This movie tells us a story rather a piece of history. A story xabout love, desire and fate.
Instead of Trojan War, the movie focuses on the most beautiful woman in the world, Helen, and talks about her happiness, sadness, and her love story. This movie basics on the mythology of Trojan War, which remain for 10 years between Troy and Greek. Besides, the director and screenwriters add a lot of imagination of Trojan War into the movie, which makes this movie more attractive and dramatic than the history it is. The myth of Trojan War is about men’s power and strength. In “Helen of Troy”, the principle line is centring on Helen, and this original perspective of Trojan War brings us a new story and gives us another understanding of this myth. Compared with the fight scenes between two countries, the movie uses more parts to narrate the story of Helen. What’s more, it turns Trojan War from a ruthless war story into a moving love story.
At the beginning, infant Paris was predicted by his sister that his growth would bring the whole Trojan into death, and he was abandoned by his cruel father. The destiny was unfold before audience. Under the guidance of the goddess Aphrodite, Paris saw Helen from the gold apple, and Helen saw him in the water. Then they could not help but fell in love with each other. Their love were not accepted, because when Paris found Helen, she was wife of the king Sparta, Menelaus. Paris and Helen confront their love and impediments, however, this cause the conflict between Troy and Greek.
From this movie, we can see the tragedies of women directly. They did not have any rights to do what they like. They could not choose their loves, and women then were just used as a tool for men’s game of thrones. Such as Helen, she knew herself loved Paris when she saw him first time, but she still had to marry Menelaus. She could not make decision for herself. It is very ridiculous to blame Helen on causing the big war. Cassandra, who predicted the ending of Troy, always said that Helen would bring Troy into disaster. Who caused the war exactly? It were the aggressive men. Helen was just a brave woman who followed heart and chased her love. The emulative dominators would still fight against each other even if Helen did not escape with Paris. Helen was used as a tool or a reason for men’s conquer. Therefore, it was not fair for Helen to undertake the responsibility of Trojan War.
There is another question, what is the fate? In Cassandra’s eyes, Paris made Troy burnt, and Helen’s arrival brought Troy unfortunate is the fate. Nevertheless, in my opinion, the fate is that Helen and Paris hit it off right from the start. The fate in this story is love rather than the war.
In addition, we can see the greedy and cruel men in that period especially in Greek. Agamamnon and Achilles are described as such hateful men. By contrast, Paris and Menelaus are more kind and lofty. In fact, before I watched “Helen of Troy”, I was more supporting Greek side, because it was Troy who had prior fault, and it was Paris who robbed Menelaus’ wife. However, the charactors in this movie were depicted very vivid, it successfully changed Paris into a brave, kind, and upright boy, and also, Menelaus became a humane person.
The background music of this movie is beautiful and graceful, and it sounds like telling a sad story. Especially after Paris was died and Troy was occupied by the Greeks, Paris appeared infront of Helen, which was just the hallucination of Helen. The frames combined with the music makes audiece feel regretful for Helen. Trojan War was a disaster, not only for Troy, but also for Helen.
As the movie tells us at last, “War is waged by nations, but it is the human beings that pay the price.” The poor citizens suffered the severe pain, as well as Helen, the poor woman who lost her love, the love which she ever called it “hope”.
BD
