A well accomplished look at a complex man who changed history

Rating: 9/10 (26 November 2004)

Producing an historical drama for an essentially ahistoric public is risky business. For years (in the US at least) historic dramas of ancient personages were mostly grade B romances. My favorite recollection of same was an old John Wayne movie in which he played, I think, Atilla the Hun. He looked at the leading lady and said, "You sure are pretty when you're angry maam." Sigh.
Oliver Stone does a commendable job of putting together the life of someone who made a sea change in western society and doing so in under three hours. No doubt some will carp that certain facts are open to interpretation (they always are) and that some were changed (the perennial difference between a drama and a documentary). Others will no doubt find themselves offended by Alexander's sexuality which does not fit at all conveniently into modern terms (bi -sexual, homosexual) but is a given for the time and is handled fairly and even comprehensively by Stone who does not give into the trap of using it to completely define Alexander.
Colin Farrell does a better job of portraying Alexander than I thought he would. He handles the part with the sort of passion that marks the ancient Greek world. A drunken Alexander could kill a man (Cleitus) who saved his life at Gaugamela and repent by trying to kill himself. He could also weep for a nearly a whole day over the body of Hephaestion until his personal guards pulled him off the body. The condensed nature of the epic almost makes Alexander appear mad but his military, administrative, and cultural genius show us a figure who is finally anything but mad.
I never found myself bored with the movie despite knowing the plot before hand - a fact that always puts the director of a well known epic at a disadvantage. The historical person Alexander gives lie to the adage that "we all put our pants on one leg at a time." Portraying such a character could easily move into caricature rather than characterization. Stone's directing and Ferrell's acting resist that.
We are constantly bombarded with movies in which cartoon characters come to life, trusted oldies are remade, and formula films are directed to specific market demographics like breakfast cereal to kids. How nice someone tackles one of the greatest figures of western history and actually pulls it off.