The Why Behind the What

From this post onwards I will be analysing the observations I have made in the previous 6 posts. The next post will be analysing the comments I made on the characters of Paris, Agamemnon, Hector and Achilles and linking these analyses to the cultures of New Zealand today and of Ancient Greece. Some things being discussed will be purpose of the texts, audience appeal and budget.

  Lets begin with some overall statements. What were the purposes of the two texts? Well the purpose of Troy was, like all films, to make money. Wolfgang Petersen may have had a love of the story and wanted to bring it to the screen, but ultimately his occupation is directing films and his source of income is from films. Troy was quite a successful film, grossing $133,378,256. This means that the purpose of the film, to make money, was fulfilled. But how does a film make money? The answer is, obviously, by people paying to go and see the film. But people only go to see films that they want to see, and often they want to see films more or less based on their ratings. And films only get good ratings if the critics like them. Which brings us to the very essential point that the film was created to appeal to the audience.
  The Iliad was written by Homer. On a brief side note, no one actually knows who Homer is. For many years it was thought that Homer was a single person who wrote the poem and its sequel, the Odyssey, but recently the theory that a "Homer" was a job that a Greek might have has been invented. I personally think it is more likely that Homer is the name of a profession because the poem probably wouldn't have survived otherwise, but that is just my opinion. Anyway, the Homers wrote the poem and then would travel around and tell the poem to different groups of people, earning themselves a meal and a place to sleep. The poem once again had to appeal to the audience, or no one would listen and the Homer wouldn't get any place to rest or eat. It is also important to note that the Iliad came first and that Troy is based off the Iliad. The poem is an original work, and while Troy is also original, the story and characters are inspired by those of Homer. Finally, though both texts have to appeal to these audiences, the two audiences are in very different cultures, so the differences in texts can be used to find the differences between cultures.