Honor, Glory, Love, Loyalty and even Greed are phenomena which compel men to do deeds they normally would never think of. Homer's 'Iliad' is one of those epic poems which deals with all these elements in great depth and the movie 'Troy' is a captivating translation of this poem into the big screen.

Released in May 2004 the movie grossed US$ 497 million worldwide while the production costs were about US$ 180 million. It was produced by Warner Bros pictures and directed by Wolfgang Petersen. The screenplay was written by David Benioff and the music was given by James Horner.The glitzy cast of the movie includes Brad Pitt as Achilles, Eric Bana as Hector, and Orlando Bloom as Paris.

Tough the movie is loosely based on the Iliad, it is an epic in its own right. I highly appreciated the perfection with which the stark realism of ancient battles portrayed in the movie. The visual effects were great and the costumes were perfect. Scenes were shot with great finesse with an eye for aesthetics.

In terms of production the movie is a classic but the plot does leave us with a little bit of confusion. Achilles for example is supposed to be a hero and heroes have moral justifications for their actions. I don't know about the Iliad but in the movie Achilles doesn't really have a morally justifiable reason to take part in the battle. Nonetheless I really enjoyed watching the movie and would recommend it to anyone who still has not seen it.