The movie Troy, of David Benioff, was based on the tale of Troy, “The Illiad” written by an ancient Greek poet Homer. It merely revolved around the Trojan War. It was full of huge battle scenes that have shown how doomed it was to be in a war. We have already known how cruel war was in the ancient times. The frightening sounds of people crying, the dead bodies all around and the broken buildings and structures of the community proved that we could not get any benefit from war aside from glory.
The actors and actresses splendidly portrayed the characters of the story, thus creating character types that were very convincing. Flat characters that have shown only one to two traits were seen by Agamemnon and Menelaus who were only greedy of power and glory. Round characters that have shown many traits were Prince Hector and Achilles I think because prince Hector was a loving brother, a caring father and husband, a thoughtful leader and a man who could stand for his decisions and Achilles was not a good follower to his leader, full of pride, hungry for glory and fame, arrogant, brave, he decides for himself but has a sense of value for family and friends.
The static characters that remained the same from the beginning to the end were Paris and Helen who both stood for their love until the end even it caused the destruction of Troy. And the dynamic character who underwent permanent change was King Priam who once was a proud king who thought his army would never lose a war but changed to be a humble and respectful man when his eldest son Hector died by the hands of Achilles.
The lines of the characters were full of literary devices and imageries that made the film more attractive to the audience. An example of this was the line that Odysseus told to Achilles, “War is young men dying and old men talking.” And the elements such as the plot, characters and setting were well thought of by the producers for them to enjoy the movie.
The movie’s theme was about love and war. It was shown when Paris convinced Helen to go with him to Troy and became his companion. Because of love, Paris didn’t mind that Helen already has a husband which was King Menelaus of Sparta. That caused the war between their troops.
The didactic value of the movie was that one should never be mindless of the people around him, like his family, just for him to be pleasured. One should remember that pleasure is a fleeting thing. In the movie, Paris has shown a trait of not caring about his constituents and his own country by bringing Helen there. Another moral lesson that I noticed was that no one truly wins in a war.
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