Troy Essay

‘Troy’ is a good base for studying the Trojan wars, although it is not entirely reliable. The movie, directed by Wolfgang Petersen has a story about power and love. As a base for the retelling of the Trojan wars, it gives a good idea for what the war looked like. Unfortunately, Petersen’s retelling misses out on many important characters and their addition to the story, and can be quite inaccurate at times. On a factual side, the movie has many inaccuracies, especially with Trojan culture and the battles, which are often exaggerated to increase the entertainment of the audience. Petersen’s ‘Troy’ is an interesting way to look at the Trojan wars, although its reliability is questionable.

‘Troy’ provides a sound retelling of the Trojan wars, giving a good base for teachers to build on top of. The movie, running at a lengthy two and a half hours attempts to fit in much of the plot from Homers original story. Many key elements of the story are in the movie, such as Helen leaving Sparta with Paris, The battles between the Trojans and the Greeks, Odysseus’s idea for the Trojan horse and the destruction of Troy. Although there are many inaccuracies, the movie does provide a simple and understandable retelling of the original story. It is this simplicity that aids the studying of the Trojan Wars and helps greatly when it comes to teaching. While the original story by Homer includes many aspects such as gods that speak to the characters, the movie leaves these out in order to keep it as a story about two sides fighting each other for different reasons. In this way someone can study the Wars using the movie to study the psychology of each of the characters reacting to the war and to each other, without being distracted by other aspects. Petersen’s retelling of the story provides a simple, yet sound account of the Trojan Wars that can be used as a good base for studying the Trojan Wars.

While Petersen’s ‘Troy’ does give a good layout of the characters’ stories during the...