History Film / Troy

--->'''Agamemnon:''' That boy may have just saved the war for us.

** Odysseus definitely earns it as well (and also gives sound military advice), he's just in the film less than Hector. Sean Bean even manages to convey snark without speech; in the scene where people fawn over Agamemnon for having conquered Troy's beach on the first day, Odysseus smirks to Achilles as if to say "Can you believe this shit?"

** Toward the tail end of the SwordFight, Hector uses his sword in one hand and a broken spear in the other. Achilles [[HoistByHisOwnPetard spears him in the shoulder with it]] before stabbing him in the chest.

* EvenEvilHasStandards: Menelaus is genuinely distraught and disgusted to see that Paris refuses to FaceDeathWithDignity after he's defeated in a duel, and instead grovels to Hector.

* DropTheHammer: Ajax has a giant warhammer as his weapon.

* EliteMooks: Achilles's Myrmidons for the Greeks and Hector's Apollonian Guard for the Trojans.

** Menelaus vs. Paris: While Paris is quickly shown to be no match for Menelaus, he does manage to punch the bastard in the face once before going down. The old but definitely stronger and more experienced war veteran beats the shit out of the wimpy spoiled prince.

* NoSell: While Menelaus handily controls the duel against Paris, Paris manages to land one decent punch on Menelaus, who barely staggers and simply spits the blood out before returning the favor and [[CurbStompBattle knocking Paris on his ass.]]

* RankScalesWithAsskicking: The most prominent fighters on both sides of the war are part of the nobility.

** Priam's gentle scolding of Achilles in his tent, reminding Achilles that as aggrieved as he is about his cousin's death, he himself has dealt the same wound to countless others whose brothers, husbands, and sons he has slain.
* RedemptionEqualsDeath: Achilles' ultimate fate. His growth into a better man devoted to protecting Briseis from the sack of Troy happens nearly before Paris shoots him dead with a bow.
* RefusalOfTheCall: Achilles' initial reaction when Odysseus tries to convince him to take part in UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar. Achilles dismisses the war at first, as it's a petty affair about a cuckholded king. But then Odysseus tells him that all the kings of Greece will be participating, making it the greatest war the Achaeans have ever seen.

* SenselessSacrifice: Averted for that very reason. Helen is so overcome with grief and guilt at how many soldiers of Troy have died, that she attempts to give herself up while the Greeks are still on the beach. Hector points out to her if she did, the Greeks would still sack Troy anyway. So she should go back to Paris.

* ShirtlessScene: Achilles, Paris and Hector are all attractive men, and regularly stroll with nothing on their torso during intimate moments.

* AdaptedOut: Speaking of the Trojan Cycle as a whole and not just the Iliad, a lot of details get left out. In addition to the Greek gods, prominent warriors on both sides (like foreign allies Sarpedon, Memnon and Penthesilea and Priam's many other sons like Polydorus and Troilus for the Trojans, and Diomedes and Ajax the Lesser for the Greeks) are absent. Achilles having a son, Neoptolemus, is also left out, as are even just mentions of Penelope and Telemachus, Odysseus's wife and son, or that Agamemnon is married to Helen's sister Clytemnestra, etc.

* AdaptedOut: Despite being repeatedly referenced in the movie, the Olympian Gods do not appear despite playing a huge role in the tale, as they directly affect the plot (the Trojan War ''happened'' because of them and they fought on opposing sides of the war). Several key characters like Queen Hecuba, Cassandra, Diomedes, Memnon, Penthesilea, Iphigenia, and others were also omitted.

** According to Pindarus, Patroclus was a kind of half-uncle to Achilles, less close kin than e.g. Ajax.[[note]]The nymph Aegina was Achilles' great-grandmother (through her union with Zeus) as well as Patroclus' grandmother (through her union with the mortal Actor), which made Patroclus Achilles' first cousin once removed; Achilles' father Peleus and Ajax' father Telamon were both sons of Aiacus and Endeis.[[/note]] It just [[AnythingThatMoves didn't matter to the Greeks]], and in ancient Greece the word "pederasty" denoted an accepted [[LoverAndBeloved sexual relationship between a young man and an older one who acted as his teacher or mentor]] -- the role Patroclus played for Achilles. Achilles' womanizing is also accurate to the original stories, where much of the plot is motivated by Achilles' desire for various women as well as men: he lusted after Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazons, in a subplot that shall sadly be missed.

** According to Pindarus, Patroclus was a kind of half-uncle to Achilles, less close kin than e.g. Ajax.[[note]]The nymph Aegina was Achilles' great-grandmother (through her union with Zeus) as well as Patroclus' grandmother (through her union with the mortal Actor), which made Patroclus Achilles' first cousin once removed; Achilles' father Peleus and Ajax' father Telamon were both sons of Aiacus and Endeis.[[/note]] It just [[AnythingThatMoves didn't matter to the Greeks]], and in ancient Greece the word "pederasty" denoted an accepted [[LoverAndBeloved sexual relationship between a young man and an older one who acted as his teacher or mentor]] -- the role Patroclus played for Achilles. Achilles' womanizing is also accurate to the original stories, where much of the plot is motivated by Achilles' desire for various women as well as men: he lusted after Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazon women from Ethiopia, in a subplot that shall sadly be missed.

