Alexandre

Don't go looking for three hours of blood and guts. The Greeks were philosophers and there is lots of talk, about everything from moral virtue to sin, to greed and hubris, friendship and love...you get the idea. People who liked Humanities and Contemporary Civilization in college will like this film a lot more than people whose idea of a good time is three hours of Mel Gibson causing bloody havoc. The battle scenes, while gory, are not as explicit as many blood-and-guts fans might be hoping for. Then, the male-male romance was tough on a lot of young guys on dates with their girlfriends. There were lots of nervous titters from young men. This film is ground-breaking, and for those who haven't come to terms with the fact of our universal innate bisexuality (re-read your Freud), it can be troubling. See this film in a trendy neighborhood with highly educated snobs, especially gay ones. You'll be a lot happier.

At first, I didn't feel much of a need to comment on the film, since so many others have written and have said so many things. But I think there are some really important points to made, and I haven't seen anyone make them. So here I am writing.

In my opinion, almost everyone misunderstood the relationship between Hephaistion and Alexander. In the modern world, especially in the West, two men are either very close to each other, sleep together, and have sex, or they keep a good comfortable distance from each other and, if they're friendly, might punch each other on the arm. In this film, we see a relationship that is hard for most people today to understand, namely a passionate love relationship between two men in which sex is not very important and possibly even absent.

Aristotle essentially explained the whole film near the beginning when he told the young couple something like the following, as best I can remember it, "When two men lie together in lust, it is over indulgence. But when two men lie together in purity, they can perform wonders." Or something like that. Given what I know of that culture, I am sure that "in purity" means no sex, or at least very little. That's why we never see them kiss. In the film, as in many older films, kissing is a metaphor for sex. Even when Alexander kisses his mother, it refers to the idea of sex. That's why Alexander kisses Bagoas, but not Hephaistion.

Now I'm not sure if the real historical Aristotle would have made that remark. That's not exactly what he says about homosexuality in the Nicomachean Ethics. But the remark is plausible enough since Alexander could easily have heard such an idea during his youth. Plato (before Aristotle) expressed that idea, and Zeno of Citium (after Aristotle) did too. So even if Aristotle never said this to Alexander, it is plausible enough that the idea was in the air and that Alexander heard it from someone or other.

Some have complained that the "homosexuality" (assuming that A's relationship with Heph. should even be called that) was thrown in their faces too much. But it's crucial to the plot. Stone is hypothesizing that Hephaistion was essential for what Alexander did. Further, it's a standard Hollywood convention to juxtapose a love story with some great political, military, or otherwise grand event. There are tons of examples. Titanic, Enemy at the Gates, Gone with the Wind, ... the list could go on forever. It really is homophobic to complain about Stone continually going back to this theme, because he has a perfectly good artistic reason to do it.

A few more details: Alexander's hair. I think that Stone was trying to make Alexander look like Martin Potter in Satyricon -- a nod to Fellini.

Alexander's accent and soft appearance. Another nod to a great director passed on, this time Stanley Kubrick. Farrel really looks a lot like Ryan O'Neil in Barry Lyndon. In fact, he really looks like a Ryan O'Neill / Martin Potter coalescence. I think it's deliberate.

The softness of Alexander's personality. In a lot of scenes it made sense. He was gentle enough to know how to approach Bucephalus and tame him without scaring him. He was open minded enough to adopt a lot of Persian culture and encourage intermarriage, while the other more "he-man" folks around him were less comfortable with the idea.

Yes, if you haven't figured it out by now, I do like the film. People's hatred of the film is hard for me to understand.

Though many have had very negative things to say about it, I felt that it was a good movie. Watching that Colin, I forgot that he was Colin and started to see Alexander. Just for that I felt that this movie is of some worth. I have to admit some of the lines sent chills down my spin, but the movie on the whole was good. Historically this movie could not have been far off. Pertaining to Alexander's death, I liked how the cause was left ambiguis. Those that say that Stone butchered History in making this movie I find to be wrong. Though Alexander might not have been blond, why not by the way, much of what was portrayed went against common belief but true to what we have learned of the great conqueror. I guess summed up, this was a GOOD movie, I enjoyed myself, and was able to immerse myself in Stone's interpretation of the life of a GREAT man.

Saw Alexander last night and loved it. Would I recommend it? Yes-BUT-be forewarned, this is not your classic historical epic so leave behind all ideas of what an historic epic film should be and bring along an open the mind for a wonderful ride. After all, one doesn't expect Ben-Hur or The Robe or The Ten Commandments from Oliver Stone. He uses jumpy camera shots and grainy filters as well as wonderful color filters that give the battle scenes a viscerally disturbing edge, taking the viewer out of their complacent acceptance of 21st century, violent battle scenes and making them squirm. I felt the desiccating heat at Gaugamel as well as the cloying humidity of the Indian forests. The grandeur of the CGI presentation of Babylon was awe inspiring as was the set for the Library at Alexandria.

The subtle presentation of the film in Greek Tragedy format worked well for me, from Pharoah Ptolomy representing the chorus through the Oedipal angst of Alexander's love/hate relationship with his parents. The costuming was perfection, as was the architecture. Not once was I jolted by an incorrect piece of art, jewelry, fabric or weapon. The use of a Gypsy Horse (or Irish Cob) for Bucephalus was a striking choice. They are a majestic breed and, although I am under-educated as to what his actual breed was, he was well cast.

Before seeing the film I was only aware of Messers Stone and Farrell and Ms. Jolie's involvement so I was pleasantly surprised by the appearance of Brian Blessed as the wrestling master and Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Cassander, and I was thrilled by the Vangelis score! I have not heard a Vangelis score since The Bounty.

As for the representation of love between Alexander and Hephaestion, my hat is off to Oliver Stone for his presentation of a love that transcended gender and was as true as that Paris held for Helen. Unlike the recent film of Troy, in which the lovers Achilles and Patroclus were made into platonic cousins, Oliver Stone has courageously represented an historic love to a culture wherein the attitude towards male/male pairings have become anethema. That the Great General Alexander had a male life companion is a simple fact of history as we know it. In my years at school it was not presented as either laudable or offensive, it was simply a researched fact. History as we know it tells us that the Greece of Alexander's time looked upon such pairings as Alexander's and Hephaestion's as something acceptable as long as they grew in knowledge and virtue. Christopher Plummer's Aristotle sums this up in one simple speech near the beginning of the film and, by taking Ganymede to his side, the greatest of all Greek Gods, Zeus, sanctioned such pairings. Like it as not, right or wrong, the *gender issue* and *gay issue* are a none other than a matter of popular opinion, and popular opinion at the time of Alexander was that men lay down with men as well as women. It simply was, and that is how Oliver Stone handled it-simply-without defense or apology and that took guts.

Even without the *controversial* relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion, this would have been a 9.5 out of 10 for me.

The movie shows with excruciating detail the personal drama of one of the most influential characters in world history. Without Alexander there would be no western civilization since the Greeks liked keeping their culture for themselves only.

This picture is not for the faint of heart since it depicts the flaws of a real person and the way he really lived. As for those who expected to see a Gladiator movie... Well they are not Alexanders... But nations like the American nation were built by founding fathers who had the heart of Alexander the Great.

Kudos to Stone