Oliver Stone's "Alexander" 


Oliver Stone left just barely enough room for a totally clueless person to sit through his film "Alexander" without coming to the conclusion that Alexander was at least bisexual. 

Even the interpretation that Stone portrays Alexander as bisexual is strained; most gay viewers, and many others, will come to the conclusion that Alexander is portrayed as gay and that he married solely for the purpose of leaving an heir and for other political ends, such as trying to unite disparate societies.

Collin Farrell is nice to look at in the role of Alexander and so is Jared Leto in the role of Hephaistion, Alexander's primary love interest. But one of the most beautiful men in the film plays a minor role. I don't recall his having a single line to say and there aren't any close-ups of him, unfortunately. He mostly appears in the background of scenes where Alexander is in his private quarters. He is there to wait on Alexander: the eunuch Bagoas, played by Francisco Bosch.

"Alexander" lacks a clear focus, a compelling story that holds the viewer's interest from beginning to end. Instead there are many stories: Alexander's sexuality, the competition between Alexander's father and mother, Alexander's military conquests, the goals he was trying to achieve, the hinted at competition between his lovers, etc. The trouble is that none of these stories is fully explored."

Prof. Elaine Fantham (Professor Emerita of Classics at Princeton) commented on today's NPR Weekend Edition that Stone "has a great fixation on political power. I don't think that he had really much idea about what Alexander was doing and indeed I sometimes think Alexander himself didn't know what he was doing." She thought it was historically very careful, but that some of the problem with the movie was with Alexander himself.

The battle scenes were not as gory as I feared they would be. I could have done without the red filter over the battle scenes in India. That made it hard to recognize the characters in the scene; it was just weird.

I don't think "Alexander" is a bad film, but it's not good enough to make me recommend it to friends. If you're with someone who insists on seeing it, at least you will get to look at some beautiful men.
 

Posted: Friday - November 26, 2004 at 10:48 PM          

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