I loved it. (Alexander Revisited)

Rating: 10/10 (5 June 2007)

Before I begin, I would like to copy and paste something taken from IMDb because many people ask the question ''What is with the Irish accents?''
'The Irish accents you hear from the Macedonian soldiers were not there to accommodate 'Colin Farrell' as some have asserted. As Macedonians were mostly from more remote hill tribes and were coarser and less civilized than the Greeks, the Celtic accents used in the movie serve to portray fictionally the difference between them and the more refined Greeks, such as Aristotle, played by 'Christopher Plummer' , who speaks in a more upper class, English accent. Many critics and audience members failed to understand this device.' -IMDb Alexander
Onto the review (Alexander Revisited) I first saw Alexander back in theatres in December of 2004. I was one of the few who actually enjoyed the film. I thought of the theatrical as a beautiful artistic view of the world's greatest military conquerer. Now when I went to see the movie; I did not hear anything from critics because at the time I had no knowledge of RottenTomatoes or IMDb, but when I saw it I found the websites only to be shocked to see how critically panned as it was.
Warning: (Possible spoilers ahead) Now, I own all three dvds. (Theatrical, Directors, and Final) I have to say that the Final is indeed the version to own. At nearly 3 1/2 hours, the Final Cut fills in the gaps that were missing from the theatrical release. Ill go off the record to say I have seen this film so many times, I can write you the script for it again. The Final Cut starts off completely different then from its originals. The Battle of Guagemela begins at the beginning of the film; most people complain about this battle because of 'confusion from the dust', well its a desert, so of course there is a lot of dust. I'll admit the battle needs to be watched more than once to understand it if you have not read a book on Alexander the Great. The scenes constantly switch with subtitles of ''Macedonian Right, or Left''.
After the scene at Gaugemela, we flash back towards Alexander's childhood beginning at Pella. Oliver Stone shows us how Alexander's mother is considered a sorceress and that she 'brainwashed' Alexander into believing he was the descendant of Achilles and the son of Zeus, because of this I believe that this film is a ''Greek Tragedy'' as the hero is also the son of a god, and because of that, he/she suffers greatly in the end. As we go through the childhood years, we see Alexander taming his beloved horse Buephelus, and his obsession with Greek heroes such as Heracles, Achilles, Jason, and Dionysus.
After his childhood years, we flash back to Babylon with an astonishing scene entrance to the city. We then move on to his campaign in North Eastern Persia to capture Darius and his marriage to Roxanne. As we reach the end of disc I, we run into the ''intermission''. In disc II, the viewer is introduced into India and Alexander's final battle in the film at Hydapess. This battle is even more awe inspiring than the first, greatly shot with real elephants and a very energizing climatic scene with Alexander and Porus.
I don't want to elaborate the whole movie (if your reading this) but I believe that a 5.4 rating for this film is criminal and that maybe one day this beautiful artistic film will receive the recognition it deserves. I want to point out that the title is 'Alexander' not 'Alexander the Great', I believe this film to be more about the man, than the legend. If you want to watch a film that was historically well researched and takes you to a distant place and time in history, Alexander will suit you nicely, but if your looking for a sword and scandal epic like Troy or Lord of the Rings, ill just advise you in case you do decide to watch the Final Cut to watch it with an open mind when it comes to paganism and homosexuality.
I own all three dvds, (Theatrical, Directors, and the Final Cut) I recommend the Final Cut if you have not seen it. I have in deed read the book ''Alexander the Great'' by Robin Lane Fox (who was a historical reference in this film) In the end, I cant wait for this to come out on HD-DVD.
Thank you for reading.