The film and the poem. Beginnings of an analysis.

The 2004 epic war film directed by Wolfgang Petersen, is based on the epic poem, The Iliad. The film and poem focus on two vastly different overall messages. In the film, Troy, Wolfgang Petersen handles the film in a more romantic style. Wolfgang Petersen favours the elements of romance and allows the focus of Helen and Paris to be emphasised more so than any war element. The message of love allows for a more dramatic film and so, is more likely to appeal to the modern audience. This focus on romantic drama, which is more likely to bring in a wider audience in modern society is contrasted to the original poem of which the film, Troy is based on. This is because Homer, who is the poet who wrote The Iliad, wanted to focus more on the war aspect of the event as the ancient Greeks tended to like violence. Homer did go ahead and detail the romance of Paris and Helen, but Homers main focus was on the heroes, the villains, and the war. Homers' Iliad shows a hero to be a person showing bravery, martial skill, and friendship, but also cowardly at times. The heroes in the lliad are shown to be Hector, prince of Troy, Priam, king of Troy, and Odysseus, king of Ithica. Hector is shown to posses these heroic qualities, as he is shown to be the Trojan's best warrior, and he displays care for his family, as Hector takes off his helmet in front of his scared child as the child was frightened of his great helmet. This shows his care for his family, even in the midst of war. Hector is even shown to be a cowardly hero as evidenced during Hector and Achilles' battle where "Like a dream in which a man cannot catch someone who's running off and the other can't escape, just as the first man can't catch up - that's how Achilles, for all his speed, could not reach Hector, while Hector was unable to evade Achilles." (Book 22, Lines 247-250) This shows how Hector in all his bravery casts out his honor in favour of surviving. King Priam of Troy also displays heroic qualities, detailed by Homer as Priam is shown to love his men. He is also shown to be caring and loving towards his son, Paris. The love towards his child is shown through the instigation of the war in Troy, as Priam allowed his son to keep Helen in Troy. Lastly, Odysseus is also shown to possess heroic qualities as he is shown to be devoted to his people. Odysseus did not betray his people as he cared for them greatly. In the film, Hector and Priam are shown to possess the same or similar qualities to the heroes in poem. However, Odysseus is not featured in great detail in the film. He is more of a supporting character and is only featured prominently when he is talking to Achilles or during the conception of the Trojan horse. Homers other main message in The Iliad is the villains in the poem. These villains are shown to be the mighty Achilles and the prince of Troy and instigator of the war, Paris. These two are seen as villains as Homer believed a villain to be petty, selfish and disloyal. Achilles is shown to be an extreme villain in The Iliad. This is because he exhibits two of these ideas of villainy. Firstly, Achilles is shown to be petty, as he is not fighting in the war due to a small argument with Agamemnon. Lastly, he is disloyal because he is disobeying his leader by not participating in the war. Paris, who is a prince of Troy, shows the traits of a villain, as he is shown to be very selfish. His selfish desires for the woman he loves (Helen of Sparta) leads to the beginning of the war between Greece and Troy. Due to this selfish act, Paris is seen as a villain in the poem. The differences between the film and the poem is manily shown in regards to the messages that both Homer and Wolfgang Petersen wished to convey to their respective audiences. As Homer had delved into a more philosophical way of portraying the battle between Greece and Troy, Wolfgang Petersen who is catering to the modern audience, uses the battle scenes as more of an instigator to the drama that is going on behind the scenes of the battle. This heavy focus on drama over warfare gives Wolfgang Petersen more public interest in his movie as the modern audience is more interested in romance and drama, than philosophical ideas and more in-depth ideas which would be hard for the average modern audience to grasp the concept of.