Alexander Grates

Rating: Null/10 (29 November 2004)

I wanted to like this film: I like historical epics (even if they're not exactly accurate), I enjoy battle flicks and I was in Morocco when A-t-G was being filmed so had an extra personal interest. Before the movie started, we pooled our limited knowledge: he was supposed to have killed his father, Dar'ius (pronounced differently), warring Greek states (okay so we weren't sure about Peloponnesian wars and Persia), conqueror of the world, blood-thirsty megalomaniac, buried in Alexandria (Egypt), admired by descendants of Ptolemy, Bucephalus, gay (we hadn't heard about the controversy raging), conflicting reports about his death. Underinformed as I was, I still find it incredible that Stone produced a romanticised portrayal--his humanistic "melting pot" multicultural Alex seemed way off the historical mark. Remember marriages pre-19th century were typically political/economical so don't read too much into A's weddings and offspring. I did like the way Stone dealt with the controversial death (virus-type fever ie dengue, malaria, hepatitis a, or poison?). Overall, the film was overacted, overwritten and underedited. (What was with the Age-of-Empires Babylon?). Most memorable screen appearance: Jolie's nipples. Least appealing? Farrell's hair--worst since Kevin Costner's in "The Bodyguard". Most frustrating: the endlessly repetitive soliloquies (much of which seemed to be sampled from Shakespeare's Henry V's St Crispen Day speech) . I guess it was to be (to quote Kelsey Grammar) an uplifting tragedy (!). Spend your pennies on "Hero" it's a much better movie.