* EvenEvilHasLovedOnes: Agamemnon is genuinely devastated by the death of his brother Menelaus. In the Director's Cut, his death is the reason Agamemnon orders Troy to be destroyed rather than taken as new base in his empire.

* LargeHam: Brian Cox out-hams Brendan Gleeson. He taught an entire generation of filmgoers how to spell [[SayMyName AGAMEMNON!]] by helpfully shouting it at key points in the film. Not a [[RuleOfCool complaint]], mind you...
** In interviews, you can see him grinning [[ChewingTheScenery like a kid in a candy store]] throughout the shoot. Though some of his lines are straight from the ''Iliad'' itself.

** UsefulNotes/TheTrojanWar takes place in the Bronze Age but there are several weapons in the film that didn't exist until the Iron Age or later. This extends to armour as well, such as the use of linothoraxes.

* ArmorPiercingResponse: Hector tries an ArmorPiercingQuestion on Achilles: “You speak of war as if it’s a game. But how many wives wait at Troy’s gates for husbands they’ll never see again?” Achilles responds, “Perhaps [[TheCasanova your brother]] can comfort them. I hear he’s good at [[{{Cuckold}} charming other men’s wives]].” Hector is duly speechless.

** Most of the Greeks and Trojans wear linothorax, an armour that would not be in use for at least five-hundred years. Most notably with Achilles wearing hoplite armour complete with a bronze Corinthian helmet. In reality, the Greeks who could afford helmets in this period wore helmets made from boar tusks, and the choice of body armour was between heavy bronze torsos, and light tunics. Though, Ancient Greek art often depicted the characters in clothing and armour from the time period the art came from, so this is OlderThanFeudalism when it comes to art based on the Trojan War.

-->'''Odysseus''': We need to retreat!\\
'''Agamemnon''': [[MilesGloriosus My army's never lost a battle yet!]]\\
'''Odysseus''': ''(indicates the CurbStompBattle around them)'' You won't ''have'' an army if you don't fall back!\\

'''Odysseus''': The men believe we came for Menelaus's wife. [[DeadpanSnarker He won't be needing her anymore]].\\
'''Agamemnon''': [[EvenEvilHasLovedOnes My brother's blood still wets the sand]] [[DudeNotFunny and you]] ''[[DudeNotFunny insult]]'' [[RelativeButton him]]?!\\
'''Odysseus''': [[JerkassHasAPoint It's no insult to say a dead man is dead]].

--->'''Agamemnon''': Of all the warlords beloved by the gods, I hate him the most. \\
'''Nestor''': We need him, my king. \\
'''Agamemnon''': For now.

* ChastityDagger: [[spoiler: Agamemnon meets his end when Briseis takes out a dagger and stabs him as he was on the verge of raping her.]]

** The film's version of Briseis is combined with Chryseis, Cassandra, and Clytemnestra, all of whom are AdaptedOut. She's depicted as a respected priestess of Apollo (Chryseis was the ''daughter'' of a respected priest of Apollo), as the younger female cousin of Paris and Hector (Cassandra was their younger sister), and [[spoiler: she's the one who kills Agamemnon]].

-->'''Menelaus''': IS THIS WHAT YOU LEFT ME FOR!?

** Regardless of the intent of the source material, the movie's awkward belaboring of the point that they're COUSINS DAMMIT falls squarely under this trope - since the goal seems to be to avert even the possibility that they could be less than 100% heterosexual.
** According to Pindarus, Patroclus was a kind of half-uncle to Achilles, less close kin than e. g. Ajax.[[note]]The nymph Aegina was Achilles' great-grandmother (through her union with Zeus) as well as Patroclus' grandmother (through her union with the mortal Actor), which made Patroclus Achilles' first cousin once removed; Achilles' father Peleus and Ajax' father Telamon were both sons of Aiacus and Endeis.[[/note]] It just [[AnythingThatMoves didn't matter to the Greeks]], and in ancient Greece the word "pederasty" denoted an accepted [[LoverAndBeloved sexual relationship between a young man and an older one who acted as his teacher or mentor]] -- the role Patroclus played for Achilles. Achilles' womanizing is also accurate to the original stories, where much of the plot is motivated by Achilles' desire for various women as well as men: he lusted after Penthesilea, Queen of the Amazon women from Ethiopia, in a subplot that shall sadly be missed.

-->'''Trojan''': Please, I have a son! \\
'''Achilles''': Then get him out of Troy.

-->'''Hector''': You speak of war as if it's a game. But how many wives wait at the gates of Troy for husbands they will never see again?\\
'''Achilles''': [[DeadpanSnarker Perhaps your brother can comfort them. I hear he's good at charming other men's wives.]]
* NotEvenBotheringWithTheAccent: As a review on IMDB put it, "Congratulations Sean Bean, for making me realize Odysseus was actually a native of Sheffield." But no one else in the cast seems to bother, either. Weirdly, it still kind of works - the most jarring voice is that of American Brad Pitt, compared to his [[TheQueensLatin mostly British]], Scottish, Irish, and Australian co-stars. A big reason why it still works is because the target audience has little idea what Bronze Age Greeks sounded like, and American actors trying to sound like modern Greeks could have been just as absurd. And even in theatre, plays based in Ancient Greece would use different English accents for the different city states, so this isn't anything new to the genre.

