Brad Pitt picks up a sword and brings a muscular, brooding presence to the role of Greek warrior Achilles in this spectacular retelling of The Iliad. Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger play the legendary lovers who plunge the world into war, Eric Bana portrays the prince who dares to confront Achilles, and Peter O'Toole rules Troy as King Priam. Director Wolfgang Petersen recreates a long-ago world of bireme warships, clashing armies, the massive fortress city and the towering Trojan Horse.

DVD Features:
Featurette
Photo gallery
Theatrical Trailer

No doubt about it, the 196-minute unrated director's cut of Troy represents a significant improvement over the film's original 162-minute theatrical release--and not just because it has more sex and violence. As director Wolfgang Petersen notes in his new "Troy Revisited" video introduction to this 2-disc special edition, he didn't have the time or directorial discretion (prior to Troy's release in 2004) to present a cut that more closely matched his vision for the film. Three years later, Petersen approached the film with a more relaxed perspective, and the result is a well-crafted expansion on a film that was previously underrated, with 30 minutes of previously unseen material. Character dynamics have been improved and intensified; the epic-scale narrative is now easier to follow, with greater emphasis on the inner turmoil of Achilles (well played by Brad Pitt) and his rivalry with Hector (Eric Bana); and viewers will feel a more satisfying escalation of tension and suspense from battle to battle. The film's enormous battle scenes (impressively enhanced with CGI) are bloodier and gorier, but they're also more effectively integrated into the political story, which goes beyond Homer's The Iliad and the death of Hector to incorporate elements of Virgil and a more revealing study of the differences between Trojan king Priam (Peter O'Toole) and his megalomanical Greek rival, king Agamemnon (Brian Cox), whose lust for revenge is now one of the film's most powerful ingredients. Some of Troy's original weaknesses remain (such as Orlando Bloom's wimpy performance as Paris), but overall, this director's cut easily justifies its existence, regardless of the film's overblown and historically inaccurate depiction of Troy as a gigantic city of massive columns and statuary. The good parts are better, and the not-so-good parts are more easily forgiven. And no matter how you cut it, Troy is a lavish feast for the eyes. --Jeff Shannon

Customer Rating:
Summary: Troy
Comment: I had written earlier because I had only gotten 1 part of a 2 part DVD. But then Sonic read my review, contacted me and sent the second part. So I raised them to 4 stars. Thank you. Pam Mendoza

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Customer Rating:
Summary: educational standpoint
Comment: As a high-school teacher for English foundations, I try my best to expose my students to the literature their peers in regular English classes receive. I must utilize movies as a visual aide supplement to help them connect with the characters, setting, dialogue... I strongly recommend using this dvd to support your curriculum to teach on all levels of student learning (auditory, kinesthetic, visual). However, for this particular movie, I had to fast forward the unneccesary sex scenes with Brad Pitt that were a bit much for my students.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: "The Iliad" is not the only version of the Trojan War!
Comment: Many reviewers have complained that the movie "Troy" is not completely true to the Iliad in portraying the characters and events of the Trojan War. This is unfair. Even in ancient times, the Iliad was not the only version of the Trojan War stories, and the Iliad which has come down to us may not be the only version that was performed. The Iliad only tells what happened in the space of 50 days in the 9th year of the war, although it alludes in passing to events that happened before and after these 50 days. Like the whole Camelot cycle which developed through the Dark and Middle Ages, the Trojan War cycle picked up and incorporated the best (and contradictory) legends over a millennium from Greece and Asia Minor. Modern historical fiction has been even more imaginative in retelling the stories. Further, it has been traditional for a long time not to portray Homer's literary gods in other tellings of the War. "Troy" does NOT forget the gods - the presence of the gods is always there in the way the humans (especially Priam, Briseis, and Achilles) refer to their existence.

The movie "Troy" looks at what might have been the historical Bronze Age kernel for the legends and does a wonderful, powerful job of doing so. It specifically says "INSPIRED by the Iliad". If you want to see a movie which hews closer to the plot line of the Iliad, see instead the 1962 sword and sandals movie "Fury of Achilles". I think Peterson's is a monumental achievement, and I do not tire of watching this movie (I have not seen the director's cut yet).

The movie is very good at exploring the essence of the characters which have come down to us and the Greek Dark Ages warrior code portrayed in the Iliad. We see in Achilles' quest for glory and Odysseus' narration the attempt to find in military glory and song a meaning for our mortality as opposed to the immortality of the gods. We see how the society is too small for the great warrior to fit into. We see in Hector's character of the reluctant warrior the distinction made between the two warrior codes of the aggressive quest for glory and the defensive warrior who defends a civilized city. The movie's Priam is like that in the Iliad - he relies on a religious fatalism to avoid having to make difficult decisions. Paris is correctly portrayed as a coward and seducer, so you can't blame Orlando Bloom for his portrayal of Paris.

On the whole the acting is quite good. I am not a Brad Pitt fan, but with the possible exception of Daniel Craig, I do not see who else would have had the star power, beauty, and grace to BE Achilles. Eric Bana was perfect as Hector - valiant but overmatched (and emblematic of the Trojans as a whole), with his expressive, soft, anguished eyes, and he and Andromache (Saffron Burrows) had a true chemistry which intensified the sad fate of this loving couple.

If I have one major criticsm, it is that the fates of certain characters, which are set in the canon of Western literature, were too radically different. I speak of Agammemnon and Menelaus. The ending was too conventional, in that the bad guys (which Menelaus was not, really) got bad ends at Troy. Agammemnon should have returned to Mycenae - there is a whole lot of Greek literature based on that. We should have had a real sense of the absolute loss and waste of the destruction of Troy, without the catharsis of Agammemnon's death.

I still highly recommend this movie, and I especially like James Horner's musical score, which particularly packed a visceral punch in the invasion of the Trojan beach.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: Great Acting - Great Scenes - Great Dialogue
Comment: I can't think of anything they could have done to improve this
movie. Troy is not one of my favorite stories, so this movie
will never be on my top 10 list, but I can't think of another
"swords and sandals" movie that comes close.

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Customer Rating:
Summary: directors cut RUINED the troy experience for me!!!
Comment: My wife had never seen this movie before so i was excited to show it to her for the first time on blue ray. I bought the directors cut version thinking it would be even better then the original. I couldnt be more wrong!!! The scenes that were cut should have stayed cut!! I was actually getting angry everytime there was a B.S. scene added. I have seen this movie in original form multiple times so i knew which scenes were added and every single one of them were pointless. people say that it gives it more depth. WRONG! it just makes the movie longer. turns an action movie into a long drawn out movie with way to much dialogue. I would say its 90% talking and 10% action. what they should have done was make the fighting scenes longer (esp. the hector and achilles fight.) and keep the rest of the film the way it was. i ended up just turning it off because i was just so angry that one of my favorite movies was ruined. DO NOT BUY DIRECTORS CUT. If you still want it, you can buy mine...

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