Alexander Review
by Laura Clifford (laura AT reelingreviews DOT com)November 25th, 2004
ALEXANDER
---------
In all of history, only one man was great enough to have conquered ninety percent of the known world by traveling 22,000 miles and fighting 70 battles undefeated - "Alexander."
Ironically, there is little in Oliver Stone's ("Any Given Sunday") dream project that marks it as an Oliver Stone film. Sure, he gives Alexander an animal spirit and a hallucinogenic trip on 'strong wine,' but the enormity of his subject's life overwhelms the constraints of a three hour film. "Alexander" has some striking moments, but too much of it barely skims the surface.
After a brief flashback to Alexander's death bed, we're whisked away to the stunningly realized port of Alexandria, where an aging Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins, "The Human Stain," "Nixon") is recounting Alexander's exploits to a scribe (English on papyrus! A poor choice - it's just plain wrong). Ptolemy describes how Alexander changed the world by attempting to unite it, then admits that idolization is perhaps gilding the truth.
The young Alexander (Connor Paolo, "Mystic River") is torn between his doting mother, the Greek Olympius (Angelina Jolie, "Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow," vamping it up and rolling her r's like an Eastern European when the rest of the Greeks speak with English accents), and his Macedonian father, King Philip (Val Kilmer, "Spartan," "The Doors"), who doesn't think much of the boy until he proves himself by calming and riding Bucephalus, a wild black stallion. Alexander's life long friendship with Hephaistion (played by Jared Leto, "Panic Room," as an adult) is established and given homoerotic subtext in wrestling lessons and the teachings of Aristotle (Christopher Plummer, "National Treasure"), who cautions that men should not lie together only for lust.
Olympius, whose constant live snake adornments make them seem like her familiars, begins to push Alexander (Colin Farrell, "A Home at the End of the World") to make his claim on the throne when Philip takes a Macedonian wife, Eurydice (Marie Meyer), who also bears him a son. When Philip is murdered, Alexander vows revenge on the Persians and begins his worldwide conquest by defeating King Darius (Raz Degan, "Titus") at the Battle of Gaugamela, even though Alexander's army is greatly outnumbered. Alexander continues to move Eastward for the next eight years, taking a hill chief's daughter, Roxane (Rosario Dawson, "The 25th Hour"), as his wife against the counsel of his generals and even facing mutiny as he pushes into India.
After one last, brutally bloody battle where he loses his beloved Bucephalus followed by the death of Hephaistion, Alexander agrees to return home, but like his hero, Achilles, he dies at a young age - thirty-two - without making it back to his birthplace.
Alexander only sparks intermittently during its first two hours. Jolie's campy performance is entertaining, if confusing, and is countered by Dawson's hellcat wedding night behavior (Alexander removes her snake bracelet before sex, perhaps in denial over his bride's resemblance to his mother). Philip shows the boy cave drawings of Greek myths which presage Alexander's life. The young Alexander calms Bucephalus by linking their shadows. An eagle's eye view at Gaugamela gives us the vast scope of the battle, if not the strategy. Babylon is stunningly realized by production designer Jan Roelf ("Orlando"). A quiet conversation between Alexander and Hephaistion the first evening in Babylon allows Farrell and Leto to define their relationship. Aside from these moments, however, there's too much empty talk and too little action. Alexander fought seventy battles, but we're only shown two - Stone would have us believe the Great conquered the known world by merely traveling through it. The film feels like it was assembled for time and lost its cohesiveness and stylistic flow in the editing room. There are too many intertitles jumping us forward and backward in time.
The film's final third is more cohesive and shows more of Stone's hand, beginning with the crossing of the Hindu Kush, where Alexander sees the face of Zeus in a snowy mountaintop. The spectacular battle which pits Alexander's men against elephants, animals which they are seeing for the first time, is tinted red by director of photography Rodrigo Prieto ("21 Grams," "Frida"), giving it the surreal edge Stone is known for and features the film's most stunning shot, Alexander on his rearing horse made diminutive by a standing elephant, like St. George against the dragon.
Colin Farrell is better than expected in the title role, but he lacks the majesty necessary to put over the greatness of the man. Farrell's Alexander is more a lover than a fighter. While his physical achievements on horseback must be lauded, Farrell doesn't project the graceful power Brad Pitt gave to Achilles in "Troy."
Stone, who had such passion for this project, fails to deliver a fully formed "Alexander." Perhaps the mini-series is the only method for a story made up of such mind-boggling statistics.
C+
For more Reeling reviews visit http://www.reelingreviews.com
Originally posted in the rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup. Copyright belongs to original author unless otherwise stated. We take no responsibilities nor do we endorse the contents of this review.
