One of the most epic adventure stories of all time comes powerfully to life in this original four-hour epic-series. Filmed in exotic locales with an international cast and featuring state-of-the-art special effects, Helen of Troy depicts one of the greatest battles ever fought to win the love of the world's most beautiful woman. Though married to Menelaus, King of Sparta, Helen (Sienna Guillory) falls madly in love with Paris (Matthew Marsden) a handsome Trojan prince. Together, the lovers flee to Troy, where they are given safe haven by Paris' father, King Priam (John Rhys-Davies). Bent on bringing Helen back, the king's ruthless brother Agamemnon (Rufus Sewell) leads the skilled Spartan army to the shores of the fabled city. There the Greeks lay siege to Troy, thus beginning one of history's most legendary wars which would ultimately decide the destinies of two empires.

Arrows rain death. Soldiers clamber up stone walls. Swords clang, fires rage. Yet the waves of combatants storming Troy are repelled. To defeat the undefeatable ultimately requires brains more than brawn. Feigning retreat, the Greeks offer a gift: a mammoth wooden horse secretly housing their fighting men. Homer’s Iliad surges to the screen in Helen of Troy, from the ’50s heyday of big-screen spectaculars. Robert Wise directs this lavish epic, capturing some 30,000 people onscreen at the then-huge cost of $6 million. Among the 30,000: Sir Cedric Hardwicke, Brigitte Bardot before her sex-symbol renown, and, as the lovers at the conflict’s center, Rossana Podestà (Sodom and Gomorrah) and Jack Sernas (La Dolce Vita).