re: Why did "Gladiator" work and "Troy" didnt?

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The guy they chose to be the King of Troy was TERRIBLE.

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You mean Peter O'Toole? One of the best actors of all time? He wasn't very good in this role, but you should at least know his name. The man is a fricking legend.

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So the big epic war scene is raging on with carnage everywhere and suddenly Achilles' cousin shows up dressed as Achilles. At that point the entire epic war scene stops on a dime and Bana and the cousin dressed as Achilles go one on one. Completely unrealistic and made a great scene a total farce.

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The thing is, this was war in ancient Greece. Personal glory was all that mattered. The idea of a phalanx was generations away. In the Iliad, it made sense that the two most renowned warriors of the age would square off against each other to settle who was the better. It may be unrealistic to the modern state of war and the modern mind, but that was the way battles were fought in Homer's works.