Very much like Alexander the Great

Rating: 8/10 (28 October 2008)

It would be interesting to ask Oliver Stone whether the idea of making this film was inspired by the documentaries he made about Fidel (Alejandro) Castro. Personally I think that he was looking for some similarities between both and tried to establish a parallel or may be this is just a coincidence. The history of Alexander I was taught at high school was very close to the story of this film. It greatly differs from the former "Alexander the Great" (1956) directed by Robert Rossen. Obviously, in the 50s there were so many prejudices in the society to show not a real Macho Alexander, but the fact is that this film showed the egocentric character of the Macedonian monarch, he was thirsty of conquers, he wanted his name to be remembered for ever, he wanted to be the Great, he did not care about family, that was not part of his dreams, he wanted to reign now and forever. The nature of Alexander was well reflected by Stone.
However, personally I think that the selection of the cast was not the best. Angelina Jolie is quite young to play the role of Olympias, the Alexander's mother. The real age difference between Angelina and Colin Farrell (Alexander) is just one year. Probably they both can star well in a romantic film instead of playing mother and son in this film. Farrell was not either a good choice as Alexander, he did not show that strong character I assume the Macedonian had. Good performance from the old Ptolemy played by Anthony Hopkins and an acceptable Filippo (Val Kilmer).