Helen of Troy (TV miniseries)
- Helen of Troy (TV miniseries)
Infobox Television Film
name = Helen of Troy
caption =
format = Miniseries
director = John Kent Harrison
writer = Ronni Kern
producer = Ted Kurdyla
starring = Sienna Guillory
Matthew Marsden
John Rhys-Davies
Emilia Fox
With Rufus Sewell
And Stellan Skarsgård
music = Joel Goldsmith
cinematography = Edward J. Pai
editing = Michael D. Ornstein
distributor = Universal Home Entertainment
network = USA Network
released = flagicon|USA April 20, 2003
runtime = 177 minutes
country = flagicon|USA United States
language = English
budget =
gross =
website =
amg_id = 1:285560
imdb_id = 0340477
"Helen of Troy" is a television miniseries based upon Homer's story of the Trojan War, as recounted in the epic poem, "Iliad". This TV miniseries also shares the name with a 1956 movie staring Stanley Baker. It stars Sienna Guillory as Helen, Matthew Marsden as Paris, Rufus Sewell as Agamemnon, James Callis as Menelaus, John Rhys-Davies as Priam, former Bond girl Maryam d'Abo as Hecuba, and Stellan Skarsgård as Theseus.
The film is placed in the early classical period rather than the correct early Bronze Age; the Greeks are shown with post-Bronze Age classical hoplite dress and arms. Made on a relatively low budget, "Helen of Troy" was released at a time when interest in the subject was high due to the soon-to-be-released "Troy".
The film also focuses more on the life of Helen herself rather than simply the Trojan War. The entire first half deals with Helen's life before Troy, and includes a number of mythological facts that other versions either gloss over or omit, such as Helen's abduction by Theseus and the actual agreement of the Greek kings to use her marriage as their peace agreement.
In contrast to "Troy" (which was roughly based on the "Iliad" which itself only depicts some of the events of the final year of the war), the film tells much of the story of the War. Most notably, "Helen of Troy" features and discusses the intervention of the gods (the film's opening scene shows Hera, Athena and Aphrodite at the Judgment of Paris) as written by Homer. This does not mean, however, that it is more accurate, as a number of the characters (namely Paris, as stated above), do not resemble their Homeric counterparts. Both films feature the interpretation of Agamemnon as a power-hungry tyrant, although this "Helen of Troy" adds a new dimension by addressing Agamemnon's sacrifice of his daughter Iphigeneia to the gods.
External links
*imdb title|id=0340477|title=Helen of Troy
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