Terrible on every level.

Rating: 1/10 (11 October 2005)

OK, first off Plutarch admits that in his account of the life of Alexander he was writing to teach a lesson (about 'civilised' moderation) rather than giving a 'true' historical account and therefore intentionally cherry picks scenes from different contradictory sources (a la Rumsfeld) to suit his point. Hollywood or Neocons manipulating history is nothing new, the ancient Greeks did it themselves. Stone uses Plutarch's theme throughout his film, don't be fooled by his placing the tale in the mouth of Ptolemy, Ptolemy was used as his main source by Arrian who wrote an altogether more honest and accurate account of Alexander's life and comes to quite different conclusions than Plutarch which while still dubious in their own right are demonstrably more trustworthy than a self-admitted propagandist.
So why use Plutarch when you know he's intentionally historically misleading? Because it's more sexy.
From him comes the portrayal of Olympias as having snakes in her bed (though not mucking about with them all the time), from him come the most lurid accounts of Alexander's excesses in sexuality, drinking, demagoguery and what have you...they have to be there so Plutarch can ultimately use them to kill him, it's Plutarch who puts Alexander's death down to drinking, a tendentious lesson in how ignoring the Greek virtue of self control will bring even the 'Great' to a sticky end.
Here endeth the history lesson.
As to the film itself my complaints would largely be repeating what's already been said...very silly and inappropriate accents, the structure of the film is a mess, manipulative historical inaccuracies which would have made even Plutarch blush, are they Greek or Macedonian? Misrepresentation of the Achaemenid Persians while completely ignoring Alexander's massacres of civilians, terrible and confusing battles which give no hint at his tactical brilliance (looking mad/daft and shouting a lot does not a great commander make), he gets an arrow in the chest at completely the wrong time and place, awful hammy script making for unintentional comedic moments.....and much, much more.
...takes a breath...
So in conclusion, this film is largely based on the least trustworthy account of Alexander's life which is then messed about with a bit more by Stone, often for no discernibly good reason, then chopped up into a pointlessly confusing, often laughable shambles.
Avoid.