Corrected entry: When the men are trying to turn Briseis into a Spartan slave, one of them yells "Give the b**ch to me." There's no way that swear word existed 3100 years ago.
Corrected entry: Inside Troy, Achilles is not wearing his normal silver armor; he's wearing some kind of black armor. But then at his funeral, he's back in his normal silver armor.
Correction: Though the pyre scene is shown directly after the death of Achilles, considerable time has gone by and there are a number of things that happen in between off screen, that are unnecessary to show. When the Greeks find Achilles, he is first washed and prepared, then he is clothed - in his usual armour, before his body is burned on the pyre. Also note that it is dark and the city is aflame when Achilles dies, yet it is daybreak and the fires have ceased when Achilles is being burned on the pyre.
Corrected entry: When Achilles is given the spear outside Apollo's temple, it is white. But when you see Tecton after it hit him, the spear is grey.
Correction: When Eudorus hands the spear to Achilles, it is dark grey, when Achilles readies himself and when he finally throws the spear, it is still dark grey. It's grey in every shot.
Corrected entry: Paris shoots Achilles in the heel, as this is his only vulnerable spot. Yet after Achilles dies and the camera rises above him, you can tell the arrow is more up his foot, near his ankle.
Correction: First of all, his legendary vulnerable heel is never mentioned in the film. Besides, when he walks with the arrow (in the wideshot) and when he collapses, the arrow is at an angle, with the point of entry (at the outer part of his leg) higher up near the ankle than the exit (at the inner part of his leg) which is lower by the heel. When the arrow first hits, in the wide shot the arrow tip nears his ankle and in the close-up it comes out closer to the sole of his shoe.
Corrected entry: When the Myrmidons sack Apollo's temple, Achilles wipes the left side of his forehead, but after Eudoras says "With your permission my lord" his hand moves to the center of his forehead.
Correction: In the first shot, Achilles hands off his helmet to another, then Eudorus says, "With your permission my lord." and only then does Achilles press the palm of his hand (he doesn't "wipe") on the CENTER of his forehead. Then in the next shot the palm of his hand still presses the center of his forehead. There is no valid mistake.
Corrected entry: After Achilles kills Hector he ties the body to his chariot, with the spear sticking out of Hector's chest. When Achilles arrives at the Greek campsite, the spear seems to have fallen out, but when he stops in front of his tent there suddenly is a small piece of the spear sticking in Hector's body.
Corrected entry: When the camera rises above the dead Achilles, you can see a wall with some soldiers on it, and on that wall is a self-running camera.
Correction: Many soldiers appear on more than one wall, and there are tall torches and shrubs all around, but there is no "self-running camera" anywhere.
Corrected entry: When Achilles takes Hector's body past the walls of Troy, you can see all the dirt and filth all over him. When Achilles arrives back home, if you look closely, there is hardly any sand on the body at all. Then, when Achilles goes to prepare Hector's body for Priam by wrapping it in a blanket, the sand is all over Hector.
Correction: When the chariot drags Hector's body past Priam the dirt ground's dust flies up and around the body, followed by sand at the shore. Achilles then pulls the body beside his tent in a wide shot, there is no close-up on the face. Since Hector's body is very bloody all over, undoubtedly from turning over while being dragged (also causing the spear to snap), the light colored dust and sand would not be easily apparent in this wide shot. The red blood would have congealed with the dust and sand, however his dark clothes do appear dirty. Later, when Achilles prepares Hector's body, at no point is the body visible, only Hector's bloody sandy face.
Corrected entry: Menelaus swung his sword into Paris' leg, but why is there no scar later?
Correction: After Helen sutures Paris' wound, his right thigh isn't visible in the following shots. His thigh is only visible at the end, when he reaches Briseis, before firing the arrows, then when he leaves with her and he wears a cloth around the wound in these shots.
Corrected entry: When Achilles is on the beach looking at his army charging at the Trojans, if you look over his shoulder you can see no ships on the sea, even though there were hundreds of them a moment ago.
Correction: When Achilles shouts, "Flank!..." behind his shoulder is the sand towards the walled city, with blue sky above, not water. Also, later in the extreme close-up of his face, in the shot just before the Greeks on the ships shout, "Achilles! Achilles!" the ships, though not in focus, are visible behind his shoulder. Every time the sea is shown beyond the shoreline, the many ships are visible in the distance.
Corrected entry: In the scene involving the first battle between Achilles' men and the Trojans, Achilles makes his way up the beach to Apollo's temple. He knocks a Trojan off a horse, and as the Trojan falls backwards you can see he's wearing patterned boxer shorts under his kilt.
Correction: Achilles kills Tecton, who rides a horse, with the long shot of the spear. It is Ajax, not Achilles who knocks three men off their horses. At no point are boxers visible on any one of these men, only their decorative Trojan skirts.
