The movie Troy is about the conflict between the Greek city-states, led by Agamemnon, and Troy, ruled by Priam. These two have this conflict because Paris, Prince of Troy, fell in love with Helen, wife of Menelaus who is Agamemnon’s brother and king of Sparta, and took her back to Troy against the wishes of his brother, Hector, who, with his father, had been trying for years to make peace with Sparta and had finally gotten that peace. Agamemnon had recently united all of the Greek city-states and wanted to take over Troy too, so this conflict over Helen was his perfect opportunity.
He uses the main character, Achilles, to fight his battles, even though Achilles hates fighting for him and only fights for himself. A fleet of one thousand Greek ships sails to Troy and a battle occurs. After Achilles kills Hector out of revenge for Hector killing his cousin Patroclus and drags Hector’s body behind his chariot to the Greek encampment, King Priam comes to the Greek camp by their boats and begs for Hector’s body back, Achilles agrees to give the body back and Achilles promises twelve days of peace.
During these twelve days, the Greeks build a horse, vanish inside of it and make it seem that they were cursed with a plague. The Trojans come to the camp after the twelve days and find all the Greeks gone but there was a huge horse, which they saw as a gift. They take it back into the city walls and celebrate, but at night, the Greeks come out of the horse and burn the city down. The movie ends with Achilles being killed by Paris by an arrow shot through the heel when he was trying to rescue Paris’ and Hector’s cousin Briseis, whom he fell in love with, and the city of Troy in ruins.
The Advanced Placement World History theme of State-Building, Expansion and Conflict is expressed throughout this movie. In the movie, the Greek city-states were creating an empire under the rule of Agamemnon. However, this is inaccurate because there was never one “Greece” as was portrayed in the movie. The Greeks called themselves what they were: Spartans, Argives, Athenians, Achaeans, or Danaans. Referring back to this, in the movie, Odysseus asks Achilles to fight for the sake of the Greeks, which shows a sense of nationalism, which in fact didn’t occur.
Also, there is no legitimate evidence that there was in fact a “Trojan War”. There was a war between the Greek city-states, but we do not have any evidence that a war was fought between the Greeks and the Trojans (Foros). The main reason, in the movie, that the Greeks fought the Trojans was because Helen left the Greek Menelaus for the Trojan Paris, because she said that Menelaus was ugly and treated her wrongly. However, this is inaccurate because Helen left Menelaus because she was promised to Paris by Aphrodite after Paris named Aphrodite the most beautiful goddess in a contest between her, Hera and Athena (Foros).
Other inaccuracies in the plotline are, for instance, in the movie, Achilles was a part of the Trojan horse incident, when in reality, he was killed by Paris before then. Also, in the movie, Agamemnon was killed by Briseis, when he actually was killed after he returned home to Greece by his wife (“”Troy” Historical Inaccuracies”). Another inaccuracy is when in the movie Hector’s wife, Andromache, escapes Troy with her and Hector’s son Aeneas when in reality, Aeneas was killed by Odysseus and Andromache became a slave of Achilles’ son (“”Troy” Historical Inaccuracies”).
Also, in the movie, Patroclus was Achilles’ cousin when in fact he was Achilles’ close friend. Lastly, there was an inaccuracy when Ajax the Greater was killed by Hector. Ajax the Greater was not killed by anyone and in fact killed himself. This movie contributed to the understanding of this time period using this theme by expressing how easily people in the Greek city-states went to war and it showed me the violent nature of the Greeks and Trojans. The director showed the point of view of greed and wanting to expand and conquer the world with Agamemnon’s personality.
I believe this theme was clearly expressed in this movie Another theme that was expressed in this movie was the theme of Development and Interaction of Cultures. The movie clearly expressed the religions and ideologies of the Greeks and Trojans. In the movie, the Greeks were extremely violent and barbarous which was true in respect to the Spartans. Also in the film, it expressed how the Trojans were very religious because they had temples, sculptures and priests that were dedicated to Apollo and the gods, which is also true (Essay).
However, there was an inaccuracy in the religion aspect in the movie when they put coins over the eyes, when in fact they put a coin in the throat of the dead person as payment for the “ferryman” to Hades (Foros). Also, the movie portrays the technologies of the time period, even though there was an inaccuracy in the use of stirrups. Stirrups on horses were not invented and used until the 4th century, and the time period is said in the beginning of the movie to be 1250 B. C. E. Also, there is an inaccuracy in the use of llamas in Troy. Llamas were not found in Troy because they were only found in South America at this time (Foros).
Another part of this theme that was shown throughout this movie was the aspect of arts and architecture. There was a scene in the movie that zoomed in on Troy and circled around it. This gave the view of the architecture of this time period that the city was surrounded by walls and the houses were stacked on top of each other, which was true of the city of Troy. This movie contributed to the understanding of this time period because it shows what the daily and city life was like Troy and Greece, and it showed the philosophies and religions of this time period.
The director has a point of view showing everyone and their thoughts through their actions. This theme was definitely a factor in this film. Despite all the little inaccuracies of this movie, I would definitely recommend this movie to someone else. The plotline was catchy and thrilling. It kept me on the edge of my seat the entire time. Any viewer can fall in love with the love story expressed between Achilles and Briseis, like I did. I loved watching this movie and will definitely watch it again in the future. Hannah Moore
