Hi good buddy.
I don't think the recent big screen production sufficiently communicated the length of the Trojan Wars.
I thought the made for TV "Helen of Troy" was much better. Strangely, the made for TV movie was much more explicit about the adultery, rape, seduction and abduction involved, for which so many men died and killed each other.
Except, I will say this about the movie, I thought Brad Pitt was awesome. When he started talking about his "brothers," that really spoke to me.
The connection to the War on Terror is, maybe, a bit of a stretch. You are right to identify uncontrolled passions as common to both the Trojan War and the War on Terrorism, but one was based on lust and the other on chilliastic (I think that's the word, meaning ushering in the end-times) fanaticism.
If I had to choose between the two, I think fighting over a woman is a better idea than fighting to usher in the end-times.
That bin Laden guy, along with Mullah Omar and the others, they really are scary.
Those guys make a war for oil seem rational!
Sorry I don't have any more time to chat, gotta run, see you later!
Clifford
Clifford -- I did like the made-for-TV movie Helen of Troy. (Achilles was portrayed as a brute, not a brooding Bard Pitt.) But my favorite from an historical perspective is the 6 part documentary In Search of the Trojan War, by Michael Wood, available on DVD. Check it out.
The Islamic terrorists are truly vile and evil. I use Homer to illustrate several, but not all, aspects of their moral failings. In a longer piece I would have gone into fighting over Helen and other interesting themes. But the nice thing about we as Westerner is that we can do this!
Cheers!