alexander...the movie

[VAE VICTUS]

ok just wacthed ALEXANDER the movie.ok from a movie goer stand point i liked it.from a historical standpoint im not sure.i read alexander the great by peter green last year.but forgot a lot of it.so can anyone point out the historical errs?i have some i think,but im not sure.but was alexander's "GRAND PLAN" of mixing races and making europe and asia one,was there ever any kind of inkling of this in the annals of true history?and if so did he mean it,or did he merely lust for power?

[Colovion]

After reading Alexander of Macedon by Harold Lamb (which is essentially a biography) I can say from what they portrayed, it was relatively similar to the biography. They obviously missed huge events in the movie like the Seige of Tyre and others, but what they were displaying turned out rather well in my mind. I wasn't expecting the best movie ever, but in general it was very similar. He was a Macedonian who fell in love with the Greek culture and then later, much more so, to the Eastern culture. In doing that I believe he became the epitome of what he desired; everyone to accept and appreciate everyone else's cultures.

[Byzantine Prince]

I love how people in the west consider northern greeks, non-greeks, or barbarians. This despite the fact that we had the same names, language, religion, and culture. What do you guys need a birth certificate of every northern greek for the past 6,000 year?

Yeah the movie was good, but it's not one that I would want to buy. There are some lame parts that could have been better. Also why on earth did they have to shoot in northern Africa?!? That's why it cost them so much money, they could have easily done it on the deserts of California and Nevada, but NOOOO.

[caesar44]

Maybe he was Graeco-Macedonian ?

[The Stranger]

the movie sucked, but from historical view it was oke. but it still sucked, atleast it wasnt worth paying $9 for

[Taurus]

I did not like the movie one bit. There should have been a lot more battles in that film and a lot less scenes reminding us of ALexander's preferences. ALso the battles that were included like Gaugamela were only about 3 minutes long. They could have made that film a lot better imo.

[Colovion]

I love how people in the west consider northern greeks, non-greeks, or barbarians. This despite the fact that we had the same names, language, religion, and culture. What do you guys need a birth certificate of every northern greek for the past 6,000 year?

I'm not pulling this stuff out of the air, I'm pulling it from Greeks writers such as Demosthenes. He lived at that time, he was a Greek, and he didn't see Macedonians as Greeks at all. Couple that with Alexander having Macedonian and Epirote royal blood in him, being born in Macedon and being raised there, I fail to see the Greek ethnicity. Oh by the way this:

the same names, language, religion, and culture.

is complete Greek revisionism and total bollocks. Educated peoples of the day, and merchants, would use Greek to speak with eachother. Alexander spoke Greek, but he would use his native tongue to call on his troops as they spoke Macedonian primarily. Do a little more reading on the subject - I've had this discussion with many people and the other side never have anything other than grand conjecture and blatantly false assumptions thrown around.

[Kraxis]

Keep the politics out please... We all know the arguments and counterarguments. And we all have out idea of the truth, and I can safely say that noone will back down. So what is the point of the argument? NONE!!!

So please do not continue this. It is about the movie not about Alexander's ethnicity.

I actually liked the movie.
It had the balls to show him as a slowly degrading man with a genius on the battlefield. Most other movies would have presented him as a conquering hero all along with a sly smile or a deep frown as he contemplated the future. You know, mythical status.

I'm sad, though, that Tyre or Gaza was left out (save a short comment on Gaza). I'm also sad about the confusing pace of events. At one point Alexander storms out of the palace, the next he is at Gaugamela... To anyone who doesn't know the events would be quite confused, and I know several people who did get confused.
I did like how we folloed the army to end of the 'world', to see how they suffered, how they began to struggle against Alexander and finally forced him home. It did give the movie a streak of mythological events. Not the least because Alexander and his buddies kept talking about other mythical events.
The battle of Hydaspes was to say the least, very impressive, but unlike the rest of the movie it was horribly ahistorical. The only historical parts was the fact that the elephants did pressure the phalanx, the rest you can throw out, including the setting.

All in all it was worth it for me, perhaps because the view I had of Alexander was that of a semi-crazy man, so it fitted well with the movie.

[eadeater]

Terrible movie - but his lady friend was very nice

[caesar44]

With 200,000,000 $ even I could have done a better movie

[VAE VICTUS]

Terrible movie - but his lady friend was very nice

hell yeah,he shuold have been like hephaiston who
?!?!?!

[Advo-san]

I'm not pulling this stuff out of the air, I'm pulling it from Greeks writers such as Demosthenes. He lived at that time, he was a Greek, and he didn't see Macedonians as Greeks at all.

"Blessed are the poor-minded, for they will inherit the kingdom of heaven". Demosthenes was an ATHENIAN retor (=polititian) that was trying to persuade the Athenians to march against Phillipe (Alexander's father) in order to save an Athenian city named Olynthos which was invaded by Phillip How 's THAT for history knowledge???

@Colovion: I ve read all three Dimosthene's speaches written against Phillipe. His argument about the barbaric, non-greek nature of the Macedonians is so feeble even Dimosthenes is not bothering to back it up. He is just throwing insults on Phillipe.
But, you preffer to ignore things as the language of the macedonians (not their trading language, but the language CARVED ON THEIR GRAVES), their gods and culture. Did you know ARISTOTLE WAS ALSO MACEDONIAN, from a village named Stageira? Mabe he wasn't Greek too, ha!!
Mabe you should pay a visit to Phillip's the barbarian grave, and read the scripts carved on it. It is GREEK. Ask a Greek to translate it for you. It is his native language.

[Steppe Merc]

Language is not the same as culture always.