* QuestionableConsent: Achilles wakes up with Briseis pressing a knife to his throat. He tells her to do it, and when she doesn't, he initiates sex. She appears to consent - but she was a prisoner, and he had just saved her from being branded and gang-raped by the other soldiers. She might not have had much choice, since without his protection she would be at the mercy of the other soldiers again.

** Priam WatchingTroyBurn. "Have you no honor? [[HonorBeforeReason Have you no HONOR!!!"]] [[spoiler: and then dies by being stabbed in the back.]]

--->'''Patroclus''': You betray all of Greece just to see Agamemnon fall! \\
'''Achilles''': Someone has to lose. \\
'''Patroclus''': In my years to come, may my heart never turn as black as yours!

-->'''Agamemnon''': Achilles, he can’t be controlled! He’s as likely to fight us as the Trojans. \\
'''Nestor''': We don’t need to control him, we only need to ''unleash'' him.

* KickTheSonOfABitch: Menelaus beating Paris to a bloody pulp. Sure, Menelaus is hardly a saint himself, but considering the fact that Paris ''knowingly'' endangered himself and his people by fucking another man's wife, he certainly deserved some level of punishment.

** Achilles manages to stand up and limp after getting shot in the heel, [[DyingWalk keeps going forward]] as he takes three more arrows in the chest, then the fifth one finally brings him down.

** He does it again after he gets gutted by a spear. Instead of [[LodgedBladeRecycling pulling the spear]] out, he ''[[SuperStrength breaks the shaft off]]'', then uses it as a weapon.

* AchillesHeel: {{Zigzagged|Trope}}—while Achilles does ultimately take an arrow to his heel, the trope is {{subverted|trope}} as he only dies after being shot with arrows repeatedly in the chest, although the heel injury slows him down enough that he was an easy target for Paris. What {{double subvert|edTrope}}s this, however, is his love for Briseis, which developed throughout the course of the film—his love for her led him to make the journey to Troy to rescue her from Agamemnon's clutches, just as the city fell, which resulted in Paris mistaking him for a rapist and firing the arrows that killed him.

** The first shot goes into the heel, but Achilles gets right back up. [[WhyWontYouDie It's the five arrows after that that do the trick]], but he pulls them out one after another before finally keeling over so when Greek soldiers find him, the only arrow in his body is the one just above his foot.

* BigBadassBattleSequence: Several. First is when the Greek army takes the beach of Troy, second is the battle that occurs at the gates of Troy around halfway through the film, and lastly, the fall of Troy at the end of the film could possibly count.

--->At night I sometimes see them. The faces of the men I killed. They're waiting for me on the far bank of the Styx. They say, Welcome, brother.

--->The gods envy ''us''. They envy us, ''because'' we are mortal. Every moment is more precious to us. You will never be more beautiful than you are right now. We will never be here again.

* JerkassHasAPoint: At their first meeting Hector tries to high road Achilles by reminding him that the men he killed had wives and families, Achilles responds by pointing out that he wouldn’t even be there if it weren’t for Paris and Helen providing Agamemnon with an excuse to invade. Granted, Achilles was being a jerk about it, but... he wasn’t wrong.

* MoralityPet: Briseis seemed to be one for Achilles. She eventually also became his BerserkButton after Patroclus' death. Briseis seemed to have humanized Achilles, who is known to only care about fighting for glory and recognition. She brought out the much kinder and gentler side of Achilles. Achilles even tells Briseis as he is dying that "she had given him peace in a lifetime of war".

* ShownTheirWork: During the beach attack, Ajax is struck by an arrow in the thigh. Instead of pulling it out, he simply snaps off the shaft and keeps fighting. Indeed, this was the only safe way to deal with arrow wounds during a battle, as pulling out the arrowhead would only cause more damage and cause blood loss, especially in a part of the body that has a lot of arteries, like the thighs.

** Moreover, his mother predicted that he would reap so much glory during the war that he'd be remembered forever, but die before he can return. As far as he believed, there was little danger of Apollo smithing in on the spot and he knew he'd die in the war anyway while still fulfilling his goal.

-->'''Patroclus''': You betray all of Greece just to see Agamemnon fall! \\

'''Achilles:''' Priam. You're a far better king than the one leading this army.

* MalMariee: Heavily Implied Trope. Menelaus is played by Brendan Gleeson and was visibly graying at 48 years old. Blonde, slender Helen as played by Diane Kruger was almost half his age in her twenties. And the main point of the film is that ''she runs off with Paris, a foreign prince her own age.'' This doubles as a good explanation for why a pretty-but-very-human queen would [[LegendFadesToMyth become known as]] the WorldsMostBeautifulWoman.