-- Trivia; tidbits about
Troy --
The impending war in Iraq forced the production to move from Morocco to Baja California Sur, Mexico in February 2003.
Many German viewers were annoyed when they realized that, in the German dubbed version, the dubbing voice of Brad Pitt was changed from his usual one (Tobias Meister) to the voice of Martin Kessler, who normally dubs Nicolas Cage. This was done on personal request from director Wolfgang Petersen.
Diane Kruger, being a native German speaker, did the vocal dubbing for her own character Helen in the German dubbed version.
George Camilleri, a keen bodybuilder who won the title of Mr Malta in 1989, broke his leg while filming an action sequence at Ghajn Tuffieha, Malta on 30 May 2003. He was operated on the following day but suffered complications and died on 17 June 2003.
Brad Pitt, who plays Achilles had a mishap during the production – he tore his left achilles tendon.
While filming in Cabo, Baja California Sur, Mexico, the production had to deal with two hurricanes in less than a month; the last hurricane came the last week of production, when everything was pretty much wrapped.
Warner Brothers rejected Gabriel Yared’s score for the movie for being too old-fashioned.
James Horner composed the score for the movie in less than a month and a half, whereas Gabriel Yared spent over a year on his version. In the 2007 Director’s Cut Edition, Wolfgang Petersen used some parts of Yared’s score and music from other films, especially from Planet of the Apes (2001), The Count of Monte Cristo (2002) and Starship Troopers (1997) in the fight scene between Achilles and Hector.
Brad Pitt claimed the filming was torturous for him due to the fact that he had to quit smoking.
Brad Pitt and Eric Bana did not use stunt doubles for their epic duel. They also made a gentlemen’s agreement that they would each pay the other for every accidental hit they made. The agreed-upon amounts were $50 for each light blow and $100 for each hard blow. Pitt ended up paying $750 to Bana, who didn’t owe Pitt anything.
Brad Pitt trained for six months to get into shape for the role. He trained to have his body look like that of Greek statues.
On set, many stagehands would faint from the 100 degree weather (38 degrees Celsius).
Wolfgang Petersen dropped the various Greek Gods from the storyline (Zeus, etc) claiming them to be silly and unnecessary to the plot.
After it was announced that a big production would take place on the history of Troy, the Turkish government and Ministry of Culture and Tourism had contacted with the production suggesting the filming should be done in Canakkale, Turkey, where the real Troy was. The filmmakers didn’t agree. The Turkish government even offered sponsorship if the premiere was to be made on the ancient set of Troy but the premiere took place in Berlin, where most of the historical remains were displayed after being taken from Anatolia.
The Trojan Horse made for the movie is given as a present to Turkey. It is exhibited in (real) Troy, Canakkale.
Model ‘Kemp Muhl’ was considered for the role of Helen.
One of the hurricanes that tore through the set during filming was during the night and it wiped out Brad Pitt’s house. Pitt did wake up at about 4 in the morning but since he was so tired from the night before, he slept through the hurricane.
Historians are sharply divided on the question of whether or not the Trojan War actually occurred – and if it did, which archaeological site is actually Troy. Discoveries made at the beginning of the 21st century provide new evidence of several armed battles in the right area at the right time – but definitive proof is hard to find, due largely to the historical practice of constructing one city on the ruins of another. Homer’s Illiad (and other similar epics depicting the Trojan War) were written hundreds of years after the Trojan War supposedly occurred, and are of little use in determining factual historical events as they included many mythological elements: gods such as Apollo, Zeus, and Hera were central characters in the story who drastically affected the course of the war by killing and/or saving individual people during the conflict. There is also the theory that the Troy of Homer’s lifetime was destroyed by a sea earthquake and that the Illiad is a symbolic reinterpretation of this event, since a horse is the symbol of the Greek god of earthquakes. The producers’ decision to eliminate all mythological elements from the story gives their film an air of historical authenticity not present in the original works.
Two biologists were employed to protect the eggs of turtles on the beaches of Mexico where filming took place.
