Presumably, we have already heard about the Trojan War and watched several films of it, but very few have read the actual epic poem. We all know about the famous historical event of the Trojan War, and numerous movies have been created based on the story. Yet, it would be interesting to identify the differences between these films and the epic. The following paragraphs will elaborate on some of the significant diversities between the movie "Troy: Fall of a City" and "The Iliad" by Homer.

 

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     Firstly, the so-called "black-washing" in the film results in the most apparent diversity, in which some characters' features are totally different due to numerous political issues. According to some researches and the texts of the Iliad, the almighty king of gods Zeus, is generally believed to be a white hairy man. However, in the movie "Troy: Fall of a City", they decided to have a black bald man play the role of mighty Zeus, which is extremely weird. Some claimed that by having a black actor play such an important role, the film could achieve a state of racial equality. While some others criticized that it could confuse people from the actual history, and could potentially worsen the racism issue. Moreover, the role of swift-footed Achilles, the most prestigious figure in Homer's Iliad, was also played by a black actor. By reading the historical texts of the Iliad we understand that he is not merely the central character but also must be a white man. The film tries to flip the stereotype of these famous figures by making them black, making the most outstanding difference from its original story.

 

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     Secondly, some of the plots in the film are different from the epic poem because of the entertaining purpose. For example, in Homer's Iliad, due to the "Judgment of Paris", the fairest woman Helen, also known as the wife of Menelaus, is said to be abducted by Paris, the prince of Troy. Agamemnon, the brother of Menelaus and the Greek general, decided to start a war against Troy in revenge for his wretched brother. Without a doubt, it then leads to the legendary Trojan War. Nevertheless, in the film, instead of being abducted by Paris and leaving unwillingly, they decided to have Helen fall in love with Paris and be willing to depart Greece to Troy. For the reason that a love story is somehow preferable to cruel abduction, the film has turned the brutal abduction into a romantic love story for better entertainment.   

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     Thirdly, the way and the pace they processed the film has significant differences from its source. The book Homer's Iliad begins "in medias res", which means that the narrative of the story starts amid the plot, and the previous actions are usually shown in flashbacks. Yet, the narrative of the film begins at the very beginning of the plot. By doing so, the film successfully prolongs the plot and greatly slows down the pace of the story. A big difference shown here is that the narrative of the book is well-organized with marvelous literary skills, making the Iliad both understandable and enjoyable to read. While the film tried to prolong the story to make the film longer for commercial purposes. On the one side, by slowing down the pace of the film, the producer of the film could make more profit since it would have more episodes. On the other side of the coin, the film could appear to be too plain and overlong thus boring to watch. Some viewers on the internet claimed that they fell asleep as they tried to keep up with the episodes because it is too long. Overall, the film has varied from the book in terms of pace, for it could potentially earn more money.

 

     To sum up, the film "Troy: Fall of a City" has diverged from the book Iliad in several ways for numerous purposes. The film flips the stereotype of famed characters, changes the original story, and slows down the pace of the work. It appears that they somehow create a new image of the historical legend that seems to be creative, but simultaneously alerts the way people should learn about history. Whether like it or not, we should all agree that this kind of creation could push us to ponder further in the whole scenario and make things more interesting.