Troy (2004)

Pride and passion have toppled more kingdoms than any army ever could. Wolfgang Petersen's "Troy," written by David Benioff, offers plenty of reasons to enjoy it as a good old-fashioned Hollywood epic, especially if you've never read Homer's "Iliad." Leaving out the Greek gods entirely, this earnest, massive production, which cost upwards of $200 million, is sure to irritate historians and devoted classics scholars. But there's no shortage of political intrigue in the sweeping war that erupts when Paris (Orlando Bloom), a young prince of Troy, runs off with Helen (Diane Kruger, beautiful if somewhat bland), wife of Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), king of Sparta. Menelaus' ambitious brother, King Agamemnon (Brian Cox), seizes the chance to launch a full-scale invasion. The Greek warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) brings deadly force to the many impressive battle scenes, and Paris' noble older brother, Hector (Eric Bana), adds even more muscular heroics to a film so crowded with brawny stars that there's barely room for Peter O'Toole, excellent as the Trojan king Priam, and even less for Julie Christie, who appears briefly as Achilles' sorrowful mother. Sean Bean co-stars as the cunning Odysseus, and Rose Byrne plays Briseis, a Trojan priestess captured by Achilles. The drama is nearly as dry as the sun-scorched locations in Mexico and Malta that stand in for the Aegean coast, and many critics felt Pitt, who gamely tries to give Achilles some inner torment, was miscast. But from the director of "The Perfect Storm," there's nothing wrong with savoring it as a semi-guilty pleasure with a touch of ancient class.