Movies - Troy

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	Movies - Troy

Troy is a movie that was released on May 14, 2004 about the Trojan War, which is described in Homer's Iliad and other Greek myths as having taken place in Anatolia (modern Turkey) around the 13th or 12th century BC. It stars, among others: Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, Orlando Bloom as Paris, Diane Kruger as Helen, Brian Cox as Agamemnon, Sean Bean as Odysseus, and Peter O'Toole as Priam. It is directed by Wolfgang Petersen, and written by David Benioff. It received an Oscar nomination for its costume design.

Plot

In the year 1193 BC, Agamemnon, king of the Greeks, rules most of the civilized world. But the city of Troy, known for its great defensive walls, is untouched. When Troy's younger prince, Paris, woos the beautiful Helen away from her husband, Menelaus, king of Sparta and brother of Agamemnon, Menelaus convinces Agamemnon to continue his imperialistic conquests and attack Troy. Achilles and his team of elite Myrmidon warriors assist the invasion.

Finance and Reaction

Troy screenings have earned its makers $133 million in the United States. Having cost $175 million to make, some thought that it was a flop - a complete financial failure. Many critics anticipated the failure when Troy barely missed the $50 million mark on its opening US weekend and wrote off the film. Some critics had a tendency to lump Troy into the category of recent failed historical epics, which have also included Alexander
(2004), The Alamo
(2004), King Arthur
(2004) and Kingdom of Heaven
(2005). Troy had been compared to Gladiator
, not just because of gory ancient battles, but also due to director Wolfgang Petersen's regrets over turning down the chance to work on that film. Troy ended up a financial success because more than 70% of its revenues were made outside of the U.S. Eventually Troy made half a billion dollars worldwide, placing it in the #35 spot of top box office hits of all time. This is 12 places above Gladiator and 5 places above Saving Private Ryan
(1998), which are both considered very successful.

Despite its financial success, Troy met mixed reactions by reviewers and movie lovers. According to Rotten Tomatoes, only 55% of the reviews are positive. On Yahoo! Movies, however, it fares better, with a current rating of "B-" from the critics (based on 15 Critical Reviews) and a "B" from Yahoo users (based on 46628 ratings); these equate to "fair" and "good" respectively based on Yahoo's ratings guide. Similarly, the movie received a noble 7.0 out of 10 on the Internet Movie Database; for comparison Oliver Stone's Alexander received a 5.5, while the smash hit Gladiator (2000) received an 8.3. Roger Ebert, who seemed to dislike what he saw as an unfaithful adaptation of the Iliad, gave it two stars out of four Ebert claimed that Troy "sidesteps the existence of the Greek gods, turns its heroes into action movie cliches and demonstrates that we're getting tired of computer-generated armies." David Denby of The New Yorker, however, seemed to like it: " harsh, serious, and both exhilarating and tragic, the right tonal combination for Homer."

Box Office totals

Budget - $175,000,000
Marketing cost - $50 million
Opening Weekend Gross (Domestic) - $46,865,412
Total Domestic Grosses - $133,378,256
Total Overseas Grosses - $364,000,000
Total Worldwide Grosses - $497,378,256

Featured cast

Deviations from Homer's version of the myth

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