Victor Davis Hanson Ping !
Let me know if you want in or out
Posted on 12/15/2004 8:43:59 AM PST by quidnunc
The consensus about Oliver Stone's Alexander is that the film's splashy gay motifs could not overcome the stilted dialogue, ludicrous Irish-brogue and Count Dracula accents, and excruciating minutes of dead screen time devoted to model-like poses, secretive eye contact, and soap-opera double entendres. Stone's apparent hope was that he could garner media hype by overt homosexual scenes of kissing and hugging, and by candor about same-sex relations: The world's first global conqueror was really more a sensitive and feminine creature of the bedroom and banquet hall than a great captain of blood and iron.
In reality, the movie proved not so much scandalous as boring. The problem with Stone's lurid sexual narrative is not his historical inaccuracies, but the movie's obsession with sexual intrigue, which causes much of Alexander's amazing story to be lost. The controversies that emerge from the extant historians of Alexander — Arrian, Curtius, Diodorus, and Plutarch — do not hinge on sex. Rather, the "good" and "bad" ancient and modern traditions of Alexander involve a number of far more fascinating issues — nearly all of them omitted by Stone.
Alexander helped to kill more Greeks at the victory of Chaeronea, the siege of Thebes, the campaigns in Ionia, and the battles of Granicus and Issus than the Persians killed in a century and a half of EastñWest conflict. The razing of Thebes — the dramatic setting of much of Athenian tragedy, home to Pythagoreans and Pindar — is ignored. The brutal siege of Tyre was considered a military masterpiece; it and the storming of Gaza go unnoticed. How or why Persepolis was torched is never really investigated, but has framed centuries of debate. …
-snip-
(Excerpt) Read more at benadorassociates.com ...
FYI
I have no desire what so ever to see it. The fact that it has historical inaccuracies as did JFK turns me off. How can it beat the documentaries on Alexander that were on the History Channel? It can't.
If anyone is looking to see a great movie that beats the pants off Alexander and probably cost very little to make, go see Sideways. What a great film!
nick
Leave it to Victor Davis Hanson to reveal that the emperor has no cloths (Alexander, as we all know Stone is worthless). He is brilliant, thank you for a link to this article.
One of the worst movies ever! I heard folks laughing and saw many walk out!
I'll just stick with the old Richard Burton version of Alexander.
VDH gives Mr Stone a perfect slapping down!
Dat was me.
Stone really whiffed on ALEXANDER. Now I hear he's planning a movie on the "Iron Lady" Margaret Thatcher. Yikes...
I'm going to check with Hollywood Video to see if they have it. I remember it from black and white TV. It was made in 1955. We may have to wait another 49 years for another version of Alexander.
Let me know if you want in or out
I heard the movie sucked, so I am not going to see it. Figures that Stone would want to play up the whole gay thing. Farrell as a blond just doesn't cut it. How do you say cheese burger cheese burger coke coke coke no pepsi with an Irish brogue?
After you see the next Alexander the Great movie, you may be wishing for 49 years between efforts:
The Untitled Alexander the Great Project (2006)
Leonardo DiCaprio -- Alexander
Nicole Kidman -- Olympias
I laughed out loud when the NY Post called this movie "queer eye for the Macedonian guy"
I remember Ben Hur (1961) had an homosexual sub-plot between Tony Curtis and Lawrence Oliviers characters.
That was Spartacus (1960).
Ben-Hur was made in 1959. And the alleged homosexual subtext was between Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd).
Aside from that, you recall correctly.
Ben-Hur was made in 1959. And the alleged homosexual subtext was between Judah Ben-Hur (Charlton Heston) and Messala (Stephen Boyd). Aside from that, you recall correctly.
That was it.
BTW do you like Gladiator movies?
You're not joking, are you?
I do. You ever been in a Turkish prison?
Maybe they can re-cast it. I understand that Pee Wee Herman is available and works cheap.
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