Wolfgang Petersen originally didn’t want Helen to appear in the movie. He felt that an actress couldn’t live up to the audience’s expectations, but the producers insisted she appear. Petersen went with an unknown actress for the same reason.
As Achilles strolls along the beach and among the unpacking Greeks, he teases Odysseus about being the last one to show up. This is an in-joke for those familiar with the Odyssey, which tells the story of how, due to the animosity of various gods, Odysseus was the last Greek to return home from Troy.
When Paris is helping the citizens of Troy escape, he hands Priam’s sword to a young man named Aeneas and tells him that as long as the sword is in the hands of a son of Troy, the Trojans will survive. This is an obvious reference to Virgil aka Publius Vergilius Maro’s epic poem, The Aeneid, which tells the story of a prince of Troy named Aeneas leading the survivors of Troy through a series of hardships before finally settling in Italy where his descendants where to found Rome 5 centuries later. However, Aeneas was the second greatest warrior the Trojans fielded during the war according to ‘The Iliad’, and was the son of Venus. These facts were also neglected in the movie and instead Aeneas was relegated to the role of a young boy. That boy should have been instead his son Julus, founder of the family of Gaius Julius Caesar.
Achilles shouts Hector’s name nine times when he is waiting at the gates of Troy.
Gabriel Yared’s name appears as composer on trailers for the movie instead of James Horner’s, who composed the score when Yared’s was rejected.
When the movie was released in Italy, instead of translating the spelling of “Troy” to the Italian/Latin equivalent (Troia), the original title was kept because. “Troia” is vulgar Italian for “sow”, but is more often used for “prostitute” (it probably derives from an ancient roman dish, the “porcus troianus” or “Trojan pig”, a pig stuffed with others cooked animals, a humorous reference to the Trojan horse).
Trevor Eve’s part (Velior) was cut to just two lines: “The best of Greece outnumber the best of Troy two to one,” and “My prince, it’s a gift to the gods.”
EASTER EGG:. On the main menu on the special features disc, keep hitting right on the control until a section of the Trojan Horse on screen lights up green and hit enter to show a series of creative animations related to the movie.
Diane Kruger gained 15 lbs for the role of Helen.
Garrett Hedlund gained 30 lbs for his role as Patroclus. Then gained an additional 20 lbs for his role in Friday Night Lights (2004) which got him up to 200 pounds while we would normally weigh 145.
Terry Gilliam was offered the chance to direct the movie. He stopped reading the script 5 pages in and declined the offer.
Achilles and Patroclus have their training inside an ancient “menhir” of Malta, dating maybe to the third Millennium B.C.
During the fight when Patroclus dresses up pretending to be Achilles, it is actually Brad Pitt himself fighting in that scene so the audience would not guess it is Patroclus. Up to the point where Hector removes his helmet after cutting his throat they switch persons to Garrett Hedlund.
Director Wolfgang Petersen left the proposed Batman Vs. Superman project to direct, and cast member Brad Pitt left The Fountain (2006).
Brad Pitt chose to star in this movie because pre-production on The Fountain (2006) was taking longer than expected. Hugh Jackman ended up signing Pitt’s role.
Garrett Hedlund won the role of Patroclus in Troy only one month after arriving in Los Angeles to pursue an acting career.
Keira Knightley was auditioned for an small performance in ‘Troy’. She had a screen test as the Trojan Preistess called Briseis, but finally Rose Byrne took the role.
While Achilles and Patroclus second cousins in Homer’s Iliad, there there are also hints in the poem that they may be lovers instead.
The character Boagrius does not exist in Greek Mythology nor in any collected editions of Homer’s Iliad. Boagrius was a river.
In the Italian dubbed version, the dubbing voice of Brad Pitt was changed from his usual one (Sandro Acerbo) to the voice of Loris Loddi, who normally dubs Val Kilmer. This was done on personal request from director Wolfgang Petersen.
On screen, Achilles kills 33 men.
