Posted on 12/05/2004 7:24:05 PM PST by quidnunc
Alexander the Great, so we are told, held sway over most of the known world by the time he was 30. Which is more than can be said of Oliver Stone's movie version. Far from winning hearts and conquering minds, the reaction in Greece when the picture was first released was one of spume-flecked fury. The hissing noise, emanating from the country where they have long laid claim to the old Macedonian imperialist, was that of steam emerging from starched collars. Before they had even seen the picture, 25 of Athens's top lawyers became exercised about rumours that the greatest of all adopted Greek heroes was depicted as not entirely heterosexual.
Colin Farrell's portrayal of the man whose very name evokes all that is mighty about Hellenic manhood, so they had heard, was less swaggering champion than a sort of Balkan Graham Norton, mincing his way across the globe on an exhaustive search for a nice young man to share interior design tips and settle down to some fireside embroidery. It was, the Athenian briefs insisted, a grotesque libel. Something had to be done. And, in order to seek recompense on behalf of an entire nation so grievously damaged by the implication, they were prepared to subject Stone to the full majesty of the oldest legal system in the world.
"We would have reacted the same way if the issue didn't involve homosexuality," Yannis Varnakos, spokesman for the 25 lawyers, claimed. "We just don't want a distortion of historical facts."
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at telegraph.co.uk ...
The Greek says "We discovered the joy of sex,"
"Yes," says the Italian, "but we introduced it to women."
LOL! I haven't seen Alexander and wasn't planning to see it, but each item I read about it makes it seem ever more awful. May have to see it just for the laughs and schadenfreude over the end of Stone's career.
Oh geez, I thought the Kerry election stuff was over. Oops wrong thread.
What a shame that the lawyers backed down. Imagine if they had gone through with litigation and actually won. Stone would have been obliged publicly to admit that it was unlikely Alexander wore blond highlights and had a habit, every time he marched into a new city, of turning to his generals and saying: "Bejaysus."
LOL!!!
You made my day. Thanks. :)
bump
I didn't know it was not common knowledge. I had always heard that the greatest warrior in history was homosexual.
I am not condoning this movie, I haven't even seen it.
If Stone made a big deal about it, that was just a waste of film.
They didn't call it Greek Love for nothing.
Of course, San Francisco wasn't around at the time.
In retrospect, maybe this movie was good revenge for the crappy 2004 [anti-american] summer olympics...
But then, somewhere about two and a half hours in, the the overwhelming idiocy of the thing starts to provoke uncontrollable laughter. It's sooooo camp, so bad it's good, so bad it's - dare I say it? - GREAT!
Native Americans living in the SF area did have homosexuals living openly in their communities, married and living together. In fact, one of the homosexual pair would wear a skirt, the other would go hunting. Because women weren't allowed to hunt, only men could enter into these homosexual marriages.
I was at the olympics, it was not anti-american. It was fantastic, the events were well run and the city had well trained and organized volunteers ready to answer questions. The only disappointed people were the reporters who were left wandering around Athens with no bad news to report.
I think these lawyers are just backing off to avoid giving this box office bomb more PR. Apparently (per drudge) its revenues have dropped some 60% in its second week of release. This makes about 30 million.
The only question now is where the "EEEEEureropeans" will pay their euros to see a Oliver Stone's homosexual film. These were the saps who saved king arthur and troy after they died at the US box office.
Maybe you're right, but I recall a lot of booing and thumbs down and things of that nature... maybe the media just magnified that stuff...
Oliver Stone is obsessed.
His next movie is about Reagan and Thatcher having an affair.
He is one sicko!!!!!!!!!!!!
Don't you mean Jenjis Khan?
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