Jacques Sernas as a Roman imperial statue. inspired fight scenes. the head of Athena remembering a Japanese demon mask. a good version of Iliad. beautiful cinematography. small role of Brigitte Bardot. it is not fair to write in a sense or other about this interesting film. because it is one of the first steps for its genre. because it is a decent work. and little more. because the love and the war stories are coherent and seductive. because it is a trip around a world defining by Homer. so, maybe not a great movie for the present taste. but a wise and meritorious adaptation of a fundamental literary works of humankind.

Well I thought that this film was okay, but being a helenophile I tend to get annoyed when the film does not follow the story closely (or in the case of the Trojan War, doesn't star Brad Pitt) but still this film did an okay job, particularly since you are dealing with a story that realistically should be a television series. As such you are going to have to cut parts out and attempt to make other scenes fit in better with the movie.What Wise did with this film was turn it into a romance, and not the type of romance where boy meets girl, boy loses girl, and boy gets girl again. No, the story of the Trojan War is much more tragic than that because when Paris loses Helen it is because he is killed and she is dragged back to Greece to once again become a slave to Menelaus. What is interesting is that the Greek legends really only tell us that Paris kidnapped Helen, but we are then given the impression that Helen didn't actually want to leave, though we must remember that back in those days women generally didn't have any rights. Still, some of the versions of the myth have Menelaus dragging Helen back to the boat by the scruff of her neck.The one thing that this film failed to do, that the Brad Pitt version successfully did was to emphasise the fact that nobody actually won the war. Odysseus was set wondering the oceans for ten years before he got home; Menelaus met the same fate, and was trapped in Egypt for a number of years; and when Agamemnon returned home as overlord of Greece, he life has emperor lasted right up until the point that his wife and her lover killed him. However, in this film pretty much all of the Greeks returned home victorious, however we tend to also be more sympathetic towards the Trojans.The other thing that got my goat about this film was the use of siege equipment. Basically the reason that the Trojan War lasted ten years was because they did not have siege equipment – it simply had not been invented at the time – so seeing siege towers and catapults being raised against Troy sort of put me off somewhat.

While the greedy Greeks plot to invade Troy to steal the treasures of the Trojans, Prince Paris (Jack Sernas) is assigned by his wise father and King of Troy to travel to Sparta and shows the peaceful intentions of his people. Along his journey, he falls off in the sea during a storm and is rescued on the shore by the Queen of Sparta Helen (Rossana Podestà). When he recovers, he believes that she is a slave and they fall in love for each other. When he arrives in the Spartan palace, he is arrested by King Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis) in his quarters but Helen helps him to escape. They travel together to Troy and give the excuse the Greeks need to start the war and put Troy under siege for years. The Greeks are unsuccessful in their intents, until they listen to the cunning Ulysses (Torin Thatcher) that decide s to withdraw the one thousand Greek ships from the Trojan waters and offer a wooden Horse of Troy as a gift to the winners. The underrated "Helen of Troy" is an engaging romantic adventure with a wonderful version of Homer's epic poem "The Iliad". The beauty of the Lybian Rossana Podestà compared to Aphrodite gives credibility to the passionate love of Paris. The grandiosity of scenarios and cast that includes a brunette Brigitte Bardot and the magnificent direction of Robert Wise make this feature a must-see. I do not understand the unfair bad reviews of this great epic. Just as a curiosity, the episode "Revenge of the Gods" of "The Time Tunnel" uses uncredited footages of this feature. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "Helena de Tróia" ("Helen of Troy")

Noted (and versatile) director Wise amassed a considerable team of behind the scenes personnel and an impressive array of actors for this large-scale epic rendition of the legendary story of the title character. Unfortunately, the production suffers somewhat from the casting of the leads, primarily stemming from the fact that neither one was able to use his or her own voice. Sernas plays a prince of Troy who journeys to Sparta to attempt to establish peace between them and his own people. Shipwrecked before he can even get there, he is greeted on the shore by Podesta, to him the most beautiful woman he has ever seen. After recovering from his close call, he heads to the palace to speak to king MacGinnis and is sorely mistreated and disbelieved. He then discovers that his object of affection is, in actuality, MacGinnis' queen! Circumstances lead him to spirit her back to Troy where she is skeptically received by his unhappy family. MacGinnis pulls together a massive army of men from various Greek states and proceeds to attack Troy. When things look almost impossible, one of his men oversees the construction of the famed Trojan Horse, which makes things look awfully bleak for Sernas and Podesta who are, by now, deeply in love. Podesta is curvaceous and attractive, but not necessarily what one might expect as the woman whose face launched a 1000 ships. Having learned her lines phonetically just to get through the shoot, she was then dubbed by an American actress. This, along with the fact that her platinum wigs don't really compliment her dark coloring, prevents her from really registering very heavily in the role. Sernas (who is caressed by the camera almost every bit as much as Podesta is, frequently shirtless) is likewise dubbed and, though he gives it a good shot, winds up not being able to craft a character that audiences could really care a great deal about. (Some of this stems from the fact that the character really wasn't written as heroic or particularly likable in the original Homer story to begin with!) Fortunately, a host of fine character actors is on hand to help out. Hardwicke plays Sernas' father, Swinburne is his mother, Andrews is his brother and a nearly unrecognizable Scott is his soothsaying sister. MacGinnis is strong in his part and is ably matched by Thatcher, Baker and Douglas as his associates. Reed appears briefly as the hulking Ajax, who takes on Sernas in a fairly savage grudge match. Also popping up to good effect is an ebullient Bardot in an early role as one of Podesta's servants. She, too, is dubbed by an English-speaking actress. There is a lot going for the film, including a splendid Max Steiner score, a vast collection of extras, impressive sets and moments of genuinely good drama. On the flip side, the costumes often lean towards the pedestrian, the script lacks zest and some of the model work is a tad poor. This film includes references to the Greek Gods, but eliminates them as actual characters and does not attribute any of their own actions to them directly. Rather, things take place as if they are occurring without the interference or direct influence or aid of the deities. Though it's certainly not blatant, there is the opportunity to read Baker and his chief aid Longdon's relationship as more than platonic. Fans of epic films ought to appreciate the pageantry and scope of it, but may find themselves wishing for a little more meat in the story and, perhaps, more significant acting from the leads.