Orlando Bloom underwent archery training for his breakthrough role as Legolas in The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring (2001) and its two sequels and was able to continue using these skills for this movie, which was released soon after.
-- Goofs; can you see the goofs for
Troy --
Continuity: When going into formation on the Trojan Beach, Achilles has a flaming arrow stuck to his shield. In the shot from Achilles’ point of view, the arrow is nowhere to be seen. It is then directly in the line of Achilles’ sight again as Achilles and his army move out of formation to attack.
Revealing mistakes: When Achilles introduces his cousin, Patroclus, to Odysseus, King of Ithaca – his wooden training sword is in the foreground. The tip and edges are worn, revealing that the sword is in fact plastic and simply painted to look wooden.
Audio/visual unsynchronized: Throughout the film when Hector, Paris, Achilles and Menelaus all draw their swords, we hear the metal scraping as they are pulled from their shields – Yet we can see that the interior of the shields are cloth lined and the loops that hold the swords are leather, not metal.
Anachronisms: There are modern clasps on the necklaces and French hooks on the earrings.
Errors in geography: After Achilles rescues Briseis from the Greeks’ branding iron in the dark and spend the night together, the next shot shows the sun rising over the sea…to the west.
Revealing mistakes: When the sun is shown rising over the sea, there are no shadows. The shot has clearly been filmed at magic hour and the sun superimposed later.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: To kill Hector, Achilles uses a spear. When Achilles is dragging Hector back to camp, we can still see the spear sticking out of him. In the next shot, when Achilles is within the camp, the spear in Hector is gone. Hector is dragged for many miles, it is very likely that the spear either snapped off or fell off by the time he reached the camp.
Continuity: When Paris first shoots Achilles, half of the arrow goes clear through his heel. Later, when Achilles is dying, the entire arrow is only protruding out of one side of his heel.
Anachronisms: When the Greek leaders are lining up to offer gifts to Agamemnon, one of them is carrying a red-figure vase shaped like a submarine. Red-figure pottery (made of red clay with a black glaze, from which lines and shapes are removed to make red images) was not made until the fifth century BCE.
Errors in geography: In the first scene of Troy, you can see Llamas. These animals are originally from South America and did not exist in Troy.
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): When the boy goes to find Achilles for him to go fight the enormous warrior from Thessaly he tells him that “the Thessalonian is huge”. He should have said “Thessalian”. A “Thessalonian” would be someone from Thessaloniki, a city that was not founded until centuries later (4th century BC) by Cassander, who became the king of Greece after Alexander’s death. Cassander married Thessalonike, Alexander’s sister and named the city after her to honor her.
Revealing mistakes: When the Spartan ships are arriving in Troy, the bells are ringing and everyone is going crazy. Hector hands his child over to his wife and it’s a plastic baby doll.
Revealing mistakes: Obvious dummies used for the bodies of the main characters that are burned, such as Hector, Achilles, Menalaus and Patroclus.
Continuity: While Paris is fighting Menelaus for Helen’s hand, their shadows are opposite. This would mean that the sunlight was on both of their lefts as they face each other. They do not match up and the scenes must have been shot at different times of the day.
Revealing mistakes: When the soldiers of Greece are collecting the wood for the Trojan horse, you see bits coming off the wood, revealing the white Styrofoam used to make the wood.
Continuity: When Paris goes forward to talk to Hector on the ship to Troy, his cloak is wide open at the top. During the rest of the scene, the top closes up without him touching it.
Anachronisms: The umbrella used to shelter Paris and Helen during the parade in Troy is obviously modern, as it includes metal spokes like modern umbrellas.
Revealing mistakes: In the raid of Troy, several soldiers can be seen as merely acting out the stabbing of people.
Continuity: When Paris enters Helen’s room after the dinner, he gently pulls her hair so that it all lies on her back, behind her shoulders, exposing her neck. When she gets up, it is around/in front of her shoulders again which could have happened while getting up but then after a quick shot to Paris, Helen once again has her all of her hair tucked back behind her shoulders.
