
The film Troy is based on the, Iliad, a story that everyone should know. In the poster it says “the legend will live” because everyone knows this story. It also shows two battles that are occurring at the same time. One of the battles starts because of a romance and the other because of the death of a family member. The battle between Achilles and Prince Hector are intertwined with the large battle between Troy and King Agamemnon’s troops. 

Throughout the film the audience sees a major battle occurring which was caused by Prince Paris’ “stealing” of King Menelaus’ wife Helen, and he took her back to Troy. This situation caused King Menelaus to be infuriated, and so he asked his brother King Agamemnon for help to get his wife back. King Agamemnon took advantage of his brothers’ rage to declare war against Troy so that he could control all of the Aegean Sea. The king then called upon all of his armies to sail to Troy and this is the famous thousand ship fleet that was caused because of Helens disappearance. The fleet landing on the beach of Troy is what is displayed in the background of the poster. The landing of the thousand ship fleet on the Trojan beach represents the beginning of the war.

Agamemnon’s army is not the only ships that arrive, but Achilles also has a ship with his army. His army was actually the first one to land and they had to take over the beach. In this scene and in the poster, the sky is grey because it symbolizes that it is not a good day. The day consists of bloodshed and the days to come will be all about war. During the battle on the beach Achilles encounters Prince Hector at the palace of the sun god Apollo and he tells him to return to his palace and that they can have their war tomorrow and with that said Prince Hector returned to his palace and got his army ready for the days to come. 

The next day Prince Paris decides that he does not want the war to occur, so he decides to to challenge King Menelaus in one-on-one battle for Helen. The king accepts his challenge and is victorious until Paris, who is near death, crawls to his brothers, Prince Hector, feet. The king said that he would kill him at Hectors feet which resulted in Prince Hector killing the king. Because of Prince Hectors’ actions the start of the large war truly began. King Agamemnon was no longer there just to conquer Troy, but instead he wants to burn Troy to the ground and avenge his brothers’ death. During one of the days of war Achilles decides that he no longer wants to fight for King Agamemnon and that he was going to sail back home at day light.

Achilles informed his troops of this and his cousin Patroclus disagreed with his decision. The next day Patroclus decided to go against Achilles decision and he put on Achilles armor. He then led Achille’s army to war and he let all of the troops believe that he was Achilles. During this day of war Patroclus encounters Prince Hector and they both fought. Their fight resulted in Patroclus’ throat being slit and when they took off his helmet everyone realized that it was not Achilles under the armor.

Achilles troops then took Patroclus dead body back to the beach, and they informed Achilles about what happened. The death of his cousin infuriated him and he was no longer going to sail back home he had to avenge his cousin. This was the start of another personal battle that occurred during this film, and the reason why you see Hector and Achilles going for the kill in the poster. The next morning Achilles rides off in the chariot to the palace of Troy and yelled “Hector” until Hector came down to fight him. Hector eventually went down and gave Achilles the best fight that he could, but he inevitably fell to Achilles sword. This personal battle began when Hector killed his cousin and ended very quickly the next morning when Achilles killed Hector, but the larger battle has still not ended. 

Achilles promised the King of Troy twelve days of peace, and in those twelve days King Agamemnon came up with a plan to infiltrate the walls of Troy. This plan consisted of the very famous Trojan horse. During the twelve days Agamemnon’s army built the horse and the morning of the twelfth day filled it with some of his troops, and moved all of his ships to an unseen location. This led the Trojan king to believe that the horse was so that Poseidon will grant them safe voyage back home, so they did exactly what King Agamemnon wanted and they took the horse inside of the walls. That night the soldiers began to crawl out of the horse and killed Trojan soldiers, and when most of them were dead they let in the rest of Agamemnon’s army. This battle led to the death of King Agamemnon and Achilles, but at the end Troy still burned.

At the end both of the battles that occurred in this film were personal and led to just about everyone’s death. Prince Paris and Helen made it out alive and they also managed to get some of the people out of Troy before the city burned. This story has become a legend that everyone is aware of. They may not know of everything that happened, but they all do know about the Trojan horse and what it was used for. At the end of the day Achilles got what he wanted, he became a legend and everyone will know his name and his story.
