Troy: 5 Reasons Why It's Worth A Re-Visit
2. It Did Innovative Things With The Mythology
And no, I don't mean by this that it just made changes to the story. I've already explained that that's the wrong way to go about critiquing the film. What Troy quite cleverly did was rationalise some of the more supernatural parts of the mythology- give an explanation for how they came to be conceived.
Everyone knows for instance that Achilles is meant to be invulnerable with the exception of his heel. That's the one place where he can be wounded and the one place that Paris just so happens to shoot him with an arrow. I mean we still use the phrase Achilles heel in everyday conversation, duh.
But how can you feasibly have this element in a movie that's adopting a realistic and historical approach to the Trojan War? Well, it's not so much what's true in reality but rather what you hear and choose to believe (sound familiar anyone?) Right from the start when Achilles is first introduced we're informed of the stories that are already being told about him- stories that claim he cannot be killed because of his prowess on the battlefield. Achilles appears to brush off these rumours without truly dismissing them. He craves the attention and the glory. It's soon made very clear in his duel with the Thessalian champion Boagrius that his greatest asset is his speed: leaping deftly around his opponent's guard he executes his fatal jump-stab move in the blink of an eye. This rapidity characterises all of his movement for the entirety of the film up until its end, and at no point is he shown to be wounded within this time. You can clearly see the basis for the rumours of his invincibility.
Fast-forward to the film's climax when Achilles has saved Briseis from Agamemnons guards, Paris arrives on the scene and shoots an arrow straight through his heel. Achilles turns and seeks to charge down his attacker, but encumbered by his wound and with all of his speed gone he can only manage a limp towards Paris, allowing the Trojan to now pepper his torso with arrows, in what you might reasonably call a rip-off of Boromir's death in Fellowship of the Ring. Somehow Achilles is able to pull out all of these chest arrows but soon succumbs to his multiple wounds, collapsing dead on the ground. But he has been unable to remove the very first arrow, and it's this image that's presented to the Greek soldiers once they arrive on the scene: their greatest warrior lying dead with a single arrow sticking out of his heel. Paris and Briseis have fled; there have been no other witnesses to the events, so the inescapable conclusion that must be reached by the soldiers is that Achilles, previously thought invulnerable, has died from this wound. And thus the legend spreads....
Again, this doesn't mean you ought to forgive the film for everything that you thought was wrong with it up until this point, but it's innovative use of the mythology and a clever explanation of the origin behind one of the most popular supernatural facets. And it's a technique that often gets repeated. I don't know how many people saw Tarsem Singh's Immortals from 2011, but that film featured a scene with the hero Theseus defeating a giant man wearing a metal bull mask. At the movies conclusion several years later Theseus exploits have become legend and a statue is shown depicting this duel but with the giant enemy now replaced with the all-too familiar Minotaur.