waste of time and money

Rating: 1/10 (16 January 2005)

i have been a keen follower of stone and his works, and i have been an amateur student of ancient history. so when the two were offered together as a package in Alexander, i would have wept for joy, till i entered the theatre and saw the movie .
the net result is as disappointing as rain on the day of a school picnic. if oliver stone is to be believed, Alexander is in the line up for the next Nobel peace prize. Anthony Hopkins's' boring,soporific voice glosses over all of Alexander's cruelties, massacres ( he slaughtered men women and children in the plains of India and the hundukush as punishment for trying to resist him, hanging fakirs and seers , while demolishing tyre to the ground.) as for historical accuracy, anyone who claims it is so has got his history all mixed up. there is no mention or even depiction of the leftward feint at gaugmela, and the plans for the battle were revealed by Alexander to his general on the very morning of the battle, not th night before. as for the battle peter Greene considers Alexander's most skillful , the fight with porus at the hydaspes ( both because the Greeks were against elephants, and because porus and his Indians were a much tougher nut to crack than Darius), we are subjected to a skirmish in a dense thicket, with lots of confused slashing, Alexander wounded by a face pierced rajah who runs away from the battle. in fact, it was fought on the sand banks of the river, after a daring Greek night crossing which took porus by surprise, who was , incidentally captured alive. by the way, Alexander was wounded on his way home at the town of Malia. as a reprisal, the Greeks razed it to the ground and massacred every living soul , including children , goats and cattle. ( but of course, Anthony Hopkins's would shrug his shoulders as say , so what!).
in conclusion, for a man who was famous as a great general and a poor public relations man, we get to see more of his public relations side and less of his military stratagems. he comes out more as a weepy confused lad who strangely enough, wins against odds. and by the way, contrary to the announcement in the beginning , Alexander did not last long in the lands he conquered. the Asians got rid of his satraps as soon as they could and reverted back to their old selves.