Alexander
I don’t get it… why do people hate this movie so much? I watched this movie late after being turned away by the negative pruning by literally everyone when it was on the big screen. Myself being a history buff had looked forward to seeing this tale of the great conqueror portrayed by one of our better actors in Colin Farrell… but everyone kept saying the same thing “don’t waste your money, I want my three hours back, it is gay porn…”
So for my birthday a good friend of mine blessed me with this DvD and I skeptically placed it in the DvD player. The movie portrayed Alexander the Great, from his youth up until his death after conquering a good portion of the world. The movie shows us what ambition and treachery meant by taking us into the life of one of the most ambitious in history. My only qualms with the way it was shot, was the sporadic method that Mr. Oliver Stone bounced around in his life. We start off with Alexander’s birth then it skips forward into his first war, then we are taken to his teenage years, then back to the aftermath of his war, then flashback to his youth etc. etc.
Having read the history of Alexander in the path I was intrigued by the attention to detail in many scenes. The battles were epic and the focus on human sacrifice out of loyalty revealed the soldier in Oliver Stone that I don’t think any other Director would have bothered to do. It almost brought a tear to my eye when he rode his seasoned horse against the Indian elephant army, and it being the only steed loyal and brave enough to follow his master into certain death. That scene stays in my mind as the mighty horse, riddled with arrows and in it’s final breath reared up defiantly against a beast three times it’s size. It was scenes like this that made it awesome.
The acting was pretty decent if one gets past the fact that everyone had dramatically different accents. Angelina Jolie was absolutely stunning as she played every part the queen and Val Kilmer was his normal convincing self as the rough-hewn king Phillip. I really got into this movie, and I think anyone can if they can get past the homo-erotic sequences that filled every aspect of Alexander’s life… but I mean come on people, it is ancient frikkin Greece, get over yourselves already. Rosario Dawson… this movie showed her at her most beautiful, she was exotic, sexy, and… I’ll shut up but she was hot. The narration by Anthony Hopkins was good but a bit too much for the movie I thought, it may had done better if it started and ended solely on king Alexander.
STAR RATING: (7/10) ★★★★★★★★★★
Filed under Drama, History, War · Tagged with alexander the great, angelina jolie, colin farrell, historical, homosexuality, rosario dawson, val kilmer
