History YMMV / Troy

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Sure, Menelaus was willing to wage war over losing his wife, which is too far. But his hospitality was exploited, his wife cheated on him[[note]]Although in this case, Helen was only his wife because she was forced into it and couldn't leave the marriage regardless of her unhappiness.[[/notte]] and his brother used him for his own selfish ambitions, meaning that he is a victim even [[AdaptationalVillainy in this adaptation]].

* HarsherInHindsight: On the first day of the siege, Achilles lets Hector go free saying "it's too early in the day for killing princes". He later fights Hector to the latter's death in the morning.

** The film goes to great, almost absurd lengths to assure the audience that Achilles is straight and that his ''cousin'' and surrogate little brother figure Patroclus is also straight.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: Paris's backstory of being prophesied to bring about the fall of Troy at his birth, and being raised as a shepherd for most of his life would have been interesting to work in, and could possibly have made it more understandable why he makes such stupid decisions if he hasn't been prepared for a life of royalty.

** Helen nearly giving herself up to the Greeks after the first day of battles. Does she think it will help, and wants to prevent further bloodshed on her account? Or does she know it's hopeless, and just wants to be punished in some way to relieve her guilt?
*** She later claims that Menelaos "lived for battle", which is ''blatantly'' contradicted by his sincere desire to make peace with Troy in the film's opening. Was she trying to alleviate Paris' guilt over his cowardice, or did she simply assume that Menelaos was a BloodKnight since he, by his own admission, had always fought his older brother's wars for him without question, with Helen never bothering to ask her husband if he ''really'' enjoyed it or not?

* UnintentionallySympathetic: Sure, Menelaus was willing to wage war over losing his wife, which is too far. But his hospitality was exploited, his wife cheated on him and his brother used him for his own selfish ambitions, meaning that he is a victim even [[AdaptationalVillainy in this adaptation]].

** Ajax's BadassBoast to the Trojans comes across as unintentionally funny, as they're all too busy fighting for their lives to hear him.

* NarmCharm: Achilles vs. Hector is clearly heavily choreographed that it looks more like a dance in places than a fight. But is it still a kickass fight scene? Absolutely.

** A variation. A large amount of press for the film consisted of women's magazines {{Squee}}ing over "Brad Pitt in a skirt!"

** Achilles vs. Hector seems to be the one thing ''everyone'' remembers from this movie due to the excellent cinematography, aided by Pitt and Bana [[NoStuntDouble doing it themselves]] and impressive fighting style.

* SoOkayItsAverage: Generally felt to be one of the weaker entries during the early 2000s wave of big budget fantasy costume epics, but generally works better when simply taken as a big summer action film than as an adaptation of its source material.

* WTHCastingAgency:
** Creator/BradPitt as Achilles [[BrokenBase was quite a stretch]] among audiences at the time, but there are many who enjoy him in the role.
** Creator/GarrettHedlund as Patroclus is a close second, with his awkward uneven performance not quite cutting it.

* OlderThanTheyThink: Peleus undergoing DeathByAdaptation was previously seen in the 1962 film "Fury of Achilles".

* CommonKnowledge: The portrayal of Achilles is typically referred to as having been "straightwashed" despite the fact that Achilles and Patroclus actually were kinsmen and were not portrayed as lovers in the Iliad, being AmbiguouslyBi at the most. The portrayal of them as lovers is post-Homeric.

* FridgeBrilliance: In ''Literature/TheIliad'', whenever Achilles gets so royally pissed off at Agamemnon that he risks dissolving the Greek alliance, Athena, known for her wisdom and temperance in battle, is the one who restrains him from acting rashly. In the film, whenever the conflict between Achilles and Agamemnon starts to get out of hand or threatens the Greek alliance, Nestor talks the men down by appealing to their rationality and invoking TheNeedsOfTheMany - effectively representing Athena's wisdom in the more mundane setting.

** Patroclus actually was a kinsman of Achilles and they were not lovers in the Iliad, but merely close friends. The portrayal of them as lovers is Post-Homeric.

** The ''Warriors'' game copies the look of Achilles in the movie with the long blond hair and the black armor and shield, and also his signature leaping downward attack.

** The film expects us to empathize with Paris at least to an extent, (he is admittedly a much more mature person by the end of the film instead of the petulant child he was at the start of it) but the whole Trojan War being somewhat his fault (he gave Agamemnon the pretext he needed to launch an invasion), his extremely petty and infantile reasons for doing so (which involve stealing another man’s wife, albeit a trophy wife who bore no love for him, which is especially bad when you consider, as a handsome and charming young prince of Troy, he can presumably have just about any woman he wants), and his DirtyCoward behavior, both in the duel with Menelaus (he makes a big deal about how he’s going to settle it just between the two of them, only to pussy out and ''beg'' his brother to save him when he begins to lose after he explicitly said that he wouldn’t do that, leading to the truce being broken and more bloodshed on both sides) and his treacherous killing of Achilles (shooting him with an arrow whilst his back is turned and he's standing literally ''right next to Paris's own cousin'') in revenge for his killing of Hector (which you can of course easily argue is just as much Paris's fault, perhaps even ''more'' so), plus the fact that [[SparedByTheAdaptation he apparently gets to survive]] [[KarmaHoudini completely unscathed despite all the ruined lives he is partially responsible for by the end of the film]], make him '''very''' hard to sympathize with.

** Did Briseis only fall for Achilles out of StockholmSyndrome?[[note]]Unlikely since her behaviour does not show any sign of Stockholm Syndrome, which involves attachment even while being abused.[[/note]] Or was she genuinely impressed by him not being a total "dumb brute"? Or a third camp suggests that she may have decided to become his lover out of pragmatism - as Achilles was at least decent to her and therefore a better option than being gang raped by the other men. Another way to read their sex scene is that she may have expected she would be raped soon, and chose to give herself to Achilles as a way of making sure she at least had some choice in losing her virginity.

* AlternateCharacterInterpretation:

** The ''Warriors'' game copies the look of Achilles in the movie with the long blond hair and the black armor and shield.

** The movie bucks centuries of convention in the arts by avoiding a "classical Greek hoplite" look, due to taking place earlier than those visuals would have existed. Contrast this to earlier SwordAndSandal movies about the Trojan War, including ''Film/HelenOfTroy'' from 1956, and also the miniseries of the same name from 2003. Later portrayals like ''VideoGame/WarriorsLegendsOfTroy'', ''Series/TroyFallOfACity'' and ''VideoGame/TroyATotalWarSaga'' also avoid the classical hoplite look. While the movie is not unique in this (''ComicBook/AgeOfBronze'' started in 1998, for instance), it's the most well-known version to do so.