Continuity: When Priam meets Achilles in his tent after the battle with Hector, Priam’s cloak on his left shoulder repeatedly changes position (folded over or smooth) throughout the scene.
Revealing mistakes: When the Greeks first charge Troy, soldiers run toward the city walls carrying spears. Some soldiers’ spear tips can be clearly seen to be wiggling, indicating soft rubber props.
Anachronisms: Helen sutures Paris’s wounds after his duel with King Menelaus. Suturing wounds did not become common practice until thousands of years after the movie is set.
Anachronisms: Most equipment used by the Greeks, such as the large round shields and Achilles helmet, is from the Classical Period (5-4th centuries BC). At the time when the epic is set, the Greeks used small bowl-shaped helmets and light leather shields shaped like the number 8.
Continuity: When Helen is telling Hector that she is going back to the ships, her hair style changes between shots.
Revealing mistakes: When Hector removes his helmet right after Achilles does (during their fight scene), you can see the nose bridge and flanks of his helmet move in an obvious rubbery way.
Continuity: When Patroclus is fighting Hector in Achilles’ armor, Hector quite prominently stabs him in the chest, which would make a hole or a least a cut in the armor. Yet, when Achilles goes to fight Hector in the same armor, no such marks are visible.
Continuity: During the battle of Hector and Achilles, Hector swipes his sword at Achilles’s chest, leaving a big scratch on his armour. But when Achilles kills Hector there seems to be no mark on his armour.
Continuity: When Hector lifts the helmet off the dying Patroclus, Patroclus’ nose is seen to be bleeding. But barely five seconds later, in the shot of the dead Patroclus, there is no sign of a nosebleed.
Anachronisms: When burning the bodies on pyres, they placed coins on the corpses’ eyes. As noted by someone else elsewhere, the Greeks placed a coin in the mouth, not on the eyes. But at the time of the Trojan War, coinage hadn’t even been invented yet (it wasn’t invented until the 7th century BCE), so there wouldn’t have been coins at all.
Continuity: When Hector is dressing for his final battle with Achilles, there are slippers on the floor next to the foot of the bed. During this scene, the slippers change position.
Continuity: During the battle of Hector and Achilles, Achilles kicks Hector to the ground. There is a shot of Hector crawling towards a piece of broking spear. In one shot Achilles throws away his shield and talks to Hector. During this speech, Hector reaches the spear. But after the shot of Achilles walking towards the camera, Hector just reaches the spear and gets up with it.
Continuity: When Achilles’ ship hits the beach, several men are hit by arrows and fall into the surf. When the warriors move onto the beach and use their shields as cover, the ship can be seen behind them. There are no bodies in the water or on the beach.
Continuity: When Achilles is burning Patroclus’ body, the moonlight reflects slightly off his arms. While a body is burned, a person with a torch is always beside the one who places the coins, so the firelight would’ve shined off Achilles’ arms as well, and yet it doesn’t, indicating that the scene was not shot continuously.
Continuity: In the scene right before Achilles and the Myrmidons take the beach of Troy, Achilles is talking to the men. As the shots go between Achilles and the Myrmidons, the hundreds of ships that should be behind them suddenly disappear and only a bare ocean can be seen.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Paris fights Menelaus and we see Menelaus through Paris’ eyes, Paris’ helmet appears to have no nose protection. However, the helmet Paris wears in shots portraying him shows a vertical nose protection. This is not a mistake – an object like that slim piece of metal placed directly between the eyes is not visible by the wearer. (Place your finger straight vertically along your nose. If you look straight forward, as Paris was looking at Menalaus, it won’t appear to be one object in the middle of your vision, but rather two separate objects, one on either side of your vision.)
Crew or equipment visible: In the Director’s Cut during the burning of Troy, just after we see a statue fall forward and break, there is a shot of a temple burning. On the roof of that temple a crew member sporting a motorcycle helmet is seen running across the top right-hand corner.
