Matialth Good concept, poorly executed.

Beanbioca As Good As It Gets

Kailansorac Clever, believable, and super fun to watch. It totally has replay value.

Chirphymium It's entirely possible that sending the audience out feeling lousy was intentional

bkoganbing In comparing this version of Helen Of Troy with the more recent Troy it's quite the tossup. Both didn't quite live up to expectations, the casting in a few places doesn't quite work. There was also different emphasis placed on the classical figures in each film. This version also uses a cast of thousands and in the current version, computer graphics are used to show the mass armies of both sides.I never understood why 20th Century Fox never thought to film this with Tyrone Power, the role of Paris seems like such a good fit for him. Jacques Sernas was adequate, but not more than that. Rosanna Podesta is one magnificent looking Helen in a role that asks nothing more than being the first celebrity romance in history. I'd be hard pressed to choose between Peter O'Toole in Troy and Cedric Hardwicke. Each so well portrays the world weary and war weary Priam so well. Hecuba is reduced to a cipher in the current version. But Nora Swinburne is not just a magnificent queen, but a caring mother for her rambunctious brood of Trojan princes and one princess.My favorite as he's likely to be in any film he's in is Stanley Baker. There is quite a difference between him and Brad Pitt. Brad was a reluctant warrior as in Homer's epic. But Achilles as Baker realizes him is just a warrior who likes battle with the zest of a warrior who knows the gods have given him near invincibility. Baker brings so much passion to anything he does, he usually blows me away with any performance.Next to the stories of the Bible, Homer's epics are probably the most universally known tales and everyone is a critic. For me this Helen Of Troy is a good if not great retelling of the tale.

Robert J. Maxwell You'd think that by now the story of the Trojan War, based on Homer's "The Iliad", would have become part of our shared data base. Allusions have entered our list of catch phrases. "The face that launched a thousand ships"? "Beware of Greeks bearing gifts"? Computer viruses referred to as "Trojans" or "Trojan horses"? "Achilles heel"? The Stanford football team? Condoms? But I don't know. A poll in 2010 before Independence Day found that one in five Americans didn't know which country we had achieved independence FROM. I'd always thought that was part of our shared vernacular culture too.Anyway, the handsome young Paris from Troy goes on a peace mission to Greece, where he foolishly falls in love with Helen -- it was her face that launched all those ships -- and he steals her from her husband, King Menelaus, and runs off with her to Troy. This irritates Menelaus. He organizes an expedition and besieges the city of Troy, in what is now Turkey. Lots of bloodshed follows. The war lasts something like ten years. Finally, the Greeks pretend to retreat and leave a giant wooden horse outside the gates of Troy. The Trojans think it's a parting gift and drag it inside the walls. But it's hollow. The sneaky Greeks come out after the Trojans have gotten drunk and gone to bed, and the gates are opened. Good-bye Trojans.This is a godless movie. References are made to Athena (ugly and pugnacious) and to Aphrodite (pretty goddess of love, fawned over by Paris). But we don't see the influence of the gods directly. You don't find out how Achilles got to be so nearly invulnerable. It comes close to being one of those cheap sword and sandal epics that were so popular in the 1950s but it rises above them because of its budget and the willingness of the writers to stick a LITTLE more closely to Homer's original. The hundreds of extras are real people -- real actors rather than pixels acting as actors. And the international cast must have cost a lot.I guess Paris is made too much of a hero, at least in my opinion. Even in "The Iliad" he struck me as a moron for running off with a power rival's wife, even if she was as good looking as Rosanna Podesta. Menelaus was even more of a moron for starting a bloody war over the affair. And the other Greek leaders were even more dumb for following him. And it's not as if the Greeks solved all their domestic problems immediately after the victory either.The movie paints the Trojans as honorable and peace loving -- except for that one minor episode of kidnapping and adultery. The Greeks are angry, disputatious, and warmongering. The armor the Greeks wear is uglier than that of the Trojans. Achilles, the greatest of the Greek warriors, is sulky and dresses in drag to avoid being drafted into the war. This was 1956, the middle of the Cold War, and I wonder if all those binary oppositions -- The Free World versus The Iron Curtain -- influenced the writers' construction of the combatants.At any rate, I always liked the Trojans better anyway. The only Greek I admired was Ulysses. When the ships set sail from Greece after the kidnapping, the director, Robert Wise, gives us shots in quick sequence of three of the major plays and their expressions tell us all we need to know about their character and motives. Menelaus scowls grimly, determined to get his wife back. Achilles wears a smirk, anticipating lots of slaughter crowned with victory. And Ulysses wears a self-contained smile, dreaming of plunder.It ought to be added that the musical score is by Max Steiner. As far as I know it's his only attempt at a fully blown orchestral epic score and he handles it pretty well. There's the triumph theme that is required for all historical epics. There's the martial theme when we see those hundreds of armored extras marching towards the forbidding walls of Troy. And there's a love them that dominates them all, as I think the story of Paris and Helen dominate the movie.

Claudio Carvalho While the greedy Greeks plot to invade Troy to steal the treasures of the Trojans, Prince Paris (Jack Sernas) is assigned by his wise father and King of Troy to travel to Sparta and shows the peaceful intentions of his people. Along his journey, he falls off in the sea during a storm and is rescued on the shore by the Queen of Sparta Helen (Rossana Podestà). When he recovers, he believes that she is a slave and they fall in love for each other. When he arrives in the Spartan palace, he is arrested by King Menelaus (Niall MacGinnis) in his quarters but Helen helps him to escape. They travel together to Troy and give the excuse the Greeks need to start the war and put Troy under siege for years. The Greeks are unsuccessful in their intents, until they listen to the cunning Ulysses (Torin Thatcher) that decide s to withdraw the one thousand Greek ships from the Trojan waters and offer a wooden Horse of Troy as a gift to the winners. The underrated "Helen of Troy" is an engaging romantic adventure with a wonderful version of Homer's epic poem "The Iliad". The beauty of the Lybian Rossana Podestà compared to Aphrodite gives credibility to the passionate love of Paris. The grandiosity of scenarios and cast that includes a brunette Brigitte Bardot and the magnificent direction of Robert Wise make this feature a must-see. I do not understand the unfair bad reviews of this great epic. Just as a curiosity, the episode "Revenge of the Gods" of "The Time Tunnel" uses uncredited footages of this feature. My vote is nine.Title (Brazil): "Helena de Tróia" ("Helen of Troy")

moonspinner55 Greek colonies go to war after Queen Helen of Sparta defects with a robust Trojan prince. Rather tacky costume spectacle (directed by Robert Wise!) is skimpy on action and adventure, high on soapy theatrics. The scantily-clad cast features lackluster Rossana Podestà as Helen and Stanley Baker as Achilles, neither of whom make the slightest impression. Cedric Hardwicke pops up in a colorful supporting part, but most notable is Brigitte Bardot in an early role as "mousey" brunette slave-girl Andraste. Rather ridiculous time-filler whose depiction of history is suspect; it is sure to infuriate any would-be scholars, but those looking for Cecil B. DeMille-styled histrionics will get a laugh or two. ** from ****