Wolfgang Petersen's Troy enlarges the legend of Achilles, while minimizing the past and the future of the players. These Greek heroes are self-conscious of their place in history and their chance to become immortal--not as gods in Olympus, but champions of a great war--and yet seemingly totally ignorant of the history preceding the Trojan War.

This uncomfortable contradiction of David Benioff's script, that gives a brief nod to Homer whose "Iliad" is the supposed inspiration for the story, never convinces us that these are real people saddled with a real history and living a real life and facing a real tragedy.

As the catalyst of the war, Helen is only a face and figure, alluringly played by Diane Kruger. She is not the woman whose husband's rule over her father's land is only justified by their marriage. But casting Orlando Bloom as Paris and the much older, stout Brendan Gleeson as Menelaus helps set a premise. Helen is a young girl mismatched with a loutish brute of a man who is not above grabbing a slave girl for his pleasure during the farewell feast for the Trojan princes. The script catches Paris and Helen after the affair has begun--the question of who seduced whom is never answered.

The war begins. Although Petersen gives us a rough and scrappy encampment, computer generated imagery gives the audience thousands of ships and thousands of men, making history keep up with today's expectations. This also makes some more theatrical moments harder to believe. Would millions of men suddenly stop to watch a battle between two men?

The heroes also have some modern sensibilities. Achilles isn't a killing brute. He broods under the leadership of the dishonest, grasping Agamemnon.

Benioff's script makes Achilles a lover. He has wenched before because we first see him in bed with two women. But he takes pity on Hector's cousin, a priestess in the temple of Apollo, Breseis (Rose Burnes), who is promptly stolen away by Agamemnon. According to myth, Agamemnon takes Breseis, from Achilles but only after he has been forced to give up another slave girl, Chryseis. In myth and movie, Achilles refuses to fight until she is returned. Achilles only rises to fight again when enraged over the loss of his young cousin, Patroclus (Garrett Hedlund), killed by Hector when Patroclus was disguised in Achilles' helmet and armor.

Pitt standing among the other warriors with his helmet off attracts our eyes because of his physical beauty. Perhaps in keeping with Greek art, this movie pays more attention to the beauty of the male body with more glimpses of male cleavage than female. But the fight choreographer has given Pitt a fighting style, more acrobatic and agile, than the other warriors. There are other warriors bigger and stronger, but these two things make Pitt's Achilles striking.

Pitt does hold his own in his scene with Peter O'Toole as Priam, when the old king pleads for his son Hector's body that Achilles has desecrated by dragging around the city walls. Priam reminds Achilles of the meaning of war, in its death of friends, lovers, children and cousins. Brenioff's script has a nifty parallel of cousins being killed, dooming the brief idle of the young lovers, Breseis and Achilles. And this Achilles seems to regret the casualties of war, one being his love for Breseis.