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| Alexander. | | Date Created: Mar 14, 2005, 10:43 AM |
It wasn't as bad as I'd been led to believe. I'd heard that Oliver Stone's Alexander was a great stinker, but it wasn't really that bad.
Let's start with what was bad about it. The GW Bush "we wanna conquer the world to bring them all freedom and teach them to read" monologues (yes, plural...there were several) were nearly too much for this liberal to handle. The attempt to line up every action in Alex's life with one of the Great Greeks from the past (Herakles, Oedipus, Achilles, etc.) was more than a bit forced at times. In fact, each time they did it, they flashed back to some cave paintings of the Great Greeks, just to make sure that the audience caught it. Angelina Jolie was terrible. She really reminded me of an evil Disney villains. And, I couldn't figure out why all of the Greeks had Irish accents, except Farrell, who is actually Irish.
What was good about it? It was a pretty movie, nicely photographed. Nice costumes, nice scenery, nice music. And, at least according to other stuff I've read, it was reasonably accurate (well, as accurate as one would expect from a 2 hour movie about Alexander's entire 33 year life.)
One thing I was quite shocked by was the...well...the gay thing. Shocked! Shocked I tell you!
I had heard that the studio, the director, or whoever, had completely downplayed Alexander's love affair with Hephaistion, or his relationship with Bagoas. I was expecting no gay plot at all. Far from true! This was a very gay movie. Sure, there's no Full-Frontal Farrell (though there is Full-Backal Farrell, in which you get to see Full-Ball-Sackal Farrell), but I didn't see this movie pulling any punches. (Unlike Troy, which shies so far from the Achilles/Patroclus relationship, that becomes completely unimportant to the film.) The fact that Jared Leto (Hephaistion) and Francisco Bosch (Bagoas) are total hotties doesn't hurt, by the way.
When this movie was good, it was definitely good. However, when it was bad, it was downright silly. But, not a bad addition to my DVD collection. |
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