Iliad/Troy comparison

 Because the movie Troy is based on the Iliad naturally there are many similarities between the two. However, because the movie had to condense twenty four of the Iliad books into a less than three hour movie there are many differences as well. First, the gods which are very prominent in the epic aren't even mentioned in the movie. This is probably because of the time issue the movie had, the gods couldn't all be mentioned and their theories described completely to the portion of the audience who would know nothing about the gods in such a short amount of time. Bringing up the gods might also have caused a lot of confusion amongst the audiences of the movie; Also in Troy, the warriors fight a lot with swords where in the epic they are said to have fought with spears. Another difference between the two is in the Iliad the Trojan War lasted ten years where as in the movie it lasted around seventeen days. This difference was also most likely changed because of the time as well, so so much information wouldn't have to be crammed in so little time. Because they made the movie a shorter time it was possible for the movie to focus more on littler things. Also a major difference between the Iliad and Troy was the way Achilles killed Hector. In the epic, Hector ran from Achilles three times around the city walls, then came face to face to fight with Achilles after the gods had come into the picture. In the movie, Achilles and Hector came face to face right away. This change in story was probably for the audiences' sake, to make the fight more thrilling for them to watch. However, there were also a tremendous amount of similarities between the epic and the movie. Many of which are focused on Achilles, in both Troy and the Iliad Achilles always appeared bronze, like a perfect man would look. Also, one of his major characteristic traits of him being angry was portrayed in both the movie and the epic as well. His anger was a major obstacle Achilles had to overcome. Another similar event in both the book and the movie was the way Patriclus was killed by Hector while wearing Achilles' armor, also how Hector stole his famous armor. Patriclus dying was one of the major events that caused Achilles' anger to be portrayed. All in all, Homer's the Iliad and the movie Troy were very similar, unfortunately the movie was essentially forced to make some major changes to accommodate the length of the movie.