Alexander (2004)
Country: GER/FR/GB/NL/IT/US
Technical: col/Super 35 175m
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Christopher Plummer, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Brian Blessed
Synopsis:
Ptolemy recollects for his scribes in the library of Alexandria how his former commander was driven east by a dream of uniting and circumnavigating the known world, spurred on by dread of his mother's malign influence and sustained by his love for lifelong companion Hephaestion.
Review:
A non-linear approach privileges psychology and character over history but this is nevertheless the most honourable stab yet at doing justice to both. The film's grasp of narrative, sensitively telegraphed through the use of titles, and geography, through contemporary maps, is complemented by a visual sweep and a ravishing realisation of the settings, in which CGI, choice locations and painstaking training of extras all had their place. The cast is never less than competent, but the histrionics grate at times, as does the curious decision to give the Macedonians Irish accents (an attempt at rendering the multi-cultural world of the time without going down the Mel Gibson route). In the end Farrell just lacks the necessary substance to pull it off, but the film is far from the travesty many claimed at the time (it was certainly not a commercial success); it was felt that Scott's Kingdom of Heaven was a far better 'intelligent epic', though on reflection that seems a dubious claim if the emphasis is on 'intelligent'.
Country: GER/FR/GB/NL/IT/US
Technical: col/Super 35 175m
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Christopher Plummer, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Brian Blessed
Synopsis:
Ptolemy recollects for his scribes in the library of Alexandria how his former commander was driven east by a dream of uniting and circumnavigating the known world, spurred on by dread of his mother's malign influence and sustained by his love for lifelong companion Hephaestion.
Review:
A non-linear approach privileges psychology and character over history but this is nevertheless the most honourable stab yet at doing justice to both. The film's grasp of narrative, sensitively telegraphed through the use of titles, and geography, through contemporary maps, is complemented by a visual sweep and a ravishing realisation of the settings, in which CGI, choice locations and painstaking training of extras all had their place. The cast is never less than competent, but the histrionics grate at times, as does the curious decision to give the Macedonians Irish accents (an attempt at rendering the multi-cultural world of the time without going down the Mel Gibson route). In the end Farrell just lacks the necessary substance to pull it off, but the film is far from the travesty many claimed at the time (it was certainly not a commercial success); it was felt that Scott's Kingdom of Heaven was a far better 'intelligent epic', though on reflection that seems a dubious claim if the emphasis is on 'intelligent'.
Country: GER/FR/GB/NL/IT/US
Technical: col/Super 35 175m
Director: Oliver Stone
Cast: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Christopher Plummer, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Hopkins, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Brian Blessed
Synopsis:
Ptolemy recollects for his scribes in the library of Alexandria how his former commander was driven east by a dream of uniting and circumnavigating the known world, spurred on by dread of his mother's malign influence and sustained by his love for lifelong companion Hephaestion.
Review:
A non-linear approach privileges psychology and character over history but this is nevertheless the most honourable stab yet at doing justice to both. The film's grasp of narrative, sensitively telegraphed through the use of titles, and geography, through contemporary maps, is complemented by a visual sweep and a ravishing realisation of the settings, in which CGI, choice locations and painstaking training of extras all had their place. The cast is never less than competent, but the histrionics grate at times, as does the curious decision to give the Macedonians Irish accents (an attempt at rendering the multi-cultural world of the time without going down the Mel Gibson route). In the end Farrell just lacks the necessary substance to pull it off, but the film is far from the travesty many claimed at the time (it was certainly not a commercial success); it was felt that Scott's Kingdom of Heaven was a far better 'intelligent epic', though on reflection that seems a dubious claim if the emphasis is on 'intelligent'.