Alexander the Great

Not a whole lot of plot, but fun to watch for Shatner's performance. Adam West had surprisingly few lines for a second-billed role.

As I write this, the pilot is available to watch for free on YouTube. Just search for "Shatner Alexander the Great."

If I remember correctly, I only saw this flick once, and that was many years ago. Therefore I don't remember much about it except that it was so bad, it was hilarious. First of all was William Shatner in his usual hammy, overacting mode (did he have any other?). As a horse lover, I could not help but notice that Alexander's famous horse, Bucephalus, was played by an American Saddle Horse, which breed was not developed for many centuries after Alexander's time. However, I must recommend "Alexander the Great" mainly because it contains probably my favorite line in motion picture history. Alexander says of Bucephalus, "Did I not tell you that among horses he too is a God?" This stinker is worth seeing for that alone!

Do you want to see Captain Kirk and Batman in the same scene? Or how about two great stage actors in a BC period piece? William Shatner, Joseph Cotten, John Cassavetes, and Adam West all teamed up for the television hour-long movie Alexander the Great. It was obviously a low-budget flick, and the two famous tv fellows weren't famous yet.

Really, the only reason to watch this is if you think William Shatner is a stud. He prances around in skimpy Roman costumes showing off his body, and he looks very cute with his wavy, blond hair. The movie itself is pretty bad. It's one of those old tv movies that give old tv movies a bad name. But I did sit through the entire hour. I like to look at pretty things.

A story about great men that would come to redefine our civilisation. An event whose impact would reach the "ends of the world and the great outer sea". A cultural revolution had started that would mark the beginning of an epoch.

None of these statements describes this made for TV pilot movie, which is a rather turgid retelling of the Battle of Issus with William Shatner in the title role and Adam West playing Robin to his Alexander. The script is horrible, the acting is wooden and thank god this pilot was never picked up.

Three years later Shatner and West were free to be cast in their iconic roles and history was made.

In his autobiography, Adam West stated, "May well be the worst hour of TV in history" regarding this pilot for a proposed TV series that he co-stared in. Is it THAT bad? Of course not - I've seen worse pilots and worse TV series. That's not to say that this is a GOOD pilot, however. I will say that it doesn't look bad - some time and expense was put into making or getting a hold of period costumes and props, though it does look some battle footage was taken from a theatrical movie. And there is some amusement from Shatner's sometimes hammy performance as the title figure, and that this great leader is sometimes portrayed as a kind of adolescent goofball. But that is all that is entertaining about this pilot. It's a real dull affair for the most part, with a lot of stiff and dry dialogue. The pilot also fails to provide enough explanation for viewers who know little to nothing about Alexander the Great and his military campaign, so as a result there are some confusing parts. If you do want to watch this pilot despite what I've said, it can be found on the Mill Creek DVD company's 50 movie pack "The Sensational Sixties", which managed to uncover a decent-looking print for this now public domain production.