And if they'd pretended it was original, people would have slammed them for copying without attributing.

Since the story's public domain, I thought putting "Inspired by (or based on, or whatever it was) Homer's Iliad" in the credits was an idiotic thing to do. Really, all it accomplished was to piss off classics majors in the audience. (And it's not like a movie starring Brad Pitt in a really short leather skirt really needed Homer's name attached to the project to pull people into the theatre.)

Really, all it accomplished was to piss of classics majors in the audience.

And that's a demographic you don't want anger. Or both of them will show up at your house and taunt you with ecphrasis.

The funny part is, it's not even a fair attribution, since the fall of Troy doesn't happen in the Iliad. It happens in the early chapters of the Aeneid (Roman) and in oblique fashion in the Odyssey (some vague flashbacks). It's a given; the listeners to the Iliad knew the eventual outcome; but it doesn't happen in the pages of the Iliad as we have it now.

And then and then and then and then and then and then and then?

Oh yeah. That was pretty funny. So there were three funny things in that movie, including the "mysterious and powerful object" and the pudding.

See, the first time I saw it, I don't think I laughed at all, and I saw The Emperor's New Groove directly afterward, which made it look even less funny by comparison. But then I caught part of it one day and decided to look at it as a surreal adventure with emus, and it's not such a bad movie.

The funny part is, it's not even a fair attribution, since the fall of Troy doesn't happen in the Iliad.

Well, exactly. But without "Based on the Iliad" in front of it, there's nothing wrong with writing a movie about the fall of Troy that leaves out a bunch of stuff that's in the Iliad and makes up a bunch of other stuff that's not, and basically exists as an excuse to show off Brad Pitt's arms. The VAST majority of the movie's problems exist because they called it an adaptation. (Granted, it would still have been an extremely silly film with cringeworthy gender politics, but there would have been many fewer specific things to point at and say "Hey, that was wrong!")

It didn't say it was based on the Iliad. It said it was "inspired by the Iliad" which seems like plenty of wiggle room. That's not saying it's an adaptation.

My favorite credit is "Based on an idea by." Especially when the person credited is either the writer or director.

I think it should have said "Inspired by Brad Pitt's thighs", because that is probably truer than its being inspired by the Iliad.

I'm of the opinion that if your source material is public domain, and you've strayed far enough from it that "inspired by" is the best you can do, you're better off not mentioning it at all.