Why hollywood killed Menelaus and Agamemnon ?

**caesar44** · 10-22-2005, 15:04

Just saw Hollywood's "Troy" (I know 1.5 years later...) , it was good but the end , damn ! The end...
Homerus wrote that Menelaus took Helena back to Sparta and that Agamemnon survived the war , why does Hollywood must have "bud guys" and than kill them , where is the sophistication here ?
Btw , what happened to the 3 above after the war ? They lived as happy ever after ? I call all of you Greeks !!!

Ah , another one - Agamemnon was a General in Menelaus's army (Homerus) or the king of Mycenae (Hollywood) ?

**Sjakihata** · 10-22-2005, 15:08

Agamemnon was king of Mykene AND the Commanding Officer in the battle of troy. He was killed by his wife Klytaimenstra when he returned from the war.

**Knight Templar** · 10-22-2005, 16:14

Troy....Good movie but it historically sucks, there are over 15 big mistakes in the film (no gods, no some essential characters (Neoptolem, Filoctet), by the time of Troian war cavarly didn't exist in that way (man riding on a horse)). Hector's death was also showed awfully in the movie.

To answer your question, Menelaus got lost on his way to Sparta, he was roving for 8 years, IIRC, (and been to Egypt while roving) before he returned back to Sparta. He and Helena got a child, Hermiona, who later married to Orest (Agamemnon's son).

**KSEG** · 10-23-2005, 07:02

Originally Posted by Knight Templar

Troy....Good movie but it historically sucks, there are over 15 big mistakes in the film (no gods, no some essential characters (Neoptolem, Filoctet), by the time of Troian war cavarly didn't exist in that way (man riding on a horse)). Hector's death was also showed awfully in the movie.

To answer your question, Menelaus got lost on his way to Sparta, he was roving for 8 years, IIRC, (and been to Egypt while roving) before he returned back to Sparta. He and Helena got a child, Hermiona, who later married to Orest (Agamemnon's son).

Um, "historically sucks"?
Since when did Iliad became a history book?

**Rosacrux redux** · 10-23-2005, 07:51

Anything aspiring to flesh out a written piece, has to bear at least some similarities to this piece. Especially when we are talking about the most intriguing and plainly interesting epic ever produced by any ancient culture.

And Petersen's Troy has absolutely nothing to do with the material it was based upon. So, in terms of (plain) accuracy, it sucks indeed.

It's a very superficial movie, that fails miserably to catch even the slightest of the homeric spirit, and massacred the original text in order to provide the movie-consumers with some sorts of happy-ending.

And that's the answer to the original question - why did Hollyweird killed Menelaus (and why it killed Agamemnon and didn't let his wife to handle that job as it should):

[i]Because the films is aimed at a massive audience and the Morons-In-Suits (Hollyweird executives) decided that this audience wouldn't like the version where the two less sympathetic characters return to home unscathed, seing as the same audience probably has never heard about Aeschylus and his tragedies to know what fate fell upon the butchers of the Trojans. When it comes down to the question "more money or accuracy", Hollyweird always takes the money (and runs).

**caesar44** · 10-23-2005, 12:56

Thanks for your answers .

[QUOTE=Rosacrux redux] Especially when we are talking about the most intriguing and plainly interesting epic ever produced by any ancient culture.

Just add - "Imo" and than "Especially when we are talking about the most intriguing and plainly interesting epic ever produced by any ancient culture."
Ah ? One could say "the Bible" , another could say "the Indian sagas" , just a thought .

**Quid** · 10-23-2005, 09:53

Originally Posted by KSEG

Um, "historically sucks"?
Since when did Iliad became a history book?

Actually, I would argue that it CAN be considered as a history book of some sort. After all, Schliemann did use it to 'find' Troy (or at least Hisarlik at which we now think Troy stood). It could be argued, of course, that the Iliad is more of a classical romance novel but then often fictional accounts are often based on truth...

Just my

**Geoffrey S** · 10-23-2005, 17:50

Originally Posted by Knight Templar

Troy....Good movie but it historically sucks...

It was a bad movie, period. The fact that it missed the point of the Iliad entirely only added to an already mediocre mess. Any meaning the Iliad contained was lost in a mish-mash of Hollywood conventions.

**Kraxis** · 10-23-2005, 18:11

Honestly who does a movie have to be a slave to a book such as the Illiad? The Illiad itself is a mish-mash of contradictory information and useless bickering. To slave a movie to the work Homer would be a financial suicide.

I was happy that they chose to remove the gods. In terms of the movie it would have been a movie within the movie, severely detracting from the interesting conflic of men. The gods interacted with each other and only helped a bit in the battles (since the battles were still won by the mortals). To include them would mean to create a another wholly seperate plot for another very different set of beings. Not very compatible.
Better to do it as humans believing in the gods, expecting them to help (Apollon anyone?).

Personally I might have liked to see the bad guys actually make it, but I also understand why that wasn't so (see Spartakus' post).

**Steppe Merc** · 10-23-2005, 19:15

Originally Posted by Kraxis

Honestly who does a movie have to be a slave to a book such as the Illiad? The Illiad itself is a mish-mash of contradictory information and useless bickering. To slave a movie to the work Homer would be a financial suicide.

I was happy that they chose to remove the gods. In terms of the movie it would have been a movie within the movie, severely detracting from the interesting conflic of men. The gods interacted with each other and only helped a bit in the battles (since the battles were still won by the mortals). To include them would mean to create a another wholly seperate plot for another very different set of beings. Not very compatible.
Better to do it as humans believing in the gods, expecting them to help (Apollon anyone?).

Personally I might have liked to see the bad guys actually make it, but I also understand why that wasn't so (see Spartakus' post).

Yeah, removing the gods was fine. But the movie was horrible, regardless of the story. I did not see Helen as the hottest women ever. Perikles and Achilles relationship was stupid. Either cut him out, or show him as his lover as he was.

The movie was a waste of my money, it wasnt any good at all.