ALEXANDER Review d: Oliver Stone – Befuddled Hagiography of an Imperialistic Despot

ALEXANDER (2004)

Director: Oliver Stone

Cast: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Jared Leto, Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Christopher Plummer, Gary Stretch, Neil Jackson, Raz Degan

Screenplay: Oliver Stone, Christopher Kyle, and Laeta Kalogridis

Colin Farrell, Alexander

Two-time Academy Award winner Oliver Stone is no stranger to controversy. His latest polemic comes courtesy of the director's first historical epic, Alexander, the story of the Macedonian ruler (356-323 BCE) who conquered most of the world known to the ancient Greeks.

The arguments thrown about both for and against the film are due to the fact that this (reportedly) $150 million production officially boasts a bisexual hero who not only is the supreme commander of a conquering army, but who also slaughters his enemies with the type of superhuman fearlessness that would put to shame the heterosexual-est of movie heroes of past and present.

Will audiences accept a homoerotically inclined hero? Was Alexander really attracted to men? Although these are pertinent questions, they rapidly faded into the background as I sat through the three-hour film.

Since Alexander's homoeroticism is only hinted at mostly via some embarrassing dialogue and several lovey-dovey looks the megalomaniac conqueror directs at his right-hand man, I spent my time wondering about other matters: I asked myself how many of the film's historical events are actually true (several are condensed or fabricated); I marveled at how CGI has improved since Gladiator; I admired Angelina Jolie's magnetic star presence; I puzzled over the casting of a bleached-blond (bewigged?) Colin Farrell as the Macedonian hero. But for the most part, I looked at my watch, for Alexander is no more than a misguided, bloated attempt at mixing epic filmmaking, sociopolitical commentary, and heavy-duty psychological drama. As a result of its own incertitude, Alexander ends up failing on virtually all counts.

Oliver Stone, who is credited with co-writing the screenplay with Christopher Kyle and Laeta Kalogridis, attempts to show us a complex, multifaceted Alexander — but one we must love and admire. Alexander may be a despot, but he is a despot with good intentions. Like another well-intentioned film despot, the King of Qin of Zhang Yimou's Hero, Stone's Alexander is guided by a lofty goal: to unify all the peoples of his world. Whether they want to be unified or not is irrelevant. The emperor knows best, as Stone often sides with him — something that comes as a surprise from a director well known for his liberal views.

So, if Stone's Alexander seems much too obsessed with his next conquest, it is because he is the innocent victim of a highly dysfunctional family, and not because he is a ruthless megalomaniac. If he executes those who rebel against his tyranny, it is all for the good of the empire.

Just in case we find those (and other) deeds a tad too revolting, Stone tries to soften his hero. Unlike Richard Burton's macho Alexander in Robert Rossen's dreary 1956 movie Alexander the Great, Colin Farrell's Macedonian ruler has no qualms about displaying both his "masculine" and his "feminine" sides: he rules, he cries, he murders, he whines, he grows long blond curls, and he may possibly enjoy sex with men as well as with women. Instead of complex, however, this Alexander comes across as merely confused. Ultimately, I reached the final credits knowing more (than I wanted to) about Stone's Alexandrian fetish than about the inner workings of the film's protagonist.

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