Helen of Troy: Helen's Greed Helen of Troy is a film that covers the story of Homer's Iliad. Directed by J.K. Harrison, written by Ronni Kern and produced by Adam Shapiro c/o the Universal Television Studio, it was released in 2003 on US television as a mini series. My classmates and I, however, watched it on DVD (from Universal Home Video) last week (July 25 August 5, 2005) during our English classes. The whole film is 175 minutes long. It was about the fate of Helen, Zeus's bastard, who was the root of the Trojan War and the Fall of Troy. The film started with a childish feud between the goddesses Aphrodite, Hera and Athena who were fighting over Eris' Golden Apple of Discord that was marked For the Fairest. Zeus advised them to go to the Trojan Paris who was said to have a remarkable taste for beauty. Weak Paris chose Aphrodite who promised love, passion and Helen the fairest woman on earth over Hera's gift of wealth, and Athena's gift of victory. Paris, whose kingdom was faced with a conflict with the Greeks, had to sail to Sparta to make peace with the king, Menelaus. Instead of making peace, Paris triggered the conflict by bringing Helen to Troy making the Greeks think that their queen was abducted. This angered the Greeks and then the Trojan War began. Greeks won the ten-year war and Helen was reclaimed. Troy was destroyed and Helen was back, all right, but many innocent lives were wasted. The war would have ended peacefully if Helen surrendered to the Greek Commander-in-Chief, Agamemnon. In the film, she gave herself up but didn't surrender. Note the words of Paris' psycho-psychic half sister Cassandra to Helen, "You gave yourself up but you didn't surrender, did you?!". Helen didn't surrender because she didn't yield to the Greeks or even abandoned her love for Paris. What she did was definitely unacceptable for Agamemnon. Helen's greed failed to save Troy.
Beyond the fact that the story was well written, the direction was laudable. The director was able to pull out from every actor the right emotion that each needed to play. Actor Rufus Sewell who played the evil and lustful Agamemnon acted so well that he was able to make everyone in our class despise him. The use of computer-generated graphics (CG) on the Greek vessels was a wise move. It helped the filmmakers save money and time in creating the film. Although I believe that there is more to computer effects, the use of CG was not that bad. The sound effects wasn't that bad either. Overall, I give the movie 3.75 stars out of five. It's not a movie that I will eagerly watch but it's good enough to see compared with other movies about the Iliad especially when you're after a more accurate account of the Greek epic.
Beyond the fact that the story was well written, the direction was laudable. The director was able to pull out from every actor the right emotion that each needed to play. Actor Rufus Sewell who played the evil and lustful Agamemnon acted so well that he was able to make everyone in our class despise him. The use of computer-generated graphics (CG) on the Greek vessels was a wise move. It helped the filmmakers save money and time in creating the film. Although I believe that there is more to computer effects, the use of CG was not that bad. The sound effects wasn't that bad either. Overall, I give the movie 3.75 stars out of five. It's not a movie that I will eagerly watch but it's good enough to see compared with other movies about the Iliad especially when you're after a more accurate account of the Greek epic.