Alexander (2004)
Directed by Oliver Stone
Alexander, the King of Macedonia, leads his legions against the giant Persian Empire. After defeating the Persians, he leads his army across the then known world, venturing farther than any westerner had ever gone, all the way to India.
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4 films that influenced Alexander
What critics say influenced Alexander
Bob Guccione’s cinematic abortion “Caligula” was a work of art compared to this.
A good example of this is during the Braveheart-esque ‘rallying the troops’ scene, which fails dismally, partly because of the script but also because Farrell lacks the screen presence to carry it off.
Gladiator and Braveheart were just as frivolous and nonsensical as this tosh, but in spurts, they connected with the audience's visual appetites.
Those going to this film expecting glorious battles and epic triumphs along the lines of Braveheart or Gladiator will feel cheated.
The battle, as depicted by helmer Stone, is not very different from such scenes from other historical epics as “Braveheart.”
On the day of battle, Alexander illustrates the qualities that made his army fight so passionately—the personal touches to individuals, a " Braveheart " styled inspirational speech, and Alexander's hands on leadership philosophy of diving headlong into battle himself.
Gladiator and Braveheart were just as frivolous and nonsensical as this tosh, but in spurts, they connected with the audience's visual appetites.
Perhaps his greatest miscalculation was to let history be his guide when the lesson of successful Greek and Roman historical movies is to take all the dramatic license necessary to keep the blood boiling, including fictional characters (" Gladiator ") and selective scope (" Troy .")
Somewhat surprisingly, there are only two major battle scenes, and these are primarily influenced by the battle-on-the-ice set piece in Alexander Nevsky, while the too-quick-to-barf carnage follows Gladiator's cut-on-slice editing.
Instead of delivering a mainstream tale of battle and glory along the lines of Gladiator, Stone decided to re-imagine the great Alexander as a Hamlet-like figure.
Alexander is a trashy and lurid, yet almost old-fashioned epic that recalls the eroticized exotics of DeMille epics or Fellini�s Satyricon more than overly morose, war-mongering fare like the recent Gladiator or Lord of the Rings films.
If Alexander wants to be gutsy and different from the Gladiators of the world, Stone has to at least be consistent with his goals and approach.
As has already been widely reported, Stone has also approached Alexanderâs famed bisexuality with an openness and lack of sensationalism that, while not exactly radical by the standards of, say, Derek Jarmanâs Sebastiane, is certainly the closest a major-studio feature has come to advocating for gays in the military.