Another Greek American Praises Oliver Stone

Rating: 9/10 (22 July 2006)

Yes , 9 out of 10.
Alexander is a Hollywood movie. By right, it must contain entertainment.
Yes, there are slow parts. There are inaccuracies (small). There are embellishments. But such highs!
Gaugamela: much much more exciting than the boring PBS "footsteps of Alexander" (own it) showing the dusty plains and the dry river bed where King Darius was killed. Remember, this was Alexander's defining moment, the spear poised at Darius' head, immortalized in the million tile mosaic on the Pompeian floor....Thank god Stone remembered to use the horned helmet that even modern Persians remember Iksander by.
Babylon: Absolutely stunning recreation, yes, despite the usual digital fancifulness. Stone admits it was all "guess work" and at least he had the requisite British historian consultant in tow to try to conceptualize a lost realm.
The Ishtar (lapis lazuli blue tiled) Gate is magnificent! Imagining Alexander's march into the city is much easier now, and must have been 10 times as powerful in real life...So many paintings since the birth of Christ have tried recapturing that moment, now we have it on film, thanks!
Don't forget that the damn big terraced palace was dutifully recreated; the Persians of old had it good! Oh, and don't think that the flag waving over Alexander's' Babylonian bedroom is a portrait of Darius' due to the bearded figure; that is the god Marduk with his winged disk. ;-)
Issus, Bactria, India: Less exciting to be sure, but the movie sublimely shifts focus on internal strife in the army's ranks over the long years of campaign, and it is refreshing to see how scarred, lamed, and tired the army looks near the end. That's good. Fresh clothes and faces are not reality.
Collin Farrell (spelling?) is a trip to watch in the features section of the DVD; he swears and swaggers like a real Alexander! Magnificent! Too many historians called Alexander a drunk savage; we Greeks can overlook a little drink and savagery if it lets you conquer the known world by the age of 26. And a nice touch was showing how "barbarian" cultures were assimilated, not annihilated, by Alexander for the first time in history.
Bravo Collin for doing some justice to an honorable story. And no, Oliver Stone is not a has been like he depreciatingly remarks about in the features. This story is so big no one will ever make it perfect (being Greek, i had to give it a 9), but Stone tried.
"There is nothing impossible to him who will try." -Megas Alexandros