Preview

Movie Review Helen of Troy

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
881 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Movie Review Helen of Troy
Helen of Troy
(Movie Review)

CAST:
Sienna Guillory-----> Helen
Matthew Marsden---->Paris
Rufus Sewell---->Agamemnon
Stellan Skarsgard----> Theseus
John Rhys-Davies---->King Priam of Troy
Maryam d’Abo---->Queen Hecuba
Emilia Fox---->Cassandra
James Callis----->Menelaus
Daniel Lapaine---->Hector
Nigel Whitmey---->Odysseus
Joe Montana---->Achilles Helen of Troy is going to polarise audiences. As with any film based on a well-known work, there are always going to be those that have a problem with the particular interpretation. The Greek legends as told in the Iliad are some of the most enduring stories ever told. They are part of our everyday language. The character Achilles and his famous heel have given us the name for a part of the human body and an expression for a single weakness. The Trojan horse is also very well known, as is the face that launched a thousand ships, none other than Helen herself. They have used the legend as a basis for this story but in my opinion have strayed a fair distance from the original. The Gods, who always played a very prominent role in the Greek legends, are almost completely absent. There are other major differences, such as the portrayal of Achilles. If I remember correctly, he was supposed to be wearing a complete set of armour that left only one weakness. Wearing what he does in this film, it seems a little pointless when he gets shot in the heel. Also, his character does not follow the original either. This is the story of Helen of Troy, but it is told from just about every side except Helen's. The story is told by focusing on the other characters around her, the effect she has on them and the actions they take because of her. This leaves the character of Helen with what appears to be almost a minor part in a film about her. Whether she is the beauty that would launch a thousand ships I will leave up to the viewer, but I reckon that she could launch at least seven to

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Antigone: Movie vs Book

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Also, in the movie there is a scene where Antigone and the guard take an elevator and a car to get to a cave where she will be trapped in for burying Polynices. Since this book was written in about 442 B.C, Sophocles would not even know what and elevator or a car was let alone put the both in his book. Back in his day they would have walked to wherever they were going and definitely not to an elevator. Little details like that are what make the book and movie so different. Like the way they talk, dress, and the things that they have in their house is definitely more updated than what Sophocles had in mind.…

    • 676 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Helen in Iliad

    • 2703 Words
    • 11 Pages

    the many constraints to which she is subject.Helen appears in only six encounters in the Iliad, with a different audience…

    • 2703 Words
    • 11 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In “The Helen of Troy” by H.D., the poem describes how much the Greeks hated Helen. Although they did have good reasons for hating Helen there are some better ways they could’ve dealt with the situation.…

    • 435 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Trojan War; one of the longest and most remembered war in the history of Greek mythology. Millions of people died, families were broken and a few people were to blame for this. In the novel The Firebrand, by Marion Zimmer Bradly, a Trojan princess, by name of Kassandra, has been given the gift of foresight. She foresees the Greek ships on the waters of Troy approximately twenty years before they are there. It was then that she met Apollo and was claimed as his. She goes to meet Penthesilia, queen of the Amazons, and lives with them for a while. When she goes back to Troy, she brings Hector’s wife, Andromache, back with her. Then the classic (with a few twists) myth of the Trojan War is told. But everyone seems to blame Helen or Paris when there are a lot of other characters to receive part of the blame. For instance: the gods, Agamemnon, Menelaus, and even Odysseus.…

    • 715 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Perseus Movie Analysis

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Comparing, the movie and the story there are a few similarities that they share. For example, in both versions Perseus obtains Medusas head. Perseus also meets the witches that share one eye; he also grabs the eye to obtain information from them in both the movie and the Greek story. In both versions of the story Dicty saves Perseus and his mother, also Dicty marries Perseus’s mother. The movie version didn’t follow the Greek story to the point, but it did take some ideas from the story.…

    • 322 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The movie tackles the tricky subject of stereotypes assigned to women, and how much they can be damaging to a woman’s pride, career and life. People love the movie for Reese Witherspoon’s portrayal of a young woman trying to impress a man, by getting into and succeeding at Harvard Law. The main character struggles the entire movie with the assumptions people make of her, writing her off as some blonde joke, yet she works to overcome these stereotypes and find out what really makes her happy. While this movie is wonderful for its character development, I find the main character to be too much of a Mary Sue, as they make her a little too perfect, and while she struggles, the idea that she might prove everyone wrong and succeed at everything is a little too unrealistic for some…

    • 1384 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Troy Versus Homers Illiad

    • 2242 Words
    • 9 Pages

    Both versions portray the Trojan War between Greece and Troy, Achilles killing Hector and King Priam visiting Achilles to ask for the body of his son Hector back. However both versions do not portray accurate versions of the fight between Menelaus and Paris, nor do they correctly explain why Helen has come to reside in Troy nor does the movie portray the proper burial rights of the Greeks. This is due to the absence of the Gods and Goddesses in the movie.…

