An adaptation of Homer's great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces.An adaptation of Homer's great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces.An adaptation of Homer's great epic, the film follows the assault on Troy by the united Greek forces.
- Nominated for 1 Oscar
- 5 wins & 23 nominations total
- Director
- Writers
- All cast & crew
- Production, box office & more at IMDbPro
Storyline
Did you know
- GoofsCoins are placed on dead characters' eyes before their bodies are burnt. Ancient Greeks placed a coin in the corpse's mouth, not on the eyes. However, the Trojan War occurred before coined money was invented (in the 7th century BC), so they wouldn't have had coins at all.
- Quotes
Achilles: I'll tell you a secret. Something they don't teach you in your temple. The Gods envy us. They envy us because we're mortal, because any moment might be our last. Everything is more beautiful because we're doomed. You will never be lovelier than you are now. We will never be here again.
- Alternate versionsDirector's Cut runs 196 minutes and features extended and deleted scenes, enhancing plot and character development, as well as featuring more sex and violence.
- ConnectionsFeatured in HBO First Look: Troy (2004)
- SoundtracksRemember
Music by James Horner
Lyric by Cynthia Weil
Produced by David Foster
Recorded by Jochem Van Der Saag (uncredited) and Alejandro Rodriguez (uncredited)
Mixed by Humberto Gatica (uncredited)
Performed by Josh Groban with Tanja Tzarovska
Josh Groban appears courtesy of 143 Records/Reprise Records
Featured review
A Well-Known Story Told In A New And Appealing Way
This is a review of the Director's Cut.
Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy" is a down to earth version of Homer's "Iliad". The Trojan horse doesn't look like a big toy, but like a brutal and very strange thing from another time. There are no gods, who force the hands of men. The war isn't really about a woman, but about power. "Troy" is about men that cause trouble, because they are weak (Orlando Bloom/Paris and Peter O'Toole/Priam) or powermad (Brian Cox/Agamemnon), and especially about the great men, who have to fight and die for them. The "Iliad" is a heroic epic, it tells the story of the fight of the Greek hero Achilles against the Trojan hero Hector. It therefore ends with the victory of Achilles, with the death of Hector. The fall of Troy is subsequently told at the beginning of the "Odyssey", Homer's second epic, with Odysseus as the new hero. In "Troy" he (Sean Bean) only plays a minor role, even in the end, with the vicious and violent victory of the Greeks.
It's the duel between Achilles and Hector that interested Petersen, because duels were very much his thing. "One or the Other of Us" (1974), his first theatrical feature film, featuring Jürgen Prochnow, "Enemy Mine" (1985), his first US-movie, "In the Line of Fire" (1993), Clint Eastwood vs. John Malkovich, "Air Force One" (1997), Harrison Ford vs. Gary Oldman -- they were all about duels.
Achilles is the hero of the "Iliad" and he, Brad Pitt, is the undisputed hero of "Troy". Petersen made sure that he got months of special training, so that Achilles would move and fight like nobody else. "Troy" doesn't just tell you that Achilles is an unique fighter, it shows you in every fighting scene that he is. At one point somebody steals his suit of armor to lead people into a battle, but Brad Pitt had to be his stunt double, to make the deceit believable. The big fighting scenes are actually a weakness of this movie, because with all the amors and helmets it is sometimes impossible to see who is fighting who. In this movie about the Trojan war the actual war is the least appealing thing.
"Troy" is an epic movie with a simplified, partly changed, but still epic story, with more complexity and truth than it could be expected from a "sword and sandal" film. After 20 years of not aging, it's already quite save to call it a timeless classic. Maybe this was Wolfgang Petersen's masterpiece. After this legendary strenuous effort he didn't do much more.
One of the very strange aspects of "Troy" is the talk about becoming a legend, somebody who would be remembered for thousands of years, which is obviously an anachronism. No Greek could have expected that "eternity" would last that long. So who became most legendary, except for Odysseus? Homer, the guy who turned the whole thing into a lasting legend. Helene, the legendary most beautiful woman. Paris, by his association with her. (The town's name is just accidentally the same.) Hector? Forgotten. Achilles? Just a heel. "Troy" is a fabulous celebration of Homer's real heroes.
Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy" is a down to earth version of Homer's "Iliad". The Trojan horse doesn't look like a big toy, but like a brutal and very strange thing from another time. There are no gods, who force the hands of men. The war isn't really about a woman, but about power. "Troy" is about men that cause trouble, because they are weak (Orlando Bloom/Paris and Peter O'Toole/Priam) or powermad (Brian Cox/Agamemnon), and especially about the great men, who have to fight and die for them. The "Iliad" is a heroic epic, it tells the story of the fight of the Greek hero Achilles against the Trojan hero Hector. It therefore ends with the victory of Achilles, with the death of Hector. The fall of Troy is subsequently told at the beginning of the "Odyssey", Homer's second epic, with Odysseus as the new hero. In "Troy" he (Sean Bean) only plays a minor role, even in the end, with the vicious and violent victory of the Greeks.
It's the duel between Achilles and Hector that interested Petersen, because duels were very much his thing. "One or the Other of Us" (1974), his first theatrical feature film, featuring Jürgen Prochnow, "Enemy Mine" (1985), his first US-movie, "In the Line of Fire" (1993), Clint Eastwood vs. John Malkovich, "Air Force One" (1997), Harrison Ford vs. Gary Oldman -- they were all about duels.
Achilles is the hero of the "Iliad" and he, Brad Pitt, is the undisputed hero of "Troy". Petersen made sure that he got months of special training, so that Achilles would move and fight like nobody else. "Troy" doesn't just tell you that Achilles is an unique fighter, it shows you in every fighting scene that he is. At one point somebody steals his suit of armor to lead people into a battle, but Brad Pitt had to be his stunt double, to make the deceit believable. The big fighting scenes are actually a weakness of this movie, because with all the amors and helmets it is sometimes impossible to see who is fighting who. In this movie about the Trojan war the actual war is the least appealing thing.
"Troy" is an epic movie with a simplified, partly changed, but still epic story, with more complexity and truth than it could be expected from a "sword and sandal" film. After 20 years of not aging, it's already quite save to call it a timeless classic. Maybe this was Wolfgang Petersen's masterpiece. After this legendary strenuous effort he didn't do much more.
One of the very strange aspects of "Troy" is the talk about becoming a legend, somebody who would be remembered for thousands of years, which is obviously an anachronism. No Greek could have expected that "eternity" would last that long. So who became most legendary, except for Odysseus? Homer, the guy who turned the whole thing into a lasting legend. Helene, the legendary most beautiful woman. Paris, by his association with her. (The town's name is just accidentally the same.) Hector? Forgotten. Achilles? Just a heel. "Troy" is a fabulous celebration of Homer's real heroes.
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Details
- Release date
- Countries of origin
- Official sites
- Language
- Also known as
- Troya
- Filming locations
- Production companies
- See more company credits at IMDbPro
Box office
- Budget
- $175,000,000 (estimated)
- Gross US & Canada
- $133,378,256
- Opening weekend US & Canada
- $46,865,412
- May 16, 2004
- Gross worldwide
- $497,409,852
- Runtime2 hours 43 minutes
- Color
- Sound mix
- Aspect ratio
- 2.39 : 1
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