bkoganbing Although we got to see very little of Steve Reeves's impressive physique in The Trojan Horse, we also didn't hear that impressively dubbed bass in the two Hercules movies.The twist here is an interesting one. Reeves plays Aeneas a Trojan warrior who seems to have more in common with the Greek invaders. He regard Paris played here by Warner Bentivegna as a real punk which he certainly acts like. The irony of hundreds of people being killed on both sides including a lot of good men is not lost on him.In that computer graphic driven spectacle Troy the roles of Paris and Helen were played by Orlando Bloom and Diane Kruger and they were just two crazy kids in love her trying to escape an enforced marriage. Here Helen is played by Edy Vessel and she's quite the scheming vixen.As Peplum pictures go in that era when two or three seemed to be coming out every week the classic tale gets a different and unique version. Ulysses is played by John Drew Barrymore the only other American in the cast.There is a sequel about the further adventures of Aeneas which I'm also interested in. This is all based on Aeneid which is the Trojan version of the events of the fall of Troy and the aftermath by Virgil.

Majid-Hamid There is nothing much to say...this is the best movie by Steve Reeves, not Hercules definitely!! I've watched this 10 years ago on TV, and ,only after 10 years i get a chance to buy this movie in VCD. I just couldn't find any DVD copy available, it's a rare movie in Malaysia, huhuhu..The acting and performance from most of the actors are surprisingly good, the plot movie is great where it is about the wooden horse, and yet the dialog and the dubbing in English version are not really too bad. definitely the best Steve Reeves movie ever.i also recommend The Avenger and Morgan The Pirate...u can also check out A Long Ride From Hell, it's really a good western movie.10/10 stars

MARIO GAUCI I had missed out on a chance to watch this on the big screen during the B-movie retrospective at the 2004 Venice Film Festival; with hindsight, I feel that it's a picture that should be viewed in theaters as the TV screen simply can't do justice to its spectacular widescreen photography! As a matter of fact, of all the peplums I've been watching of late, this has probably been afforded the highest budget; it's certainly the most handsome production of the lot...I had watched two other films about the famous and lengthy Trojan War - Robert Wise's HELEN OF TROY (1955) and Wolfgang Petersen's TROY (2004), a Maltese co-production that was filmed (for the most part) over here - but this Italian version more than holds its own when set up against them! Steve Reeves has perhaps his most substantial role (apart from that of Hercules, which made his name) and, despite his notable physique (which is put to the test against legendary Greek hero Achilles), his character is a peace-loving man and certainly more thoughtful than usual for him. His wife (Paris' sister, whom he married in secret) is played by lovely French actress Juliette Mayniel - who had earlier movingly played one of the victims in Georges Franju's seminal horror masterpiece EYES WITHOUT A FACE (1959); interestingly, director Giorgio Ferroni had just made a good variant on that film called MILL OF THE STONE WOMEN (1960)! Understandably, the narrative only tackles the last year of the war, so that Hector (perhaps the strongest figure in TROY) is already dead when the film opens; similarly, the relationship between Paris (actually presented as the villain of the piece, if still basically wimpish) and Helen (whose role is pretty much left in the background) has deteriorated considerably - which only serves to give the senselessness of the unending carnage added poignancy! At the forefront of the plot are two other historical figures: in fact, Achilles is so impressively personified by Euro-Cult regular Arturo Dominici (best known as Javutich, Barbara Steele's powerful and devoted acolyte in Mario Bava's BLACK Sunday [1960]) that the film loses some steam once he is famously dispatched by an arrow in his heel; similarly, John Drew Barrymore (as Ulysses) is a dominant personality during the film's first half but, once the Trojan Horse is constructed (conveniently off-screen), he pretty much disappears from the narrative! The same fate, alas, befalls the characters of Priam, Menelaus and Agamemnon; all of these roles would receive a lot more stature in TROY, and also the luxury of such stalwart performers as Peter O'Toole, Brendan Gleeson and Brian Cox respectively! Another regrettable element in the film is the fact that every soldier that is felled bursts out into exaggerated wailings and screams, which renders the otherwise efficiently-handled battle scenes unintentionally amusing! So, while the film does sag a bit during its last lap, the scenes depicting the destruction of Troy by the wily Greeks and the subsequent flight of the survivors (including Reeves and his new-born child, Mayniel's character having died giving birth to it!) are certainly worth waiting for - though obviously done on a lesser scale than would be the case in TROY - and the film, as a whole, still emerges as one of the best peplums out there...

Johnny B If I remember well it was last year (1997) when I first saw this movie on the private Italian channel Rete 4 one Sunday afternoon. It was broadcasted in the series "Kolossal All'Italiana". At the same time, the Italian state TV RAI3 was showing "Helen of Troy" in the series "Colossi di Casa", both series implying that the movies were epics filmed in Italy. Before viewing this film I thought it was some sort of low-budget re-make of "Helen of Troy", but on watching it I was surprised to find out otherwise. Even though the storyline is basically similar in both films, this one offers a different kind of entertainment. While "Helen of Troy focuses more on the love affair between Helen and Paris, this movie is more concerned on the psychological situations of the principal characters, namely Aeneas. The final scene of "La Guerra di Troia", showing Aeneas escaping carrying his son in his arms after the death of Creusa is much more touching than the finale of the other movie showing Helen looking longingly at Troy where Paris had been killed. Even though I liked more "Helen of Troy" because of its better cinematography, better colour and better acting, still I have to admit that this one is of a higher level than many other Italian sword and sandal films of that era.