On the topic of the film, I think we should all quite simply be thankful that, whilst there were the expected omissions and mistakes, they at least left out the catalogue of ships (book 2, if memory serves me).
Well, I didn’t think the film was half as bad as some of my Classical friends thought. Admittedly, the acting was not brilliant, but I did find it entertaining as a battle epic.
Things that I really did like about it:
-Odysseus. He was just as I imagined him and I thought his expression somehow really lived up to his ‘polymetis’ epithet.
-The way they dealt with the gods. I mean, in my ideal world, the film would have been a word for word adaptation in Ancient Greek (Homeric dialect!), but that would hardly been a successful film. As it was, they kept mentioning them and they were treated very much as the Greeks themselves probably would have treated them.
-The way they presented the ‘feel’ of the Iliad and didn’t just make it some crazed battle story. They did give an impression of the horror and sorrow of war, I thought.
Things I didn’t like:
-The gratuitous changing of the plot. I could understand their changing it to make it a better film, but why kill off Menelaos and Agamemnon? I don’t see the point! Homer’s plot has been good enough for the last 2 millenia but it isn’t good enough for Hollywood!
-Helen. Yes, well, I think everything’s been said about that already!
-The random cameo appearance of Aeneas. Isn’t he meant to be related to Paris, anyway!?
I don’t know what it will do for Classics. Perhaps it will have a beneficial effect, or perhaps not. At least it remained reasonably accurate as far as details went.