As a graduate of ancient history and classical studies,there is always a great amount of trepidation when the next sword-and-sandals epic is announced, when the first images are released, or when the film eventually makes it to theaters. So many hopes have been built up for big-budget, all-star movies that are based on stories featuring heroes and warriors from the great ancient tales.Films like Alexander have come and gone, disappointing in spite of everything on the surface seeming to be going their way.
Sowhen the first imagesofChristopher Nolan’snext film emerged, that familiar pit in the stomach re-appeared.The Odysseyis Nolan’s next venture, sailing into cinemas in July 2026. The film will tellthe story of Odysseus, the Greek king of Ithaca who fought in the siege of Troy and spent a decade trying to return homeacross the Ionian Sea to his kingdom. StarringMatt Damonas the eponymous hero, the film is an adaptation of the ancient scribe Homer’s epic poem by the same name. This won’t be the first time that the ancient hero has appeared on the silver screen, though.
2024 sawThe Return,an independent telling of the poem’s end by directorUberto Pasoliniand starringRalph Fiennesas the hero. But for the historical (or mythological) prequel to Nolan’s film, one must go back, somewhat fittingly, more than two decades. In 2004, directorWolfgang PetersenbroughtTroyto audiences. The film is an adaptation of Homer’s first epic poem,The Iliad,andtells the story of the end of the Trojan War, a decade-long struggle between Greeks and Trojans for the city. Many factors of Petersen’s and Nolan’s films are similar, withreportedly some of the largest budgetsof their respective careers, casts filled withinternational actors of the highest caliber, andexotic locations trying to replicate the ancient world. Nolan’s film is the spiritual sequel to Petersen’s sword-and-sandals epic.
What Happens in ‘Troy’?
Troybegins peacefully with Agamemnon (Brian Cox) uniting kingdoms in12th-century B.C. Ancient Greece. Hector (Eric Bana), prince of Troy, negotiates a peace treaty with Menelaus (Brendan Gleeson), the king of Sparta, while Hector’s brother, Paris (Orlando Bloom), begins an affair with Menelaus' wife, Helen (Diane Kruger), and brings her back to Troy with him. The Greeks decide to begin a war to take Troy and return Helen to Menelaus.It falls upon the king of Ithaca, Odysseus (Sean Bean), to convince the great warrior Achilles (Brad Pitt) to fight alongside them. King Priam (Peter O’Toole) welcomes Helen to Troy as they prepare for war. The Greeks easily take the beach when they land, with Achilles taking Briseis (Rose Byrne) as his prisoner, though he is angered when Agamemnon takes her from him.
The Trojans, at the behest of Glaucus (James Cosmo), assemble their entire army.Paris challenges Menelaus to a duel for the right to claim Helen.Menelaus nearly kills Paris before Hector himself kills Menelaus with a dagger. The Greek army launches an assault on Troy in revenge for killing Menelaus, but they suffer heavy casualties and Agamemnon orders their retreat.Meanwhile, Briseis plans to kill Achilles, butshe instead falls in love with him. When Achilles announces that he is to leave Troy, Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund) takes his armor and goes out to battle.
Priam orders the Trojan army to attack the Greeks, a battle in which Hector kills Patroclus in Achilles' armor, for whom Achilles says he will return to thefight to avenge his death. Hector sends his wife, Andromache (Saffron Burrows), to hide in Troy after Achilles challenges him to a duel.Achilles kills Hector and steals his corpse, but Priam pleads for it to be returned so that the proper funeral rites can be observed. Odysseus conjures up the plan of the Trojan horse to sneak inside the city walls, falsely offering a peace deal to the Trojans.The Greeks successfully infiltrate the city and massacre or enslave the majority of its population.Achilles is killed by Paris after Briseis killed Agamemnon. Briseis then flees with Paris before Odysseus oversees the cremation of Achilles' body.
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‘Troy’ Gets a Lot More Right Than You’d Think
Big Hollywood films can often be criticized for historical mistakes.Troyis a historical film, but it is also a mythological film.It is therefore difficult to criticize it for historical accuracy. It is generally agreed that Troy was a real place andthe archaeological evidence suggestsa large battle happened at this site in the Bronze Age, aligning with Homer’s texts.Christopher Nolan’s film is already garnering criticismfor historical inaccuracies, but it’s possibly too hypercritical to judge films about mythologyfor theiraccuracy to the real world, particularly when there are still doubts over whetherthe source material’s author even existed!
But aside from that criticism,Troymanages to tell a brilliant story, condensing a long epic poeminto an epic filmjust shy of 3 hours.It cuts out many things from Homer’sIliad,and gets other things wrong, but that doesn’t make it a bad film at all.In fact, it’s highly impressive that Petersen and writerDavid Benioff(yes, theGame of Thronesguy) managed to fit a poem that’s 15,693 lines into a single film, while also taking elements from another ancient text, thePosthomericaby Quintus of Smyrna.Adaptations, while prevalent in cinema, are difficult enough to pull off, butbecome even trickier when the source material is one of the foundational literary texts. Benioff and Petersen did a fantastic job at overcoming such a daunting task and producing a brilliant film.
The battle scenes inTroyare what stand out the most from the film, expertly staged and skillfully shotto best capturethe epic nature of the battlesthat take place in the source material. The film delivers intense, large-scale battles with impressive choreography, particularly the fight between Hector and Achilles. Arguably the film’s standout moment,the brutal, fast-paced, and realistic nature of their fight brings the film great emotional weight. The scene perfectly shows the contrasts between the two warriors, with Hector’s restrained honor coming up against the ruthlessness of Achilles.
A lot aboutTroyis brilliant,particularly how it manages to balance so many vivid characters, fleshing them out very well. Odysseus, the subject of Nolan’s film and here played by Sean Bean, is one such memorable character whose screen-time is not enormous.In spite of that, he still features at crucial points in the film.He convinces Achilles to fight, he conjures up the plan for the Trojan horse that will break into the city’s walls, and he cremates the body of Achilles at the film’s end.Bean’s character features more prominently in the 2007 Director’s Cut, one of many differences thatchanges the tone of the film. Those who want more of Odysseus will be gleeful at the thought of Nolan taking on the character.
InThe Odyssey, it takes Odysseus a decade to return home to his wife and son in Ithaca.It’s only fitting that audiences will have waited nearly 2 decades for the character to return to our screensin a very similar manner to how he appeared inTroy.Of any director working at the moment,the prospect of Christopher Nolan bringing the hero homewill make film fans, classics graduates, and many people in between extremely excited.
