Helen of Troy (2003) (TV)

Director:

John Kent Harrison

Writer:

Ronni Kern (written by)

Release Date:

20 April 2003 (USA)

Genre:

Action | Adventure | Drama | Romance

Tagline:

Desire is war.

Plot:

The abduction of beautiful Helen, wife of Spartan King Menelaus, by Paris of Troy triggers a long war. |

Plot Keywords:

Goddess | Princess | Queen | Myth | Premonition

Awards:

Nominated for Primetime Emmy. Another 1 win & 4 nominations

Cast

Sienna Guillory	...	Helen
Matthew Marsden	...	Paris
Rufus Sewell	...	Agamemnon
John Rhys-Davies	...	King Priam of Troy
Maryam d'Abo	...	Queen Hecuba
Emilia Fox	...	Cassandra, Princess of Troy
James Callis	...	Menelaus
Daniel Lapaine	...	Hector
Nigel Whitmey	...	Odysseus
Stellan Skarsgård	...	Theseus
Joe Montana	...	Achilles
Katie Blake	...	Clytemnestra
Craig Kelly	...	Pollux
Manuel Cauchi	...	Paris' Father
Kristina Paris	...	Iphigenia

Runtime:

175 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Canada:14A (Ontario) | Netherlands:16 | Brazil:16 | Finland:K-15 | South Korea:15 | Argentina:13 | Australia:MA | Germany:12 | Singapore:NC-16 | Sweden:15 | UK:15 | Canada:14 (Nova Scotia) | Canada:G (Quebec) | Canada:PG (Manitoba)

Filming Locations:

Greece

Company:

Fuel Entertainment

Goofs:

Anachronisms: When a guard announces that the Greek Navy is approaching, people gets frightened and run everywhere. You can see a man carrying a group of Southern American llamas, which just arrived Spain (the first country that received them in Europe) in 1533 AD.

Quotes:

Pollux: Someday, soon, you will marry.
Helen: I already know who to.
Pollux: You do?
Helen: I saw him.
Pollux: Where?
Helen: In the water.
Pollux: You'll marry a fish?
Helen: He's a shepherd.
Pollux: Oh that's likely.

Not a bad job

I disagree with the reviewer who thinks Paris is prettier than Helen. Sienna Guillory is gorgeous! As in the Iliad Paris & Helen are a matched pair. I also disagree with the reviewer who panned the movie because it was not faithful to the Iliad. No movie, not even a TV miniseries, can be expected to be totally faithful to any book. A movie is always a selection. The question should not be what was omitted, or whether it compressed or altered the text for cinematic purposes. Of course it did! The question is whether or not it captured the spirit of the original, or whether it did violence to that spirit, as too many movies do. In my view this movie captured the spirit of the Iliad surprisingly well. Perhaps the Greek heroes, especially Agamemnon, do not come off as heroically as the modern viewer has come to expect. But then our idea of heroism, (confused as it too often is with idealism), is not Homer's; and, then again, this movies portrayal of the Greeks as devious aggressors plotting the conquest of Troy is both historically accurate and does nothing to distort Homer's portrait of them. He certainly would have agreed. I did feel that the movie became somewhat rushed at the end. Unfortunately, this seems to be a common problem with many movies based on classic works of literature. The director seems to lavish most of his energy and resources on the beginning and middle of the story. Then, as time and money begin to run out, the ending becomes hurried, episodes are combined, the story becomes perilously compressed. But even here, the movie does not really leave the viewer disappointed. The scene in which the Trojan Horse suddenly appears without explanation outside the walls of Troy is particularly effective, because it appears to the viewer just as it must have appeared to the Trojans. Even though one may wish for more, nothing in the movie's ending distorts Homer's tale of the fall of Ilium.