A Historical Travesty

Rating: 5/10 (15 January 2006)

Leave it to the success of one type of film to spawn a sub-sequent barrage of films done in the same style, telling similar stories, some fictional, some quasi historical. In 2000, Ridley Scott's GLADIATOR brought back the Greco-Roman epics back into the forefront by telling a story Shakespeare himself would have been proud of (although having studied him I believe he would have, had he been able to, pump up the atrocious dialog David Franzoni created). In sticking to a simple, straightforward tale of a man wronged by envy who resorts to becoming a gladiator to fight for justice a contemporary classic was made and Russell Crowe, today's most intense actor, won his first Oscar and deservedly so.
Oliver Stone, who has seen better times and better films, decided to up the ante and create his own version of a historical epic by focusing on none other than Alexander the Great, the young man who Did Great Things and died when he was a little over thirty. Would it that he hadn't. Everything in this film feels overdone. Colin Farrell overacts into insanity in trying to go for larger-than-life, Angelina Jolie continues to demonstrate that she's on media-fame only (although she tries to convince as Olympias), and everyone else goes through the motions, fulfilling parts that are on autopilot. This movie was so awful it took discipline for me to sit through; I might as well stayed with the History Channel's documentary on the same matter. At least they based their show on fact.
Who will this appeal to? The older crowd have had their share of Ben Hurs and I Claudiuses so they might not be interested. The Greeks boycotted it when it came out because they were outraged that Alex was a queer so that rules them out. That leaves the younger set, those who haven't done their homework in studying history, who would only go see it for the hype surrounding the brief moments of nudity -- namely Rosario Dawson's --, Colin Farrell's chiseled physique, and the references to homosexuality. Maybe not the worst film of 2004, but it did try hard to push the envelope. It's still not as terrible as CALIGULA, though: that is one tough cookie to crack.