Movie Posters/Trailers

                   I was researching Greek and Roman advertisements on the Internet that we use today and I came across an interesting topic.  I saw a few photos of movie posters inspired by ancient Greek/Roman culture or historical events, and thought about discussing how the ancient times are portrayed today in our “modern day eyes”.  There have been many movies and shows made based on ancient Greek and Roman topics that, to historians, could probably be said to be true or false in many ways. Movies are always dramatized to make the story more enticing and fun for the viewer.
                   I know your probably wondering what this has to do with advertisement  Well it's pretty obvious that every movie has to be advertised and these movies happen to be based on Greece or Roman events in ancient times so it turns out that this topic fits quite perfectly with my topic!  I will give each movie that I found a breakdown of how it relates to ancient history along with it's advertised movie trailer.  Enjoy!

Helen of Troy - 1956

In this movie, the Greeks were going to invade Troy.  Prince Paris was assigned to go to Sparta and show the good intentions of his people. On the way, he met Helen after she rescued him from drowning. When he recovered, he believed that she was a slave and they fell in love. When he got to Sparta, he was arrested by King Menelaus but Helen helped him to escape. They traveled together to Troy and gave the Greeks what they needed to start the war and put Troy under siege for years. The Greeks were unsuccessful, until they listened to Ulysses. The Greeks then withdrew from the Trojan waters and offered a wooden Horse of Troy as a gift to the winners.  I believe we all know the story of what happens next, with the wooden horse although it may actually be false.  I personally have not seen this movie, but I know of they story of the Iliad, which it is based off of, and it seems to have much similarity to the book at least in the trailer!  The movie poster very much reminds me of a comic book cover of the movie but it does conveniently touch on the love story and the battle scenes.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0049301/plotsummary

Spartacus - 1960

In this movie of Spartacus, a Thracian slave leads a revolt at a gladiatorial school run by Lentulus Batiatus.There is an uprising involving slaves that moves across Italy. The plan is to acquire funds to hire ships from Silesian pirates who could transport them to other lands. The Roman Senator Gracchus schemes to have Marcus Publius Glabrus, lead an army against the slaves who are on Vesuvius. When Glabrus is defeated Marcus Licinius Crassus is greatly embarrassed and leads his own army against the slaves. Spartacus and the thousands of freed slaves make their way to Brandisium only to find that the Silesians have abandoned them. They then turn north and face Rome.  Again, I haven't seen this movie either, but it seems as if it is a very intense war movie due to the lack of the typical love story that most movies include.  I believe this was made to show a true historical story of blood and tears which almost all viewers today love to see.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0054331/plotsummary

Jason and The Argonauts - 1965

Jason, the heir to the throne of Thessaly, has his life saved through by the intervention of the goddess Hera. The other people Mount Olympus watch in amusement as Hera aids Jason in his search for the Golden Fleece. The obstacles to their goal include a giant statue that comes to life named Talos, the plaguing blind prophet Phineas, a set of huge falling rocks, the seven-headed hydra, and an army of skeletons. It also includes Medea and Hercules.  When I read the description for this movie I at first thought about how it reminded me a lot of the Disney story of Hercules that I grew up with.  The way that Jason has to battle all of the obstacles to reach a goal echoed the story of Hercules. 

Source:  http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/1010939-jason_and_the_argonauts/

Gladiator - 2000

In this movie, Maximus is a Roman general, loved by the people and the Emperor, Marcus Aurelius. Before his death, the Emperor chooses Maximus to be his heir over his son, Commodus, and a power struggle leaves Maximus and his family condemned to death. Maximus is unable to save his family, and his loss of will gets him captured and put into the Gladiator games until his death. The only desire that fuels him is the chance to rise to the top so that he can defeat who killed his family.  Gladiator is heavily reliant on battle scenes of the Gladiator games, but the story is actually quite riveting.  I'm not sure of the actual story of Maximus, but I would presume that the emotional aspect of the film was not accounted for in scribes of the time.  As you can see as well, I had found multiple movie posters for this movie, which all were a little bit different in what they depicted.

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0172495/plotsummary

Troy - 2004

Troy is based on Homer's tale of love and war in ancient Greece in the Iliad, very much like Spartacus!  Paris, Prince of Troy has fallen in love with Helen, Queen of Sparta, who is wed to King Menelaus. While Helen is hardly immune to Paris' charms, this doesn't blunt Menelaus' fury when Paris steals her away from him.  Menelaus' brother Agamemnon, the King of the Mycenaeans, wants to expand his empire through Troy to the Aegean Sea, and he uses Paris' fued against Menelaus as an excuse hold war against the city.  The King of Troy, summons his armies, led by Prince Hector, to meet Agamemnon's forces, but while the battle awaits, Agamemnon had a special weapon, Achilles.  An unstoppable warrior whose presence could be Agamemnon's favor to win the battle. This movie I have seen most of and it it quite amazing. The story in the movie is definitely off from the story of the book but a lot of scenes are quite accurate.  

Source:  http://www.starpulse.com/Movies/Troy/Summary/

Alexander - 2004

Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians he leads his Army across the world venturing further than any Westerner had ever gone all the way to India.   It also talks about his early life, including his relationship with his father Phillip II of Macedon, his strained feeling towards his mother Olympias, and the unification of the Greek city-states and the two Greek Kingdoms, Macedon and Epirus under the Hellenic League.  I don't know much about the story so reading up on this summarization really made me wonder how it all plays out with  the story of Alexander.

Source:  http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0346491/plotsummary

 

300 - 2006

In the intense movie of 300, King Xerxes of Persia invades Greece with his huge army to extend his slave empire, the brave King Leonidas brings his personal army composed of 300 warriors to defend the passage of Thermopylae, the only way they could go by land to reach Greece. He eventually defends Thermopylae until a Greek citizen tells King Xerxes a secret goat passage leading to the back of Leonidas's army. Meanwhile, his wife Queen Gorgo of Sparta tries to convince the council to send the Spartan army to fight against the Persians.  This movie was on that I did see and although it was amazing effects and costumes that I 't seen in any movie before, it all seemed to be very false.  There may have been a battle but things in the movie (like giant rhinoceros-like animals for instance) really just made the whole thing obviously not real to actual battle.  There was actually an article on this movie that I found about how it is an overall false story.  There were a few articles about this but this one I found quite interesting.  The link is below.

Article link: http://www.archaeology.org/online/reviews/300.html

Source: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0416449/plotsummary

All of these explanations of the movies were similar to the actual historical/mythological stories but much more modernized.  They are almost all focused around a love story which in real life may have happened but that was not what was important.  All in all these movies advertised Greek or Roman stories and represented their culture, their battles and their victories.  Hope you enjoyed watching them!