Corrected entry: In the scene where Achilles and Briseis wake up in the morning after spending their first romantic night together, there are a few shots of the sun just beginning to rise. The problem is that the sun is rising over the sea which is to the west of Troy. Since when does the sun rise in the west?
Correction: Refer to the map at the start of the film. Troy is located at the corner of what is basically a curved 90° right angle. Their walled city faces the sea to the west and to the north, though much closer to the northern shore with Apollo's temple. It is at these northern shores that the sun can be seen rising from an easterly direction over the Aegean Sea, which when facing the sea would be towards the right.
Corrected entry: When Achilles is going to Troy to fight Hector, all of the dead bodies from the previous battle have vanished. How did they clean them up so fast and if they did wouldn't there be blood on everything?
Correction: We do see the bodies gathered. The Greeks flee at the end of the first battle pursued by the Trojans. Hector halts the pursuit short of the Greek archers and orders the troops to return to Troy. He then tells his General to start collecting the dead and to send an emissary to the Greeks telling them they could safely come and collect their dead. We next see a scene of people placing bodies on sleds pulled by horses. Some sleds head back to Troy while others head towards the beach. Later we see the scene with the funeral pyers of Menellias and Ajax.
Corrected entry: In the major battle on the beach that takes place after the fireballs are sent down the hill we see Hector and who we think is Achilles fight one-on-one. As it turns out Hector catches him with a shot to the neck. After we see him remove the helmet and we see who it is, Hector finishes him off with what can only be a huge thrust to the chest (he's kneeling around waist/chest level and thrusts straight down). Still, when Achilles goes to fight Hector the very next day he asks for his armor and there is not a mark on it.
Correction: Hector does not thrust Patrocles' chest. In the shot right before, you can see Hector's sword is at the same height as his left shoulder. It would not be any problem for him to move it sideways to his throat. Moreover, Hector had already cut his throat badly, and mutilating the body would have been inconsistent with Hector's character. When Eudoros tells Achilles about what happened, he also says, "Hector cut his throat."
Corrected entry: In the early part of the movie, you have the Greek army led by Agamemnon facing the Thessalanian army. To settle things they decided it would be the best warrior from each side fighting each other. You had Achilles fighting for the Greek army and Boagrius for the Thessalanians. Problem is, Achilles was from Thessaly and he was not serving any king so he would be considered a traitor if he fought against his countrymen.
Correction: Thessalians were Greeks too, plus it was really common at that time to betray your home city and go with the Atheneans (which was considered the capital until the Peloponisean war).
Corrected entry: After the battle down at the Greek encampment on the beach, Hector thinks that he has killed Achilles, but instead it turns out to be his cousin. When Hector puts his hand on the dead body's face, the actor closes his eyes.
Correction: After Hector leaves, it is Eudorus that bends down to close Patroclus' eyes, and Eudorus's fingers actually blocks the eye from view as it closes. Point of interest, back then, it was considered a noble thing for a warrior to do after he has defeated an enemy.
Corrected entry: Coins did not exist during the period of the Trojan War. They were first used in Lydia in the 8th century B.C. as an alternative to bartering precious metals or goods.
Correction: This movie is based, at least partly, on Greek mythology. In the Greek myths, coins were placed on the eyes of the dead so the person could pay Charon to ferry them across the river Styx.
Corrected entry: When Hector is talking to Paris before going out to fight Achilles, the old man standing behind them is dozing.
Correction: This isn't a mistake. Not everyone is so interested in the fight, actually it's quite realistic.
Corrected entry: In the crowd, welcoming Hector, Paris and Helen at the entrance of the palace of the King of Troy, are priests in Greek Christian Orthodox attire. The fall of Troy happened more than thousand years before the birth of Christ and rise of Christianity.
Correction: This is not an error. Christianity was 'absorbed' into the existing culture (by decree of Constantine @ 350 AD) so it is very likely that the priests and other holy men had always dressed in a similar fashion. Even the Papal Mitre dates back many centuries before Christ. The old holidays were kept and renamed and the old gods were reassigned as 'saints' with all of the same functions and duties.(i.e. the 'god of travelers' became 'saint of travelers').
Corrected entry: In this movie the Greek and Trojan armies are fighting in Phalanx formation. That's where the soldiers would be in a line formation of 8 line to 120 line deep holding out their spears and scary looking shields. But the Phalanx formation strategy wasn't developed until 7th century BC during classical Greece. The Trojan War took place around 12th or 13th century B.C. way before the Phalanx formation was developed. Before the phalanx formation, soldiers fought in an unorganized mob, hacking everything in front of them which was pretty messy. Thus the Phalanx formation was developed.
Correction: The movie contained no phalanx fighting. It's pretty obvious that the mob technique was used.
Correction: The entire English language didn't exist 3100 years ago - the use of colloquial English in a historical film, including obscenities, cannot be considered an error. They would have had words of that nature back in those times - the filmmakers are simply using a modern-day equivalent.
Tailkinker ★