20 Years Later, This Historical Epic Is Still the Best Representative of the Genre
Ancient history has never looked so impressive on screen.
This year marks the 20th anniversary of the premiere of Troy, a blockbuster about the legendary siege of an ancient city.
Not everyone liked the movie, but the mixed reviews did not stop it from becoming a major event in the world of entertainment cinema, where the alluring ancient world of kings, thousands of warships, and a spirit of conquest was expressed through all-star casting and modern CGI.
Troy Fit Perfectly Into the Peplum Revival of the Early 2000s
After Gladiator rolled triumphantly across Hollywood and the world's screens, studios revived the peplum genre. It had not seen such a resurgence since the 1950s, when Hollywood focused all its energy on stories of Greco-Roman antiquity.
If the Renaissance was a return to antiquity, the 2000s was its cinematic equivalent – the rich world of Hellenic heritage was once again open to studios. The execs weren't afraid to spend big on Spartacus, 300 or Alexander.
It was this landscape that predicted the release of Troy, a large-scale epic about the Achaean Greeks' campaign against Ilion. Homer's poem, the greatest epic in literary history, dedicated to the Trojan War, has tended to interest filmmakers less passionately than its adventure sequel – The Odyssey, which has been filmed more often than the story of the ten-year siege of Troy.
Troy Was Made by an Experienced Director
It's easy to see why: Odysseus's wanderings, with their temptations, melancholy, and exoticism, are more amenable to the screen than the glorification of a protracted battle for a fortified city. But not for director Wolfgang Petersen, known for such hits as The Perfect Storm and Air Force One.
Who else but he, who knows the magnitude firsthand, can prove that the Trojan epic can be brought back to life on the big screen?
Troy Is Still the Most Visually Stunning Movie About Antiquity
The visual component of Troy, with its ostentatious Hollywood sheen, made the movie one of the major blockbusters of the 2000s. The $170 million budget is a decent amount for those years, wisely and expertly invested in the battle scenes at the walls of Troy.
Where the movie stumbled over historical facts and put an end to plausibility, the pomp of the action came in. Yes, Peterson interferes with the period: there was no cavalry at the time of the Battle of Ilion, and the warriors fought with bronze, not steel weapons, and there are many other mistakes – easy targets for historians.
But even these miscalculations did not prevent Troy from becoming a powerful cinematic machine that is still impressive to this day.