I will never question the quality of any of Oliver Stone's movies again

Rating: 6/10 (20 May 2006)

heard few years ago Oliver Stone is making a movie with Collin Farrel and Angelina Jolie that speculates on Alexander's homosexuality; said to myself "pfff, another of those phony "historic" movies trying to make money by showing some parts of the main actors bodies or some homosexual innuendos, throw some huge cgi armies against each other like hoses sprinkling water, and that will be it". and didn't care watching it.
but today I felt I'd like seeing ancient soldiers fighting -was playing a mmorpg for a few days- and had Alexander at hand. gave it a try without expectations. movie started with Angelina Jolie (my expectations worsened); soon Val Kilmer steps into scene (at least I'll see some good acting from Kilmer, I can make it to the fighting scenes). watching the story unfold, switching from time to time to play the mmorpg, soon I realize the backgrounds, costumes, buildings and every image i focus my attention to are in harmony and believable.
soon i forgott about the mmo game, sucked in by the way the story of Alexander progressed. and the battle between persians and macedonians starts. wow, the fight is better then the starting scene from Gladiator. those phalanxes looked 80% phalanx, i don't know, hoplites? looked 90% hoplites, and every piece of armor, weaponry and clothes so diverse and real. soldiers, weapons and armor bearing marks of battles, not some "card-board shields and plastic swords painted to look like they were aged in battle". no "metal_hitting_metal.wav" when a sword cuts through flesh. no "electric shock struck Chinese karatekas like" soldiers hit to death by arrows. tho' the battle could have been more logical, it shown the effort to make it real, i could see them fighting in an organized chaos, not headless chicken like soldiers i can see in so many other "historical movies".
then I got my self carried on by Alexander's story. so well put that it even restored Jolie's and Farrel's actor status in my eyes.
the way I understood Alexander's story, most important thing in a human being's life is its starting position. they tell us from childhood that if one doesn't have proper "training" early in life, later on it's so much more difficult to avoid one's faith, and this movie shows it in a most convincing way. I couldn't find that weak point in the story that makes so many movies crumble.
i assume many of us think of themselves as great human beings but unfortunately born in unfavourable conditions, and if those conditions would have been accomplished, we would've made great deeds and things like that. this movie unfolded this scenario for me, and confirmed (again, i couldn't find a weak spot in this tale) that the "favourable conditions" are much difficult to obtain. born son of a king, poor Alexander was raised into a fighting machine with his mind twisted by myths, conquering Persia driven by his impregnated "conquer the world" pattern, lacking the balance that we all must look for (as Bertolucci's "Little Budha" so beautifully illustrates), and flawed from beginning by those "starting premises", he ultimately failed, submitting to the logic of the idea "if a wood plank has a crack in it, 'tho' you can't see it, a karateka will easily finger-break it, mwhahaa" or "once a boulder starts rolling down hill, you cant stop it until it breaks into pieces at the base" or ... but you know how life is.
by the end of the movie I was totally trapped in Alexander's world, felt sorrow for his army, wow-ed again at the Indians vs Macedonians fight scene, jaw dropped, head leaned against my hand and 10% tears in my eyes as i realized how powerful forces develop as consequence of our choices and decisions. Oliver Stones movie took me on a unexpected trip and bombarded me with symbols and images of life and mankind, that I even let the credits and music roll until the very end (no movie managed to keep me in that state)
an enriching experience this Alexander movie.
oh, and the barbarian Roxana, such a fine woman :D