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Helen of Troy

Helen of Troy

Adventure · War · Romance · 1956

Prince Paris of Troy, shipwrecked on a mission to the king of Sparta, meets and falls for Queen Helen before he knows who she is. Rudely received by the royal Greeks, he must flee...but fate and their mutual passions lead him to take Helen along. This gives the Greeks just the excuse they need for much-desired war.

Movie details

Helen of Troy

“Its towering wonders span the age of titans!”

1956 Adventure · War · Romance 2h 1m

Critical arithmetic

The consensus, allegedly.

IMDb

6.1 / 10

2.8K votes

TMDB

6.3 / 10

Community rating

External scores via OMDb · CC BY-NC 4.0. Values normalized for display; availability varies by title.

Prince Paris of Troy, shipwrecked on a mission to the king of Sparta, meets and falls for Queen Helen before he knows who she is. Rudely received by the royal Greeks, he must flee...but fate and their mutual passions lead him to take Helen along. This gives the Greeks just the excuse they need for much-desired war.

CriticWise case file

What this film says about your taste.

Not a recommendation score. A measure of how closely the film’s taste signals resemble yours.

The archetype split

Who fights over Helen of Troy?

The split comes from the same five-axis model used by the test, not audience ratings or review sentiment.

Taste neighbourhood

Nearby on the taste map.

TMDB supplies the candidates. CriticWise reorders them by craft, strangeness, prestige, emotion, and pace.

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Where it lives

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Names above the title

The people responsible.

Directed by

Robert Wise

Written by

Hugh Gray · John Twist

Rossana Podestà

Rossana Podestà

Helen

Jacques Sernas

Jacques Sernas

Paris

Cedric Hardwicke

Cedric Hardwicke

Priam

Stanley Baker

Stanley Baker

Achilles

Niall MacGinnis

Niall MacGinnis

Menelaus

Nora Swinburne

Nora Swinburne

Hecuba

Robert Douglas

Robert Douglas

Agamemnon

Court is in session

Put Helen of Troy on trial.

Two incompatible taste archetypes. One film. Read the arguments, then issue a completely binding cultural ruling.

The defence The Prestige Tourist

“Sincerity is not manipulation.”

The film risks embarrassment to make emotion communal, and that openness is harder than fashionable detachment.

The prosecution The Cool Ironist

“The strings are showing.”

Every cue tells you exactly what to feel and when, leaving sentiment to do the work character should have done.