but what's more to that is you could see in his face his passion for whatever he's doing and saying. The image of a "pretty boy" was really fit for him. I am very fascinated with how Agamemnon was able to internalize his character very well. He portrayed a king who was really greedy but also showed a soft side. His facial expressions were also stunning especially his eyes. His portrayal of Agamemnon's character was constant all throughout the movie. Menelaus' identity was hard to depict because his identity in the Iliad was not totally exposed. What was admirable in him in the movie was his being a nice man or prince. I saw in him the change from the beginning of the movie to the end. You could see in him his sincerity in changing. Although Hector only had a small part, he was able to show the audience a noble Trojan. His image in the movie was different from the original text. He was not the strongest Trojan and he was even overpowered by his brother, Paris. Achilles was a totally different character. He was just a war and bloodthirsty warrior in the movie. It's as if he's just a bully in Helen of Troy.

The technical aspects for me were not that good. The voices were hardly audible. Sometimes, it's as if the actors and actresses were just murmuring to each other although the background music was suitable for the movie. It made you imagine what it was like before and how it felt during that time. There were scenes that were too dark that the characters could not be seen anymore but the shade of colors used were suitable for the time being illustrated in the movie. There were angles wherein a character was blocking someone else and it made it so hard to feel and see what's really happening but there were also shots that were nice. This was particular with the wooden horse. The angle of the shot made the wooden horse look so majestic and the audience would really be at awe with how the Greeks were able to come up with that plan and how they were able to make that wooden horse.

Overall, Helen of Troy is something worthwhile to watch not only because of Paris' look but also because the movie gave explanations on how things came to be and it brought its audience closer to the "reality" of the Iliad.