War drama
The wrath was the smaller story.
It is the ninth year of the siege of Troy, and dawn hasn't broken yet. Briseis is lighting the household altar in the satellite town of Lyrnessus when the first scream comes from the wall. The man who walks through her door is Achilles. He kills her husband, spares her three-year-old son, and says, to no one in particular, 'I am tired of this.' By morning she belongs to the Greek camp.
What follows moves through the last movement of the Trojan War as a chamber drama rather than a battle epic: the quarrel between Achilles and Agamemnon that costs Achilles his prize and his pride; the quiet farewell between Hector and his wife Andromache before he returns to the field; the death of Achilles's closest companion, Patroclus, wearing armor that was never his; the duel at the gates of Troy and the body dragged behind a chariot; and an old king, Priam, crossing into enemy territory alone to kneel before the man who killed his son and ask for his body back. The gods are felt throughout — in plague, in dream, in the decisions men make and then blame on fate — but never seen. The wooden horse, when it comes, is not staged as the trick that wins the war; the fall of Troy is slower and stranger than that, built from famine, treachery, and a city that has simply run out of time.
Troy asks what all of this — the rage, the glory, the years — was actually worth, and to whom. It ends where it began: on Briseis, walking inland alone while the city burns behind her, carrying nothing of the war except what it took from her.
The fleet on the beach
A first look at the people and places of the final year of the siege.
Thessalian warlord-prince, 28
Sea-grey eyes, sun-blonded hair, a two-inch scar across his nose. Kills Briseis's husband, spares her son, and says "I am tired of this." Filmed always in his exhaustion, never his glorification; smiles only twice in the film.
Crown Prince of Wilusa, 34
Troy's actual field commander, broad-shouldered and black-bearded, the build of a working soldier rather than an athlete. Knows the war is unwinnable but cannot say so. Dies in single combat with Achilles at the Scaean Gate, his body dragged behind the chariot.
Captive of Lyrnessus, 24; the protagonist
Priestess of the temple of Apaliunas, captured after Achilles kills her husband and spares her child. The film opens on her lighting the household altar and closes on her walking east alone. Quiet, ferocious; not a love interest.
Achilles's companion, 29
Achilles's lifelong companion and lover (Aeschylean reading), gentle and quick to laugh — "the war's conscience." Borrows Achilles's bright-bronze armor to lead the Myrmidons into battle; killed by Hector, breaking Achilles's exhausted composure.
Wife of Hector
Daughter of a king Achilles already killed. The film's warmest domestic register centers on her — the helmet scene with their infant son Astyandronache — before Hector's death breaks it.
Twelve chapters carry the story from the fall of Lyrnessus to the fall of Troy.
Briseis lights the household altar; Achilles's raid takes her husband and spares her child.
Four kilometers of black-hulled ships; Briseis introduced into the spoils of war.
Hector returns to the city; Cassandra's warning is ignored.
Plague in the camp; Achilles clashes with Agamemnon; Briseis is taken from him.
Domestic farewell between husband and wife; the helmet beat with their son.
Battle montage; the Achaean ships come under threat.
Patroclus pleads to fight, dons Achilles's armor, leads the field, and dies.
Achilles's grief; the black armor is forged; he returns to war.
Single combat at the Scaean Gate; Hector's body is dragged behind the chariot.
Priam crosses the lines; the supplication; a truce is granted.
The empty plain, Sinon's lie, and the breach of the walls.
The women are taken on the beach; Briseis walks east, alone.