There are enough similarities of story and characterization, however, that while one must take care not to see Troy as fact, or even as an essentially faithful movie version of the Homer's the Iliad, one may still learn something about the plot, characters, and setting of Homer's great poem by seeing it. Educationally speaking, perhaps one of the greatest benefits of a major motion picture like Troy is that seeing it might interest more people in reading the Iliad, for comparison, and/or in learning more about Greek legends, myths, and mythological characters in general. The basic plot and setting of the film is this: the Mycenae Greeks (Greece and Sparta) and the Trojans, having been at war, have finally reached peace after many years. Two handsome young Trojan princes, Hector and Paris (sons of King Priam) are celebrating this fact with Menelaus, King of Sparta (Menelaus's brother Agamemnon is King of Greece). After that, the princes will set sail back to Troy. Then, however, the film cuts to a scene Paris and Helen, the beautiful young wife of King Menelaus (the "face that launched a thousand ships") in bed together. Next, Paris, more impetuous, and less thoughtful, than his careful and rational brother,...

This call for revenge against Troy sets in motion the war that follows, that between the two kingdoms of Mycenae Greece (Menelaus's Sparta and brother Agamemnon's Greece) and Troy (ruled by Priam), known historically as the Trojan War. The two main opponents, within this war, are the handsome Achilles of Greece (who hates Agamemnon but fights for Greece anyway (fulfilling his destiny to become, as his demigoddess mother predicts, a warrior of mythic greatness) and the measured, rational Hector of Troy, Paris's far more sensible older brother. In Homer's the Iliad (and in this film as well) Achilles represents, in human terms, the great hope of Greece, and Hector, the greatest hope of Troy.
The film Troy effectively captures the fears, conflicts, self-doubts, and sacrifices that characteristically accompany men (godlike or not) into battle, and the destinies of warriors, and the sadness that accompanies the loss, in battle, of a cousin, a brother, a son, or a friend. In short, Troy successfully brings a vivid human dimension to one of the greatest historical myths of all time, and is true to the spirit, even if not the text of Homer's great epic, the Iliad.