Anachronisms: Vaccination mark on Achilles’ left arm.
Revealing mistakes: In the beginning you see a dog walk past several relics of a battle. This includes a dead horse. However you can see it blink and move it’s ear even when all other items suggest the battle to be long past.
Continuity: As Patroclus enters Achilles’ tent to ask if he will join the Greeks to fight the Trojans, Achilles is seated while eating and drinking. In disgust at Patroclus, Achilles dashes the contents of his cup on the fire. Moments later, he drinks from the empty cup.
Crew or equipment visible: Obvious camera shadow on the ground during the Hector-Achilles bout.
Continuity: After the battle in front of the gate of Troy, the field is cleaned. This includes every scrap of flesh, every drop of blood,every footprint, and even some grass is replaced as is seen when Achilles rides up on his chariot to challenge Hector.
Revealing mistakes: During the battle in front of the gate of Troy, the dead are in a line where the two armies clash. The dead are obviously rubber dummies based on how they move when stepped on. Also, no dead are seen towards the rear of the field, where victims of the archers would be expected.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the Trojans invade the shores at daybreak to initiate the second battle, it is quite obvious that Brad Pitt was playing the role of Patroclus until his throat was cut. First, you can clearly see Pitt’s face in Achilles’ helmet in the close-up shots when he is about to start fighting with Hector. Second, you can see the significant change in Patroclus’ physique before and after Hector cut his throat. However, in the actual epic The Iliad, Patroclus is disguised by the gods to look like Achilles until Hector kills him, explaining why Pitt fills the role until Patroclus’s death – he is meant to look like Achilles.
Continuity: When Achilles is dragging the dead Hector away from the walls of Troy, the spear in Hector disappears from his body in every long range shot, even though it remains in every close up.
Continuity: As Achilles dies, his sword is seen sticking out of the ground, but when the camera pans upward in the next shot, the sword is clearly now lying on the grass next to him.
Continuity: When Hector and Achilles have their final showdown, Hector is seen with some sort of string or hair strand extending from just below his helmet on his left. When the scene goes to show him removing his helmet, this item is gone.
Continuity: Before Achilles dies he pulls the arrows out and then drops them in front of himself, but after he collapses the arrows are seen arraigned in a sort of 9, 12 and 3 o’clock position to his body in the areal shot.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: To kill one of the Trojans, Achilles throws his sword, lodging into his opponents head. After this, he uses a sword to behead the golden statue. Just before Achilles throws the sword into the Trojan’s head, however, he is seen as having one sword in each of his hands, but he only throws one, so he is still left with another sword to behead the statue.
Anachronisms: Just before Achilles says “You gave me peace in a lifetime of war”, the camera is focused on Briseis’s hair where the netting from her wig/extensions is clearly visible.
Anachronisms: When Briseis is asking Achilles if she is still his captive, the tan line from her bikini is very visible.
Revealing mistakes: After the Trojans were ordered to push forward after the Greeks’ first attack, blood can be seen suddenly appearing on a few of the Greeks shields.
Errors in geography: Troy faces west, but the sun can be seen coming up in front of Troy on one of the mornings.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: At the time of the Trojan War (circa 1260 BC) the inhabitants of Greece did not refer to themselves as Greeks but as Achaians, Danaans or Argives. However, we are hearing them through a modern English “translation” which uses the region’s modern name for clarity.
Continuity: When Achilles hits Hector with a broken spear, we see the end of the spear that is sticking out of Hector’s chest. It is sawn-off, not broken, like it would be after Hector/Achilles broke each other’s spears.
Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When the Greeks are sacking Troy towards the end of the film, you can hear a soldier yell “Aqui” twice. Aqui is Spanish for here. Most of the movie was filmed in Mexico and used Mexicans as extras. But is the use of Spanish in this movie any less appropriate than the widespread use of English?
Errors made by characters (possibly deliberate errors by the filmmakers): Priam forgets to put coins on the eyes of Hector before he is going to be burnt on the pyre.
