Alexandre le Grand

This is one of those international productions popular in the 1950's. Made in Spain with British, American and French actors.

Robert Rossen is a good director with many fine movies to his credit but really doesn't seem to have the flair for historical epics. There is too much talk and the battle scenes tend to be rather confusing and poorly choreographed.

Richard Burton does his best, his magnificent voice can make something of the most mundane dialogue and he certainly looks virile despite a rather swish looking blonde wig.

A good supporting cast is largely wasted.

"Alexander the Great" not surprisingly attempts to portray the life of Alexander the Great. On the surface it seems as though it should be excellent considering that the cast is led by two prolific actors, Richard Burton and Fredric March as Alexander and his father Philip respectively. The film also features elegant costumes and lavish sets laden with depictions of ancient art and architecture. However, all of these attributes disappointingly don't prevent the film from being extremely tedious.

The film starts with Alexander's earlier life in Macedon and is mostly focused on portraying antagonisms between Alexander and Philip and the relationship of Alexander's mother to both. Richard Burton and Fredric March have some fine moments, but for the most part their dialogue is uninteresting, which makes the film mostly dull since most of the scenes in the film show lengthy discourses. There are jokes added as well that are often followed by a number laughing, but the humor is mostly stale. There is one amusing point where Philip suggests that Alexander should wait until he is dead before naming a city after himself, but this represents an exception rather than the norm. Barry Jones did give an enjoyable performance as Aristotle, although he is only a marginal element in the film.

During this first phase of the film the Battle of Chaeronea of is also portrayed, where forces led by Philip and Alexander defeated a combined Athenian and Theban force in order to unite Greece under Macedonian rule. The battle, despite having an array of extras in it, is handled clumsily. It starts with brief shots of infantry and cavalry crossing a stream and then fighting out of formation. Then the focused is placed on Philip fighting one-on-one and Alexander charging in after him. This portrayal seems to bear little to no resemblance to the actual battle of history, is short in duration and not particularly exciting.

Shortly after half way through the film, Philip dies and the film moves to a portrayal of Alexander's military exploits in Persia. It is in this stage we are introduced to Memnon, a Greek fighting with the Persians. Peter Cushing gives a strong performance as Memnon armed with sharp lines, making his the top performance of the film though the character is seen in relatively few scenes. Harry Andrews is also notable as the Persian emperor Darius, though Darius is never made particularly interesting in the context of an opponent to Alexander. However, the scene representing the correspondence between Darius and Alexander showing the "clash of egos" was well-done.

Most of this phase of the film is a rotation between short battle scenes and more mostly dull dialogue with some rare decent scenes. The Battle of the Granicus is shown basically as a brief cavalry charge. The treatment of Granicus is better than the treatment of Chaeronea, but not much better. There is another final battle between Alexander and Darius, presumably intended to represent the Battle of Gaugamela. The battle starts with a Perisan chariot charge and seems as though it will be interesting, but it quickly culminates in a brief uninteresting cavalry charge as well. The main problem with these battle scenes is that they fail to give a sense of Alexander's military genius. It seems as though he just accumulated territory through a series of brief heroic cavalry charges and the film never represents the tactics used in any of the battles. These are also a series of brief and unnecessary battle clips overlapped by a map of Persia to represent the conquests not shown in "fuller" battles. After Alexander's conquests, the film ends poorly with an uninteresting "harmony and unity" speech from Alexander for Greeks and Persians. "Alexander the Great" is a colossal bore, and I strongly recommend avoiding it.

The dialogue accomplishes so much yet is almost poetic. It is of an elegance rarely seen in modern movies. Many of the key elements in the relationships between Alexander, his men, his parents and his perspectives are explored but battle details are glossed over.

Though far from comprehensive, it tells a good tale and serves as a wonderful introduction to the life of Alexander. I was riveted when I watched this, having read Mary Renault's trilogy. An excellent job!

Oliver Stone's 2004 effort was a let down but the depiction of the Battle of Gaugamela is worth watching.

