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For more movie summaries, see Kam's Kapsules.
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"Alexander": Alexander the Great: Conquest Makes for Strange Bedfellows
Review by Kam Williams
Over the years, three-time Academy Award-Winner Oliver Stone has taken some heat for his unconventional slants on such political figures as J.F.K., Nixon, and Evita. But none of his controversial biopics has been nearly as inflammatory as Alexander, an adventure about the life and times of Alexander the Great (356-323 B.C.).
Everybody learned in school that this magnificent Macedonian king had an urge to expand his empire eastward, but who had any idea that he had an appetite for mating with men? Whether Stone is revising history is open to debate, but there's less disagreement that the picture is a pretentious, three-hour mess.
Most costume dramas tell you more about the times in which they were made than about the periods of history which they were recreating.
For example, in 1955, audiences were asked to accept the idea of John Wayne as Genghis Khan in The Conqueror. Sporting a Fu Manchu mustache, fake eyebrows, and a hairpiece, Wayne played the Asian invader with the swagger he made famous in westerns and war movies made in that era.
Alexander suffers from the same sort of anachronistic bias, serving up scenarios which bear no resemblance to what might have transpired two millennia ago.
The film stars Colin Farrell in the title role and Jared Leto as Hephaistion, his life partner. Although Angelina Jolie is only a year older than Farrell, she plays Alexander's mother, Olympias, while Rosario Dawson is Roxane, his neglected bride.
Sir Anthony Hopkins narrates as Ptolemy. The film's hedonism is presented subtly in hugs and longing looks.
The movie is about Alexander's military conquests, too, and Stone's battle recreations and mob scenes of bloody hand-to-hand combat are compelling. The big-budget production paid painstaking attention to details in the costume and set design. Too bad the same can't be said about having the cast perfect their accents or about crafting credible dialogue or sensible subplots.
Fair (1 star). Rated
R for violence, nudity, and sexuality. Running time: 173 minutes.
Distributor: Warner Brothers.
end of review.
For more movie summaries, see Kam's Kapsules.