Anabasis

[LeftEyeNine]

Just finished Xenopohon's piece and I reckon you could make at least a movie trilogy out of it.

What do you think of the book ?

[Azathoth]

Wasn't Vin Diesel working on a movie project related to this? I read the news on this very forum in 2008.

[Martok]

To my shame, I must confess I've not yet gotten around to reading it. It's on my to-do list, but it's a ways down still.

[LeftEyeNine]

Wasn't Vin Diesel working on a movie project related to this? I read the news on this very forum in 2008.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt1272879/

[Alexander the Pretty Good]

I've been meaning to read this. I've read a little bit about it (and listened to a lecture on it) and it sounds like some knock-out awesome stuff.

[LeftEyeNine]

Most of the book is simply amazing to imagine. As obvious I read a Turkish translation but the language is very fluent when the action is present and somewhat epic when speeches take their turn.

[Skullheadhq]

I've read it a year ago, that was the first thing I thought: "Why isn't this a movie?". In the Dutch edition this question was asked in the prologue. It's just so atmospheric: The collective suicide, the Thracian expedition, the incidents at Byzantium, the internal politics of Greece at that time that are mentioned now and then, and most of all, the schemes and power structures after the assasination of the generals. A very good book.

[Jolt]

Because usually script writers grab a perfectly good story and to adapt it to the movie turn it into some horrible story that has little to do with the book and if littler to do with the world.

Just take into consideration that they wanted to make a sequel to the film Gladiator (Great movie, good story-telling, etc) and the writer wrote a story on how Maximus goes into the Roman underworld then tricks the gods into bringing him back alive and gains immortality, proceeding to go through history doing justice (Protecting Christians from the Roman persecutions, fights with Crusaders against the muslims, fighting in the World War 2, fighting Vietcongs in Vietnam, working at the Pentagon, and commanding Mecha-bots into battle.)

...So yeah.

[Skullheadhq]

Just take into consideration that they wanted to make a sequel to the film Gladiator (Great movie, good story-telling, etc) and the writer wrote a story on how Maximus goes into the Roman underworld then tricks the gods into bringing him back alive and gains immortality, proceeding to go through history doing justice (Protecting Christians from the Roman persecutions, fights with Crusaders against the muslims, fighting in the World War 2, fighting Vietcongs in Vietnam, working at the Pentagon, and commanding Mecha-bots into battle.)

...So yeah.

Lolwut? Do you have a link for this story?
And how is fighting with the crusaders 'doing justice'?

[Jolt]

You could argue the same thing for every single situation I mentioned. How is fighting Vietcongs or working at the Pentagon doing justice?

Just search in google for Gladiator sequel script or something to that effect.

[Skullheadhq]

We intercut the following with shots of the dying stag from earlier in the film:
- Middle Eastern Battlefield: Maximus stands surrounded by hundreds of Crusaders as they battle a Muslim army. Everyone dies around him, only Maximus remains untouched.
- Europe: Maximus battles tanks in World War 2.
- Vietnam: Maximus battles Vietcong with a flamethrower.
- The Pentagon, Present Day: Maximus washing his hands in a men’s room sink. He stares at himself in the mirror…reflecting. Mordecai stands behind him…whispers: “Until eternity itself has said it’s prayers.” Maximus exits; proceeds into a large war room containing a dozen men in suits.

Hollywood is sick indeed. Not only Hollywood, the comments all said "AWESOME story, I'd see it if it was released!". Such people should be shot in the neck.

[al Roumi]

Thanks for posting about this book LeftEyeNine, I've ordered a copy from amazon ont he strength of your reviews!

I was also having a mosey at the wikipedia page and came accross the following image of the contemporary Perisan empire:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

What strikes me is that this is (to my knowledge) almost exactly the area which Alexander the Great conquered... This somewhat undermines the image I had of him demolishing a series of empires and kingdoms from Greece to the Indus, if in fact he just conquered the extents of the already vast Persia. Now I'm sure the Persian empire was goverened by a system of local proxy monarchs but my impression of his greatness was due to the expanse which he conquered and included in his empire. In effect, his empire could appear not much more dramatic than an internal coup!

Anyway, before you get the knives, chainsaws and 'bats out, this almost certainly has more to do with my lack of knowledge and misconceptions of Alexander's achievements. Also, Persia remains a big empire for (small) Macedon to conquer!

[Skullheadhq]

What strikes me is that this is (to my knowledge) almost exactly the area which Alexander the Great conquered... This somewhat undermines the image I had of him demolishing a series of empires and kingdoms from Greece to the Indus, if in fact he just conquered the extents of the already vast Persia. Now I'm sure the Persian empire was goverened by a system of local proxy monarchs but my impression of his greatness was due to the expanse which he conquered and included in his empire. In effect, his empire could appear not much more dramatic than an internal coup!

That's about right, 3 major victories and he was king.

[Mouzafphaerre]

.
We've been through sections of it during the classes the past year. The coming year I estimate most of the translation lessons' material to consist of watered down Anabasis extracts.
.

[Dodge_272]

There already is an Anabasis film, it's called The Warriors and it came out in 1979 and it's remake will be out in 2011. And it is awesome.




Luckily, Astérix discovered the Latin phrase and removed it before Obélix saw it - LVI

[spmetla]

It is an excellent story and I usually recommend it to my buddies who want to read more history but don't have the attention span for 'scholarly' works. It's one of the coolest tales of adventure and overcoming adversity that I know of. I'd never heard of 'the Warriors' and will have to go keep my eyes out for it, though it is a bit odd how it's been adapted, I'd certainly prefer a tale that's actually of the period, and hopefully not of the 300 variety of movie making.