Troy (2004) which starred Brad Pitt in the lead, is one of the highest-grossing films of his career, grossing $497 million against a production budget of $175-185 million. The film was based on Homer’s Iliad which focused on the Trojan War brought on by the Greeks against the city of Troy.
Pitt starred as Achilles, the legendary Greek warrior, and the film was mounted on a huge scale with extensive production and an elaborate shooting schedule, owing to the scope and nature of being a historical war epic. The film was directed by Wolfgang Peterson and Pitt was very enthusiastic and excited to work on adapting a beloved classic Greek text and working with Peterson. But as he reveals, the production and the way the film was shaping up did not match up to what he had in mind and the script itself did not help much to improve the situation.
Brad Pitt Was in Troy Due to Studio Obligations
Troy was made under Warner Bros and Brad Pitt had pulled out of another film that they wanted him for. Not wanting to disappoint the studio heads at Warner Bros, he was obliged to take part in Troy. In an interview with The New York Times (via Metro), he said,
“I had to do Troy because – I guess I can say all this now – I pulled out of another movie and then had to do something for the studio,’ he revealed. ‘So I was put in Troy…It wasn’t painful, but I realized that the way the movie was being told was not how I wanted it to be. I made my own mistakes in it”
He found the deviations from the source material distracting and uninspiring and the tendency to put a heightened Hollywood twist to a classical text such as the Iliad disheartening. It made him rethink the kind of films he wants to participate in moving forward. He continued,
“Every shot was like, here’s the hero! There was no mystery. So about that time I made a decision that I was only going to invest in quality stories, for lack of a better term. It was a distinct shift that led to the next decade of films”
The deviations and inaccuracies Pitt talked about would haunt the reputation of the film as time went on but the film was a commercial success nonetheless.
Troy had Many Inaccuracies and Deviations from the Source Material
At the time of its release, the film was criticized by historians who were critical of the many deviations and inaccuracies the film had. The classical text was transformed into a digestible Hollywood blockbuster and many were not happy with that. Among the many inaccuracies, the main ones listed by Ranker were the duration of the war, Achilles being killed even before the Trojan horse was ever built, the character of Patroclus, the manner of Agamemnon’s death, and so on.
The extent of creative licenses that the film took in adapting the classical text may not have limited its box office potential but it hurt the sentiments of the people who acted in the film, including Pitt.
Brad Pitt has Since Moved on and done Better Projects
Since Troy, Brad Pitt has limited his participation in large tentpole studio films and has only done projects that are director-driven and ones that challenge him as a performer. He starred in acclaimed films such as Babel (2006), Burn After Reading (2008), The Curious Case of Benjamin Button (2008), Inglorious Basterds (2009), The Tree of Life (2011), Moneyball (2011), Fury (2014) and Once Upon a Time in Hollywood (2019). The latter earned him a win for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscars.
