jimbow8 Wrote:There did seem to be some liberties taken with the story, though I didn't think they destroyed the movie (remember I, for one, don't find it necessary to adapt a book to a movie EXACTLY in order for it to be a successful adaptation). Some questions I have for someone "in the know":
I was reading through some summaries of the Iliad last night and the only ones I could find seem to end soon after Achilles kills Hector and Priam comes to retrieve the body (significantly before the wooden horse and death of Achilles). Do Achilles death and the wooden horse actually occur in the Odyssey?
And when does Ajax die in the Homer epic? I am quite confident that he dies after Achilles and not the point at which he dies in the movie.
As for the characters, many (if not most) of the characters in the text I remember as having quite a few faults: Achilles and Agamemnon did argue over Briseis; Paris was quite the snobbish noble; Odysseus was reluctant to enter the war but once there fought quite valiantly; etc. And I don't understand your take on Helen/Paris.
Achilles does not die in the Iliad. I'm not sure, but it's either the Aenid or the Odyssey. We're reading the Iliad in class, but I'm not to the point where Ajax has come to any significance, but if he dies
after Achilles, then it won't be in the Iliad.
Paris was a snob- and a coward. Was Menelaos in the movie? Helen was his wife and he challenged Paris to a duel and just before he was about to kill him, Aphrodite spirited him away to his apartments. I think to eliminate the gods would be to tell only half the story. Helen is a very conflicted character. While she intentionally left with Paris, she feels guilty about it and after he loses the duel with Menelaos she is about to leave and go back to Atreides (Menelaos), but Aphrodite pretty much threatens to turn the Greeks and Trojans against her.
It's a disappointment to learn that Diomedes wasn't in the movie. He's one of the greatest warriors the Achaians have, besting 50 men in one encounter one time. Also, the Aias brothers should have been in there too. They fought together, one giant, one small, the small one picking people off with a spear and the giant killing people by twos and threes. Was Patroklos in the movie?