Very bad film from historical and national point ...

Rating: 1/10 (20 September 2011)

As you are all aware, Oliver Stone's film on the Macedonian conqueror Alexander is due to open on November 24. We, the Macedonians, the descendents of Alexander's Macedonians, want to inform you that we reject the movie as historically inaccurate for it is not a true story of Alexander as Stone claims it to be. We are particularly concerned by the "Greekness" that Stone has given to the Macedonian king.
1) Where are the Historical Errors in the film?
Stone has Collin Farell (the actor playing Alexander) saying to the Macedonians before the battle of Gaugamela against the Persians that they are fighting for "the glory of Greece."
Ancient sources do not write that Alexander fought for the "glory of Greece" but for that of Macedonia. Three ancient historians detailed Alexander's address to the army before the battle. And each one of them made a clear distinction between Macedonians, Greeks, Illyrians, and Thracians, as four separate ethnicities that composed Alexander's army. Here are the words of the Roman historian Curtius Rufus:
"Riding to the front line he (Alexander the Great) named the soldiers and they responded from pot to spot where they were lined up. The Macedonians, who had won so many battles in Europe and set off to invade Asia ... got encouragement from him - he reminded them of their permanent values. They were the world's liberators and one day they would pass the frontiers set by Hercules and Father Liber. They would subdue all races on Earth. Bactria and India would become Macedonian provinces. Getting closer to the Greeks, he reminded them that those were the people (the Persians on the other side) who provoked war with Greece, ... those were the people that burned their temples and cities ... As the Illyrians and Thracians lived mainly from plunder, he told them to look at the enemy line glittering in gold" (Curt.3.10.4-10)
Notice what Alexander told the Macedonians - "Bactria and India would become Macedonian provinces". It is for the glory of Macedonia, not for the glory of Greece. The Greeks, are here a second nation of importance to Alexander.
Throughout Oliver Stone's film there is confusion whether the Macedonians were distinct people or just another Greeks. Ironically the original Synopsis of the film makes the clear distinction between Macedonians and Greeks. There we read: "Alexander led his virtually invincible Greek and Macedonian armies through 22,000 milesHis extraordinary journey begins when Alexander launches his invasion from Macedonia"
Yet although in the Synopsis the Macedonians are separate from the Greeks, and they left from Macedonia and not from Greece, Stone has them fighting for the "glory of Greece"?! The error is obvious.
2) Why the Macedonians and Greeks still hate each other today?
Macedonia is now divided between today's republic of Macedonia, Greece, and Bulgaria. The division occurred in 1912 when Greece, Serbia, and Bulgaria occupied and partitioned the country, inflicting a tragic faith upon the descendents of Alexander.
In the 19th century Macedonia was occupied by the Turkish Ottoman Empire. The Macedonians then were well aware that they, and they alone, were the descendents of Alexander's Macedonians.
This is very important - in this same 19th century, the Greeks did not claim the ancient Macedonians as "theirs," on the contrary. The works of the Greeks in the 18th and 19th centuries reveal that the Greeks did not regard the ancient Macedonians as Greeks, but foreigners who had conquered Greece (see Politis 1993:36; Dimaras 1958; Karagatsis, 1952). Politis had cited fourteen examples from the Greek literature from 1794 to 1841 in which the ancient Macedonians are excluded from the ancient Greek world (1993: 40-42).
With the occupation of southern Macedonia by Greece in 1912-13, everything changed. Greece needs its occupied Macedonian territory and created new propaganda to claim the ancient Macedonians as "Greek". Such propaganda is needed to justify the present occupation. This stealing of the Macedonian history by the Greeks is resented by the Macedonians who have long before the Greeks claimed descent from Alexander, and still do.
3) Why today's Macedonians are direct descendents of Alexander?
In 2001 it was genetically proved by a scientific team from Universidad Complutense in Madrid, Spain, that the ancient Macedonians and the ancient Greeks were two separate and distinct peoples. It also proved that the modern Macedonians are descendants of the ancient Macedonians of Alexander the Great, while the modern Greeks are not related to either the ancient or modern Macedonians. The lengthy scientific paper which was published and entitled "HLA genes in Macedonians and the sub-Saharan origin of the Greeks", concludes the following:
"Macedonians belong to the 'older' Mediterranean substratum, like Iberians (including Basques), North Africans, Italians, French, Cretans, Jews, Lebanese, Turks (Anatolians), Armenians and Iranians. Macedonians are not related with geographically close Greeks, who do not belong to the "older" Mediterranean substratum. Greeks are found to have a substantial relatedness to sub-Saharan (Ethiopian) people, which separate them from other Mediterranean groups. Macedonians are related to other Mediterraneans and do not show a close relationship with Greeks: however, they do with Cretans. This supports the theory that Macedonians are one of the most ancient peoples living in the Balkan peninsula, probably long before the arrival of the Mycaenian Greeks, about 2000 BC."
Thus, genetically and scientifically had been proved not only that the ancient Macedonians were not Greeks, but that they are older then the ancient Greeks. You may read the full content of this genetic study at the following web address: http://www.makedonika.org/processpaid.aspcontentid=ti.2001.pdf
Conclusion
Please consider the Macedonian position when approaching Stone's Alexander. Alexander and his Macedonians would have been appalled by Stone who had tried to make them fighting for Greece, when the ancient evidence says they did for Macedonia, because as the ancient authors testify they were not Greeks.