Helen Of Troy [DVD]

Bettany Hughes explores what the real Helen of Troy would have been like and gives us a fascinating insight into the life of a Bronze Age princess.The journey takes us to Mycenae, Sparta, Troy and the Aegean and we visit both the archeological sites and the places such as they are today. Experts provide details on specific aspects of the story. Bettany Hughes also wrote a book about Helen and I look forward to reading it. The Age of Heroes, the author reminds us, was also the Age of Heroines and women played influential roles in what we perceive as a male-dominated society. Men fought for glory, but also for profit, and women were more assertive than we imagine.Homer would not approve, but a wit would have summarized the story as: Helen was a slut and the Aecheans fought Troy for money.

It was well acted and gave a good rendition of the classic story with one or two additions which i had not read about before. Acting, costumes,and settings were very good and the performance by Rufus Sewell as Agamemnon was excellent.

As an avid lover of all things classical and mythical, I was hoping that the film Helen of Troy would stick to the real story of Troy and Helen's family history. In this respect I was not disappointed. The film included the goddesses giving Paris the apple for chosing the fairest, which was excluded from the Brad Pitt film (Troy).However, apart from excellent storylines and mythical aspects, there were odd casting choices. ie Paris, himself was quite weak. Also Achilles was appauling. Brad Pitt in Troy succeeded in his role completely. But Helen herself was excellent and the story behind her life was brilliant. As was the faithful rendition of the demise of Agamemnon. I hated the Hollywood retelling of the Iliad in Troy, especially as Paris and Helen were allowed to disappear off into the sunset happily ever after. This film allowed the Gods to be part of the story which was true to the book. I was also delighted to see that the sacrifice of Iphigenia was kept in the film too. Albeit very sad and well acted, it was an important part of the plot. This was crucial to the way in which Clytemnestra began her plotting to kill her husband on his return from Troy (again omitted from Troy).I would recommend this film to anyone who enjoys the classics and want to see a well made film. The special effects were on a par with the Troy film. So no expense spared here.Now we need to see a faithful story of the Odyssey as that is a far superior story to the Iliad!

This film is by far superior to the Hollywood film "troy", the acting is magnificent and the story more true to to the legend.This is no big blockbuster and thankfully so,i,m glad there are still people out there making films of beauty and substance.

yes i really like the film and the female actress is also in one of the resident evil films ive got yes she also as a nice ass in helen of troy

Excellent Movie. Highly recommended. Better than the other movie by Brad Pitt.The storyline goes in to more detail and hence the film is over 2 1/2 hours long.Actor,s are all good.

I bought this because I was more interested in watching Sienna Guillory running around on screen than the content of the film, as I roughly know the story of Troy and have absolutely no interest in watching the pathetic Brad Pitt version with Orlando Spoon.The premise is epic and classic and it would be extremely difficult to botch any rendition, but this production certainly tries its darndest. It's got some good supporting actors, Skarsgard, Rufus Sewell, James Callis, and you would think Amelia Fox, but she's hysterical and irritating as Cassandra, and John Rhys-Davis puts too much rigidity into King Pryam. The sets and scenary are lovely and windswept and barren, maybe even shot on a Mediterranean isle, and the camera work, whilst mostly lifeless does have some interesting flourishes, most notably an action scene shot upside down, and the music is okay but nothing too fancy. The main bug is the leads who are terrible actors. Sienna Guillory may be super lovely to look at but beyond a perfected pout, stumbles on proclamations of unabashed abandon to Paris, and tends to fill most scenes with distress and flight and coy glances that quickly grate. Oh what a burden it is to be the centre of attention and have everything provided for you. They covered this exact topic in The Borgias recently using a lot more panache, and had Holliday Grainger and Joanne Whalley resolve the matter in a timelier and much more intelligent fashion using desserts.Paris is played by Matthew Marsden, whom I have not seen in anything else. He is utter crap. His boyish looks yet stacked physique is most likely the reason for picking him to play Paris, who is played essentially as a sponge, absorbing everything that comes his way as if it were the most natural thing in the world, yet incapable of doing anything other that going with the flow. He shows a poor and uninteresting emotional range and carries no weight behind any of his convictions.Poor Hector seems to be competently portrayed but Odysseus and Achilles are rubbish and throwaway. The only praise I have is for James Callis as Meneleus, as he is a good actor, providing intensity when required and humility. Unfortunately, he is totally miscast, as Meneleus is, I thought, supposed to be macho, and James Callis, no matter what he does (and he always does it well) is almost never anything other than camp.Overall, this film is a waste of shelf-space and beyond Sienna Guillory's nude scenes, the presence of James Callis, and Rufus Sewell looking extremely moody, of not much enjoyment. 1 STAR.