The Movie:

Released theatrically in 2004, Troy now receives a 'director's cut' release on home video that runs considerably longer and features more blood and nudity than its theatrical cut but which otherwise doesn't differ too drastically from what played in theaters a few years ago. That said, noticeable improvements have been made.

Based on Homer's The Iliad the film tells how Achilles (Brad Pitt), the greatest warrior in all of Greece, served under King Agamemnon (Brian Cox) in his army. Achilles has won many battles and is a master at the art of war. When Prince Paris of Troy (Orlando Bloom) takes Queen Helen (Diane Kruger) back to his city, her husband, King Menelaus of Sparta (Brendan Gleeson) is understandably upset. King Agamemnon, Menelaus' brother, uses his influence to gather together all of the armies of Greece to assemble a force of fifty thousand strong. They board their warships and head to Troy, a city surrounded by massive stone walls and so far in its history, never conquered.

Achilles and those who serve under his command arrive first and successfully take the beach allowing the other ships to land. Achilles captures Prince Hector (Eric Bana) but has mercy on him and lets him go - when King Agamemnon hears of this he refuses to honor Achilles' victory, wounding the prized warriors pride. As such, Achilles and his men do not take part in the next stage of the campaign and the Greek forces are trounced. Achilles and his men decide to head back to Greece when Hector kills Achilles' cousin, at which point the man has a change of heart and he heads back into the fray to challenge Hector. With Achilles emerging as the victor, a short truce is called, allowing the Greek forces to foster a plan that will allow them pass the city's walls and take the force of Troy from within their own safe haven.

Essentially, Wolfgang Peterson's take on The Iliad removes the Greek Gods from the story and instead replaces much of the motivation for the epic war in the hands of the human characters. This grounds the story in a more realistic fashion and while it might have been fun to see Greek Gods play a part in this epic tale of war, Peterson and co-writer David Benioff do a fine job of playing the characters off of one another and manipulating each other that we're able to suspend our disbelief. Whereas Homer let clashing Gods set up the motive for grand scale war, here it is the clashing egos of Achilles, Agamemnon, Hector and Paris that provide the necessary reasoning. With the set up established effectively we're then allowed to wallow in the splendor of the set pieces and to take in the scope to which the film plays - this movie feels massive. The sets, the battles, the characters, the costumes are all wonderfully dramatic and make for great eye candy but Peterson is smart enough to make sure that underneath the pomp and the violence that his characters act and react in ways that make sense and that the story flows properly.

It is here, with the character development and the relationships between some of the characters, that this director's cut trumps the theatrical version. Peterson has elaborated a fair bit on the love affair that takes place between Prince Paris and Queen Helen, and when you consider that this is the primary basis for the ensuing war, that's a good thing. It provides sufficient motivation by allowing us to see the passion that exists between the two of them, making the anger and hurt felt on the part of the Greek characters more understandable. That said, Bloom and Kruger don't exactly set the screen on fire even if the script and the cinematography try their best. They're a little too awkward with each other on screen, making the love scenes a little contrived. Other additions to this cut include more time with Odysseus, Agamemnon and Achilles, fleshing out the first character considerably more to allow the actions of the second and third to make more sense. On top of that, the battle scenes are considerably bloodier making the combat sequences more realistic and ensuring that they hit with more impact than the ones seen in the theatrical version.

Ultimately, there are still some obvious problems with Troy. Pitt looks the part but outside of the battles scenes (in which he admittedly excels) he doesn't have the conviction you'd think Achilles would have. Cox is fantastic in his part but as mentioned, Bloom and Kruger don't convince as lovers. The film is a little long in spots and at times it feels a bit too much like a soap opera and not enough like a war movie. That said, the improvements made to this cut certainly help quite a bit. The flow is better, the pacing is better, the characters make more sense and the battles are much more brutal and hard hitting. If you didn't care for the theatrical cut, this new version won't likely sway your opinion but if you enjoyed the earlier version of Troy odds are good that you'll like this cut even more.

Video:

Troy looks great on this HD-DVD at 2.40.1 anamorphic widescreen. This 1080p VC-1 encoded transfer really brings out the colors in the film with gusto with all the various shades used throughout the picture portrayed distinctly and accurately. Black levels are nice and strong and there aren't any issues with print damage nor is there an abundance of heavy grain. Mpeg compression artifacts are never visible though some very mild edge enhancement can be seen in a few spots if you really look for it. Detail levels are top notch, you can see pretty much every grain of sand on the beach and see each bead of sweat as it trickles down the faces of the soldiers in the battles scenes. Flesh tones look lifelike and natural, never too pink or orange, and there aren't any aliasing problems here. Some of the darker scenes lack a bit of definition but aside from that, this disc looks great.