Alexander Review
by Andrew Staker (mallowisious AT hotmail DOT com)February 9th, 2005
ALEXANDER
"Everyone out of the way, another historical epic is steamrolling through!" I must confess my bias: big, expensive recreations of the past (or fantasy) do not really excite me. I prefer to read about history than see it 'come to life' in a mess of Celtic (and who-knows) accents speaking as if they're reciting the King James and all in hokey costumes. There is an imperious barrier to any kind of realism: a self-awareness of future historical relevance-the characters know their deeds will mean something and hence speak with the requisite augustness. This partly affected the script: another factor may have simply been good old bad writing.
Alexander, in his three different incarnations (child/young/adult: Colin Farrell, blonde wig and all), decreases in visible (and therefore credible) wit, charisma and heroism as he matures. By the end, his big inspirational speeches are as hollow and limp as some rhetoric from Prez Bush.
I also found rather problematic the handling of the homo- or bisexual nature of the conqueror. The pre-release controversy was very heated: a group of Greek lawyers felt their masculinity so threatened by a figure from 2.3 millennia ago (as if those Hellenes continue linearly down to our era!) that they threatened to block the film's release. Stirrers of the pot "Ethnic Tension" also had a go: he was Macedonian, he was Greek... this Balkan obsession easily latched itself onto Oliver Stone's film.
However, the filmmakers' most offensive move was to split Alexander's love in two: eros they gave to the female Roxane (Rosario Dawson) and hence we see her naked body whereas they handed agape over to Hephaistion (Jared Leto) and consequently the only man-man interaction they're prepared to display is some bizarre staring and painfully-awkward embraces.
Aside from the cave-of-myths device and the opening credits, there is not one really positive thing I can say. Alexander opens with the great ruler's Babylonian death. We then go back through his life and watch him grow and develop as a man who will one day rule a great land empire. The battle-scenes are obligatory fare, with some really flinch-inducing gore. If martial ballet is your cuppa, you might get a kick out of this stuff. This is definitely not my kind of thing and so unless you're dead-keen to see it, wait till it's on DVD or better yet, the Sunday night movie.
Andrew Staker
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.