Historic , big-budgeted and breathtaking epic movie with stunningly mounted battle scenes , but overlong , and a little boring pacing ; being many years later remade by Oliver Stone (2003) in a mammoth version . The movie centers Alexander the Great (Richard Burton at his stormy best and subsequently played by Colin Farrell) , the famous Greek conqueror of the fourth century and disciple of Aristoteles , he was born in Pella and died Babylone (356-323 B.C) . He was son of Philip II (Fredric March and in Oliver Stone's rendition played by Val Kilmer) , King of Macedonya , who vanquished the Greeks in Queronea , unified the cities and Greece in the league of Corinto , but he was cruelly murdered . It starts the year 326 B.C. in a divided , troubled , bloody Greece . Olympia (a delightful Danielle Darrieux , later performed by Angelina Jolie) , Alexander's mother , will stop at nothing to rule over for her son and proclaim him King . Alexander , disciple of Aristoteles (Barry Jones , after interpreted by Christopher Plummer), will fight Persians commanded by Dario the Great (Harry Andrews) who will be vanquished in Granico, Issos and Gaugamela. Alexander conquered Tracia , destroyed Tebas , submitted Capadocia, Lydia , Biblos , Sidon , Tiro , Jerusalem , Susa , Babylone , Persepolis (with firing included), Mesopotamia , Asyria and founded Alexandropolis . Alexander resolved the Gordian knot (by king Gordio) whose prophecy would become him as Emperor of Asia . But a vengeful Alexander kills various friends and generals as Cleitos (Gustavo Rojo) , Parmenius (Niall MacGuinnis) and Philotas (Ruben Rojo) . Emperor Alexander married Babylonian princess named Roxana and arrived in Samarcanda , Khiver pass (Afganistan) , Hifasis and India , crossed the Hindo-Kush where he was infected by fevers and died at 33 years old (323 before Christ) . The empire will split amongst various generals : Ptolemy inherits Egypt and Palestina ; Antioco : Antioquia ; Seleuco takes Syria , and Casandro rules over Macedonia and Greece . So mighty ... it staggers the imagination !The Mighty Story of a Conqueror Who Believed He Was a God!.The colossus who conquered the world! .Conqueror of conquerors! Spectacle of spectacles! The colossus of motion pictures!

Big budget epic about the legendary Greek conqueror . Here we find Alexander is the result of a dysfunctional royal family who wishes create an idealized world modeled in Greek style , this he does by conquering all around the world before dying at the age of 33 years old . The overall casting is important , the remarkable ¨middle order actors¨ include prestigious British actors as Peter Cushing , Stanley Baker , Niall MacGuinnis , Claire Bloom, Michael Hordern as Demosthenes , Helmut Dantine , Barry Jones and Spanish players as Marisa De Leza as Euridice , Gustavo Rojo , Ruben Rojo , Julio Peña , Virgilio Texeira and many others . The great main and secondary casting help to overcome the sluggish developing . Film runtime results to be overlong and a little bit tiring because of the running is about two hours and some and it tires too much. At the picture there are historic events , overwhelming battles , spectacular scenarios and gorgeous landscapes . First-rate production design : impressive temples , palaces , monuments..,the several battle scenes are effectively staged by a cast of thousands , featuring loads of arrows and spears . Grateful acknowledge meant is made of the co-operation shown by the Spanish government , its Army, the Ministry of Information and Turismo and to the officials and people of the various localities in Spain in which this film was made , such as : Madrid , Manzanares , El Molar and Malaga. Colorful and riveting cinematography by Robert Krasker , in Technicolor and Cinemascope ; similar to extraordinary and fascinating Mario Nascimbene's musical score , being well conducted by Franco Ferrara . Robert Rossen's direction is nice , though some moments seem to be a bit confusing and embarrassing . Rating : Although is a much underrated epic , it turns out to be a good movie .

Though not historically accurate you could say this film is based on Alexandre the Great's impressive figure. The point is that it has some important flaws the demerit the product.

First of all Richard Burton was not the actor to play Alexandre though not for his undoubted acting ability but because he was too old. In fact, he was almost the same age the Macedonian hero was when he died, and it shows clearly (even more when the picture takes his life when he was just an adolescent). Secondly, the film is too slow with lots of talk and little action, but Alexander was mainly a man of action. And finally, the not abundant action sequences lack spectacle and strength, even for the middle 50's. So it appears to me that director Robert Rossen either missed the correct focus to tell this story or got too tight to an erroneously focused script.

However the film might be entertaining for those who like epic films and/or are interested in the historical figure (like me) and has some good moments, good color photography, a fine and adequate musical score and a strong supporting cast.

Frederic March does a good job as Philipus II "the Barbarian", Alexander's father, who created the invincible Macedonian "falange" that was so very well used by his son at war. Danielle Darrieux plays Alexander's ambitious and confronting mother and there are fine performances too by Peter Cushing, Stanley Baker, Helmut Dantine and the always reliable Harry Andrews as Persian king Darius.

Just for a look every once in a while, but no too often.