What a waste

Rating: 6/10 (4 August 2005)

Stone's "Alexander" tries to tell the story of one of the great military leaders and conquerors of all time who is to this day, some 2300 years later, is still studied in military war colleges. Unfortunately the film tries too hard to do too much resulting in three hours of jumping around in time trying desperately to show us the man and his human story while carrying on great expeditionary campaigns at the same time. With insufficient didactics, overzealous theatrics, and the esoterics of the time, the film becomes nothing less than a numbing mess. Listening to Stone's director's cut one gets the impression he had a clear vision of what he wanted to accomplish with his well researched historical epic. One also gets the impression he made the movie for himself. Lacking in coherence, muddled and messy, "Alexander" is a classic example of what happens when one ventures too deep into that creative territory where less is more resulting in a spectacular flop. (C+)