Troy: 5 Reasons Why It's Worth A Re-Visit

3. The Acting Was (Mostly) Of A High Standard

I'm not going to comment much on Brad Pitt's Achilles here. It's an established convention that Hollywood films which feature a largely British cast must also have a central American actor making little attempt to conceal his accent and whom the rest of the characters must rely on above all to get them out of a particular mess.

Neither Diane Kruger's vapid Helen nor Orlando Bloom's doe-eyed Paris are anything to write home about, but the rest of the cast are largely superb in the roles and characterisation that the filmmakers intended for them. Eric Bana especially was a wonderful Hector, fully capturing the conflicted warrior's state of emotions, torn between his sense of honour, duty to protect his city, and devotion to his wife and son. Peter O'Toole made for a hugely sympathetic Priam, his rotting teeth providing much of the emotional clout during the moments when he pleas for the return of his son's body. Sean Bean proved a suitably wily Odysseus, anchoring the film as its narrator and key negotiator in sticky situations whilst never missing an opportunity to exhibit his cunning and quick-wittedness (more on that later). Elsewhere Agamemnon was effectively (if somewhat predictably) represented as a covetous, scheming, yet cowardly imperialist in a typically powerhouse performance by Brian Cox, whilst Brendan Gleeson's Menelaus in the limited screen-time that he had was sufficiently gruff and promiscuous so as to limit audience dissatisfaction at his death, but also exhibited a close enough relationship with Agamemnon so as to underline the film's prominent fraternalistic theme.