Troy - Movie Analysis

Reflection Paper Of the movie, “troy”

The movie, “Troy”, was based on the ancient Greek epic, the Iliad and depicts the Trojan War as based by Homer. The war started because of the love affair between Prince Paris of Troy and Queen Helen, the wife of the King Menelaus of Sparta. After finding out that the Queen left her home and went with her lover to Troy. Helen never thought of Sparta as her home because he married a greedy womanizer After Menelaus found out about this, he swears to get revenge upon Troy. He has seek help from his brother, Agamemnon, the King of Mycenae. The purpose of Agamemnon to have agreed his brother’s request was mostly because for him to rule over Troy. Before I explain/express my thoughts about the movie, I would like to give a short summary about the happenings on the movie based on my understanding:

When a fleet of one thousand Greek ships sail to Troy, the battle occurs. The first boat to set on the land was Achilles’ with his men and cousin, Patroclus. Though his men were quite frightened by the idea that they should go ahead without the permission of Agamemnon. Achilles asked his men on who they follow, if it was him or the king. When the boat set on the shore, Patroclus pleaded his cousin to fight alongside him All Achilles wanted was to hog the glory with his great strength and skill to wipe out most of the soldiers who were there by the shore. The Trojans thought they couldn’t stand a chance against the Greeks and so they prayed to their god, Apollo, even though their shrines were ruined/raided by the Greeks. Priest and Priestess were killed during the battle, except for one. Briseis, the cousin of Hector and Paris was held captive by the Greeks. Achilles was enrage when Agamemnon said his intentions to the maiden. Achilles said that he should left the innocent alone and because of this incident, Achilles withdrawn from the battle for a while.

When a lot of men were slaughtered during the war, Paris and Helen were so guilty. So Paris decide to offer a one on one with Menelaus to see who gets to keep Helen. After knowing Paris’ decision, the maiden became guilty and took the blame all to herself and thought that none of this would’ve happen if she didn’t left Sparta. Helen decided to surrender herself back to Menelaus, hoping that the war would stop, but failed when Hector saw her and convince her to stay and that everything will be fine for Paris. On the next day, the battle between Paris and Menelaus started. The prince didn’t stood a chance against the king. He was beaten badly. Paris cowardly went back to his brother as to he cannot fight any longer. Menelaus died when Hector struck him with his sword, thus making the Greeks fall back and calling it a day.

When another phase of the war started, the Greeks were enlighten when they thought Achilles joined in the battle. Hector thought that this is their chance to settle it. Hector managed to defeat “Achilles” easily, thus giving the whole soldiers a big shock, but when Hector removed the helmet of the fallen soldier, it turned out to be the cousin of the half-god, Patroclus, which putted everyone into a bigger shock, especially to Achilles’ men, not knowing how they’ll tell the tragedy to their leader. Achilles was enrage when he found out about the death of his cousin and on the next day he went to the walls of Troy alone and wanted to seek revenge. Agamemnon also gave Briseis back to Achilles and saying that he didn’t do any harm on her. On the next day, he calls out Hector. The prince knew that it was his responsibility and that he’ll face that. He somewhat felt guilty when he found out it wasn’t Achilles that died. Hector was easily killed by the hands of Achilles. His body was tied to Achilles’ ride and dragging him back to their camp. The royalties of Troy were devastated as what happened to their first prince and as to how his body was dragged around. On the night after the fight between the two men, Priam snuck in to Achilles’ tent and deeply asked to bring back his son’s body for a proper burial. Achilles’ saw how the king badly pleads for it, so he accepted the king’s request and gave them 12 days of peace. The king left along with Briseis and the body of Hector back to Troy.

After 12 days, the soldiers of Troy, along with the king, saw that there were no boats in sight but instead, they saw a large wooden horse and some bodies of dead Greek men. They thought that there was a plague that killed those men, when really it was part of the Greek’s plan to make the Trojans believe that they have won and the Greeks were inside of the horse so that they could infiltrate the kingdom. The Trojans brought the horse to their place because they thought it was a blessing for them and they celebrated. When night fall, the Greeks attacked and burned everything, sparing no one. King Priam died in the hands of Agamemnon. The royalties and some people of Troy managed to escape the horror by going through the underground passage that Andromache lead them to, but Paris wanted to back and go help his father. Meanwhile, Achilles was searching for Briseis. He saw his lover being strangled by Agamemnon. Achilles managed to defeat Agamemnon and the two lovers finally reunited, but unfortunately the reunion was cut short because Paris saw Achilles and the prince managed to kill the half-god. Briseis was in shock and tried to convince his cousin that Achilles wasn’t a bad guy. Paris only wanted to kill him was because he wanted to avenge Hector. After Achilles died, Paris and Briseis went to the underground passage to go meet up with Andromache and left Troy burning in ashes. And so, they went to a place far away and make their own kingdom.

So there goes my summary for the movie I’ve watched based on my understanding. My thoughts on the movie were really different from the story I read from my copy. At first, I sided with the Greeks and was completely against with the Troy because of the fact that Prince Paris had an affair with Helen and brought her to Troy to become his wife. This caused dishonor to the Sparta, especially to the king. Menelaus wanted to seek revenge was a good thing for me, so I thought. However, after watching the movie, I felt pity for Troy. All because of Paris and Helen that thousands of innocent lives were dragged into the war. Especially to King Priam, the father of Hector and Paris, that all he wanted was to have peace for his kingdom, to see his people happy and that according to Hector, he worked for it almost 30 years to gain it and all because of his son, his hard work became in vain. But, I kind of expected that a war will sometime happen between the Troy and Sparta, even if Helen didn’t leave her place. It only happened sooner because of that incident. I knew that Menelaus intention was to only give out revenge on to Paris and nothing else, from my understanding, but probably he was influenced/convinced by his brother to take down Troy, in general, instead.