I finally got around to see the movie last Friday. After all the negative critics I thought I might skip it, although I was looking forward to it for quite some time.
Turned out it was a good decision to see it after all. Overall I really enjoyed the movie for the following reasons:
- Historical accuracy
- A very impressive battle of Gaugamela
- It refreshingly differed from the typical Hollywood fast-food in having a lot of edges that were not smoothed.
- It inspired me to find out more about the historical events (and that's what a historical movie really should do). After the movie I realized that my knowledge of Alexander the great was mostly based on what I learned in school and what I read on this board - so when coming home at night I was digging up some old books to get some additional knowledge (and to get an idea of the "accuracy" of the movie).
The next day I ordered some additional reading material![]()
Some negatives remain, though:
- There is a vast discrepancy between the Alexander described by the narrator and the Alexander the audience actually sees on screen. The picture the narrator paints is that of a truly grat man - what we see on screen is an Alexander torn apart by his feelings towards mother, father and lover and who permanently has difficulties convincing his companions of his plans and permanently faces treason.
- The relationship between Alexander and his mother and between Alexander and Hephaistion was overdone. It's good to see these relationships in the movie (something Troy was lacking) but they became the main focus of the movie and the main historical events almost degenerated into decoration compared to these relationships.
- Oliver Stone did not succeed in actually building a connection between the audience and the main protagonists of the movie, and some scenes seemed rather long-winded. This worked fine for me but large parts of the audience were thoroghly bored (this was the first time that I saw people being so bored that they left during the movie).
Ok - one might ask, why should I care about people who don't appreciate a good movie. The point this is why the movie failed at the box office and that this failure might lead to difficulties of future historical accurate movies getting the necessary budgets - which would be quite a pity, especially as I believe that the movie could have been made a bit more "appealing to the masses" without sacrificing the positive aspects.
Bottom line:
I enjoyed it, I will enjoy reading more about Alexander and his time, and I will buy the DVD![]()
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