Director:
Oliver Stone

Cast:
Colin Farrell
Angelina Jolie
Val Kilmer
Jared Leto

Official URL:

http://www.alexanderthemovie.com

Country: USA
Rating: PG
Studio Name: Warner Bros Pictures
Running Time:3 hr 0 mins
Release Date: November 24, 2004

Critics's Rating:
(2 1/2 Reels) 

November 24, 2004

By Veronica Mixon

At the heart of Oliver Stone’s epic film, Alexander is a powerful man in turmoil over political expectations and personal dreams. This is familiar territory for three time Academy Award winner whose previous films include the acclaimed Any Given Sunday, Wall Street, JFK, The Doors, Born on the Fourth of July and Platoon. He has always been fascinated with ambitious men who strove to make a difference either for personal gain or power. Alexander touches on the enormous intoxication of wealth, politics, fame, and sensuality like some of Stone’s other biopic subjects -- rocker Jim Morrison, JFK prosecutor Jim Garrison and President Richard M. Nixon. The ancient warrior Alexander, who conquered the known world by the age of 25, was a young man who wanted to impress and surpass his father, and expand the empire that he inherited by conquered people who would love him. It was a difficult task and the young warrior made his mark in the world but he also weathered terrible paranoia. Stone’s Alexander is an exhaustive, intimate look at this ancient hero. It is a valiant effort.

The film is narrated by old Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins The Silence of the Lambs), who outlived the clever warrior and he attempts to explain the ancient history, the politics and warring factions. Alexander’s first battlefield was in the lush Macedonian palace of his birth where his spoiled, ambitious parents constantly fought over everything. King Philip (Val Kilmer Heat)was an impressive warrior in battle but a drunken womanizer during peacetime. Queen Olympias (Angelina Jolie Lara Croft: Tomb Raider – The Cradle of Life) was a worshipper of Dionysus and surrounded herself with snakes probably to repel her many enemies.

“Snakes are like people,” she tells young Alexander. “You can feed them, nurture them for years and still they can turn on you.” Olympias sought to secure her son’s place in the ascension to the throne and filled his head with stories of future glory while his father, reluctant to pass on the power, filled his head with ancient Greek myths of dread. Alexander grew to trust almost no one and found it difficult to pass on wisdom despite his magnificent feats.

Colin Farrell, best known for S.W.A.T. and Minority Report, is Alexander. He’s handsome, energetic but the role seems to overwhelm him. Farrell displays the correct passion and curiosity for the part but I doubt if audiences will identity with him as strongly as they did with Russell Crowe in Gladiator. It’s not Farrell’s fault. He’s gung-ho in the battle scenes which are extensive, bloody and horrific. Nevertheless, the character drowns in the history. Alexander conquers Persia, Hindu Kush and India and it’s an enormous task on screen. There are so many speeches which explains Alexander’s knack at gaining allies by making his conquering army rich while not totally crushing the spirit of the conquered.

Farrell, whose personal life off screen is often tabloid fodder, is fetching eye candy on screen like Crowe and Brad Pitt from Troy, the other historical film released this year. While Stone acknowledges Alexander’s relationship with his childhood friend, Hephaistion played by Jared Leto (Requiem for a Dream, Fight Club) and other men, apparently the reported steamy love scenes between the men have been extracted from the film. Nevertheless, Farrell’s hot love scene with Rosario Dawson (25th Hour), who plays his first wife, Roxane is incredible! Alexander’s sexual life is handled in a mature way.

The film will mostly be remembered for its breathtaking human carnage and the unbelievable beauty of the Persian kingdom. The warrior king’s first encounter with elephants in battle is memorable! But, mostly, Oliver Stone has gone to great lengths to reveal the ancient era and I believe that audiences will find the nearly three hour length of Alexander just too long and exhausting despite the stellar cast, beautiful setting and magnificent costumes.

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