It's all fun and games until someone puts out an eye ...
Posted on 11/24/2004 4:10:44 AM PST by jalisco555
If you played a word-association game with "Alexander the Great," you'd probably come up with "conqueror," "king," "warrior," "legend," "despot," "wastrel" or "killer." Unfortunately, Oliver Stone has chosen to build his epic of the Macedonian military genius around a word highly unlikely to make the list: "crybaby."
In Stone's view, this is a highly neurotic young man whose emotions, far from being repressed or disciplined as one would expect of a great soldier of the 4th century B.C., are worn on his sleeve, except, of course, that he doesn't have sleeves, the shirt still being two millennia down the road. So he wears them on his wrist -- and it's a limp one.
As Alexander's mother, Angelina Jolie (replete with snake) is given a thankless role, while star Colin Farrell gets lost in the shuffle in another been-there, seen-that battle scene. (Photos Jaap Buitendijk -- Warner Bros. Pictures)
That's the weirdest aspect of the extremely weird, if absurdly expensive, movie. Stone gives himself much credit of "telling the truth" about Alexander's bisexuality as if it's some progressive badge of honor, but at the same time he can't get away from the cruelest, least imaginative stereotyping: His Alexander, as expressed through the weepy histrionics of Colin Farrell, is more like a desperate housewife than a soldier. He's always crying, his voice trembles, his eyes fill with tears. He's much less interesting, except as a basket case, than Richard Burton's Alexander of far less enlightened times -- 1956 -- in Robert Rossen's "Alexander the Great."
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
But its got Angelina Jolie (replete with snake)! What am I missing?
Just rename the movie to: "Alexander the Fabulous".
If we are lucky this will be Oliver Stone's last movie.
Oliver Stone directed it. Enough reason to skip it.
Yes, but playing the mother?
Legend has it that Alexander's father sneaked a peek at his wife (Alexander's mother)and found her in bed fondeling a snake. It turned him off of her for life. She was supposed to have been a real conniving shrew, telling Alexander that Philip was NOT his father, as she was impregnated by a God.
For a minute, I thought I was reading a Mark Steyn review (Ultimate Compliment!)
Oliver Stone movies seem to reshape history to fit his fantasies, which in my view, are all neurotic.
I'm currently reading Steven Pressfield's "The Virtue of War" which is a fictional autobiography of Alexander. Very interesting and would make a terrific movie. It looks like Stone's flick is like "Troy", another wasted opportunity.
Put in a couple of scenes of Alexander spearing SUVs, during a tidal wave that swamps New York city while a gay couple swaps spit during a wedding ceremony under a poster stating that Bush is Hitler.
And rename the movie "Attack of the $6 Frappuccinos Sipping Killer Metrosexuals."
That should attract the Michael Moore crowd..
It's all fun and games until someone puts out an eye ...
Send him home with Chomsky. The two can swap views with eachother.
Nothing to waste any money on, that's for sure.
I have "Alexander of Macedon," by Peter Green. It's quite a story!
LOL! Thanks for my first laugh of the day!
What is a fictional autobiography? Isn't that an oxymoron? Fiction is fiction, isn't it. Always thought this was a notion that was floated a few years back by left wing revisionists would-be historians. But hey, what do I know!
Headlights aside, I think the "tattoo with evening gown" look just radiates class.
What is a fictional autobiography?
"....Then there's Angelina Jolie as Mom. Really, words fail me here. But let's try: Give this young woman the hands-down award for best impression of Bela Lugosi while hampered by a 38-inch bust line."
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