The movie Helen of Troy directed by John Kent Harrison is a combination of Drama, Adventure and Romance. The film was released last 2003. It lasts for 175 minutes and for the DVD copy, 177 minutes. John Kent Harrison is a well-known director and was known to be a part of 13 movies; he has directed 10 out of the 13 movies he was involved in and was the director screenwriter and director writer for the other 3. The story of Helen plays a big role in the world history. The movie that John Kent Harrison has directed tells us the story of the war between the Spartans and the Trojans in the eyes of Menelaus, King of Sparta, who was married to Helen (Sienna Guillory) who falls madly in love with Paris (Matthew Marsden) a handsome Trojan prince. Helen goes with Paris to Troy, where she was welcomed by Paris' father, King Priam (John Rhys-Davies). After discovering her elopement with Paris, Menelaus, desperately wanting Helen back, asks help from his brother Agememnon (Rufus Sewell) to start a war with Troy to get Helen back. And from there, the story begins. The movie is full of greed, wanting to have power and everybody just wants to have their hands on the most beautiful lady Helen. And this is where the death of a thousand men happened. The roles of the Gods weren't really evident in the movie unlike in the text. The movie portrayed Gods as the immortals' "advisers". They ask them for help and they follow whatever signs it is they give them. The movie Helen of Troy has a lot of versions from different points-of-view from the different characters in the story. The one that was most recently released was out last 2004 and was directed by Wolfgang Petersen he was known to be directing since 1967 and this was his 31st movie and was announced to release "Poseidon" in 2006, the one he released was different, it was also from the Trojans' point-of-view but ironically was entitled Troy. This movie focused more on the development of Achilles' character and it showed how he acts through out the whole film. Unlike in the version of Harrison, Achilles' character was portrayed to be rather flat and was focusing more on death and more on being a "hoodlum" kind of character. In Troy, Achilles (Brad Pitt), started out as someone who was really brave and was really powerful and such a champion. They portrayed him to be someone really affectionate, even at the start, when he was training his cousin Patroclus to be like him and how he wanted to seek revenge when he died. I found his character to be well-rounded and how it developed until the movie ended. Both of the versions showed us how each of the kingdoms wanted power and how they wanted Helen as much as Menelaus and Paris. Honestly, I found it weird that in Petersen's version, the brothers, Menelaus and Agamemnon were old men unlike in Helen of Troy. Combining the two versions would result to the true story that was shown in the Iliad. Although, major details, were shown in Helen of Troy, like the three goddesses, the sacrifice Agamemnon made to offer to Artemis. Troy focused more on the emotions in the story. I like the version of Petersen more because if your purpose is just for entertainment, it gives more emotion and but less information to the audience and entertains them as well. But if you are looking for more on the background of the story, you should watch Helen of Troy. I highly recommend people to watch Helen of Troy because like what I said, it gives more information and the actors portray them well. I just would like to react on Helen and how she acted throughout the whole film, they had shown us how her character evolved from such a baby girl to a woman responsible for her actions, the script they made for her and the way they portrayed her was a little dragging. Throughout the film, honestly, I felt like wanting to dictate to her what she should and shouldn't do. She just followed what was going on and didn't really have a mind of her own. Helen there, was very fickle minded, like when Paris was about to leave, she kept on hugging him while telling him to just go and leave. Then when he left, she suddenly decides to join him. She wasn't really responsible for her actions, and if ever she was, she didn't handle it carefully, she was formulating the wrong solutions to the right problem. In conclusion, I give the movie a 3 out of 5. The movie is good enough to rent.
Review of Helen of Troy
