I expected too much out of the movie, because of a name like Oliver Stone being associated with it. The attempt to re-arrange the timeline for screenplay is too jagged and twists unnecessarily. The gay aspect of the movie is blurred out (either they should have had it or they shouldn't have explored it). Colin Farrell is a good actor (watch him in Daredevil), but I'm not sure the direction and his acting fit in here. Angelina Jolie plays Olympias quite well, though they're reluctant to work the aging factor. The graphical reconstructions used in the film are awesome, and almost indistinguishable from reality. Val Kilmer does justice to the role of King Phillip. Battle descriptions are vague, and Darius is shown too thin and empty. Formidable enemies must be built if they really needed to show Alexander as a man of strength. It's never too easy to make a movie on a great general and his campaigns, that said, this movie doesn't show you how it's done. I would really wait for another movie to be made on Alexander, this one doesn't fit the bill. Why wouldn't someone try Colleen Mcullough's Caesar instead? well written, dramatized and idolized. I haven't read strong dramatized literature on Alexander (I am not saying it doesn't exist, I am saying what exists isn't strongly dramatized). Collen Mcullough has laid the wreath on anybody who's called themselves historical writers, to her 'history' and 'drama' being just a hobby and Neurology being a profession. The King Arthur (2004) movie seemed better made, as they didn't have to cram in too much content and were able to follow a storyline exploring alternate history.
I was coaxed to watch the movie again and that brought to my realization that the Indian screened version has too many cuts. I'll have to wait until I watch a more complete version (DVD+Special Edition/Director's cut) perhaps. I enjoyed Colin Farrell more the next time I watched this movie than anyone else, though he is a bit of a stereotype, he does a great job. Anthony Hopkins plays Old Ptolemy Antiopter, first Alexandrian Pharaoh of Egypt, Macedonia and Alexandria and that has only a subtle remark in the movie - the fact that he wears the ring of Alexander. The fact that Chandragupta (the founder of the Maurya empire) is born the very year of invasion and that Chanakya later met either Seleukus Nikator or Philippus goes unmentioned despite their depiction of India. One other problem that was well noticed is that they did a slight sham of makeup on one-eyed people, where they could've just given them patches. But frostbite and weathered skin are done very well. The climax scene is worse than the Ramayana serials I've watched on DVD, for heaven's sake censor that. Classical history mentions that "Sikander" was never defeated in India, but chose to return to Babylon due to deteriorating morale of his troops. This movie explores an alternate history without explanations. Two crucial scenes missed out of the movie include Alexander's visit to the Oracle at Smyrna (of Zeus) and his solution to the "Gordian Knot."
The last 30 minutes of the movie show Alexander recovering from his wounds and returning to Babylon, which he now believes is his home. Hephaestion dies (or is supposedly murdered) and Alexander is unable to bear the grief. Alexander too, for his love of foreigners (called Barbarians for their inability to speak Greek) is believed to have been murdered by the Greeks who are in no state to accept nor believe in his idea of unification. They fight over the kingdom, kill Roxanna, his wife and Alexander IV (then 13), the rightful heir to the throne. The conspirators re-write history mentioning that Alexander succumbed to disease. To have cut this crucial part of the movie and a few scenes earlier which were neither gory nor sexually explicit to adjust the playing time of the movie in India is preposterous.
Most Indian movies are 3 hrs and more of (extremely gripping and entertaining scenes of) running around trees, expensive sets, and females showing their navels. This accounts for about 85% of the movies made out of India despite recent improvements in the quality of production.
Alexander and the characters in his story of life, woven in a mind-map. This image is a precursor to a short description of these characters from Valerio Manfredo Mansini's book on Alexander. It serves as a mindmap to remember most of the characters involved with ease to the amateur historian.