    • 2242 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    There may have been a lot of differences but there were some similarities that were found. In both of the tales Hercules falls in love with a girl named Meg (or Megara), although in the original, Hercules kills her. Another small similarity was that whomever they were sent by, Hercules still killed two snakes when he was a baby. Of course the most obvious similarity is that in both stories, Zeus is his father. There were many more differences than similarities but in…

    • 456 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The plot and the setting of book and movie are very similar. There was a lot of thins borrowed from the book, but there was a lot changed as well. The movie followed the plot of book very closely and portrayed the setting of the book very well. A lot of the dialogue was borrowed and spoken directly as it was in the book.…

    • 766 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the movie, many things portrayed are the same as what really happened in Roman history. Some things though, are a little different in the actual history of Rome than in the movie. Scenes were changed in the movie too, to make the plot more interesting. I connected what I could between the movie and the actual history of Rome.…

    • 845 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The name Cleopatra invokes a striking image in your mind. The Egyptian queen who took on the might of Rome. The way we see Cleopatra’s character changes in the way she has been depicted in movies and television across the years. With each different portrayal she reflects contemporary issues regarding society, the role of women and the historical knowledge available.…

    • 1204 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    In Homer’s classical epic poem, The Iliad, and Wolfgang Petersen’s post classical film Troy (2004), many important relationships, different and similar, were portrayed in both texts. Achilles and Briseis’ relationship, which depicted how women were seen in that time as opposed to how they are seen nowadays. The relationship between Helen and Paris and how love, in that way, have serious consequences that follow with it, and sometimes result in war and death. The Iliad and the film, Troy, portray the strong bond between Patroclus and Achilles. This relationship between Patroclus and Achilles portray the love we have towards those close to us and how caring and defensive we are with them. The depiction of a strong relationship shown in both texts is the relationship concerning Achilles and Hektor and how they are both the greatest warriors on each side of the war and how they both let arrogance and pride get the best of them.…

    • 315 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The characterization of important figures in the film is different from the poem. Achilles for example, Homer portrays him as a formidable soldier in the Iliad, as if he was immortal but his disturbed, human being characteristics are showed in later chapters in the poem. On the other hand, Achilles is characterized as a hero in Troy. He is depicted as a respectable and laudable character in the film. One of the examples for such differences is showed in both the poem and the film, in the way Achilles treats Hector's body after he has killed him. In the Iliad, Achilles shows no emotion over Hector's death. After he has kills Hector, he ties Hector's body behind the chariot and drag him around the tomb of Patroclus for twelve days (24. 15-17). He only agrees to give the body to back King Priam after his mother persuades him with the condition of King Priam offers him a ransom (24.139-140). In Troy, however, the maltreatment of Hector's body is not shown except for the scene when Achilles drags the body back to his camp. Also, Achilles sympathizes with King Priam and willing to give the body back to King Priam unconditionally, and he even cries over Hector's body at one point. Besides, Achilles' role as a leader is highlighted in Troy. Under his leadership, him and his Myrmidons successfully seize the shore of Trojan in an afternoon. In the Iliad on the other hand, his leadership abilities is not mentioned. In Troy, Achilles is falling in love with Breseis and he is protecting her from harm and insult. In the end of the film, Achilles causes his own death while looking for her in the falling kingdom of Troy. In the Iliad, Archilles' role as a lover is only briefly mentioned by referring Briseis as his lover, (9.341-343) his fight with Agamemnon is mainly due to protecting his own honor when Agamemnon takes Briseis away from him. (1.355-356)…

    • 888 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Trojan Women

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages

    The Trojan Women is a Greek tragedy by Euripides. He explores the hardships faced by the women of Troy after their land had been destroyed by the loss of the Trojan War. In the play, the women were faced with various difficulties. They were not only meant to deal with the horrors of the war like the death of their loved ones and their city in ruins but were also faced with the terror of what their future will hold. They yearn for revenge and the hope that life will recover in the future.…

    • 1184 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    The Lightning Thief

    • 608 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Secondly, the novel has richer characterization then the movie. In the movie they missed important characters. Frist, the age of both Percy and Annabeth are wrong, they are supped to be 12 in the book; whereas in the movie, they are 16. Also the appearances of Medusa and Annabeth are not what reader expected. According to the book, Medusa is an old, Middle Eastern woman, with coffee-colored skin, and Annabeth has curly blonde hair, and gray eyes. Contrast the movie. Medusa appears to be a young, Caucasian woman and Annabeth has iron-straight brown hair, and blue eyes. Lastly, the characterization of Hades is different between novel and the movie, thus the main thing wrong with the movie. The movie shows Hades are the bad boss, because the absent of Kronos and Ares. However as most of people’s understanding of the book, Kronos is…

    • 608 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays