How are Iranians and Greeks portrayed in the Alexander movie

[Cyrus]

http://www.payvand.com/news/04/dec/1055.html(1) The Battle of Gaugamela
(2) Confusing Persia with Babylon
(3) The Blondism of Alexander
(4) Greek or Macedonian?
(5) The Portrayal of Roxanna and the Perpetuation of the "Hollywood Persian"What is your idea about them?

[marcus]

Hi Cyrus,I haven't had time to read the entire article, but I think that the author might be stretching himself somewhat to prove his point, especially on the Babylon issue (number 2). He quotes Robin Lane Fox talking about colour-coding "Greek and Babylonian" things, and assumes that Lane Fox doesn't understand Babylon's 'place' in the Achaemenid Empire. It's a bit difficult when one doesn't know the context, but if Stone had already made the decision not to include the visit to Persepolis, Susa etc. but to stick with Babylon ... then Lane Fox's comment doesn't indicate any sort of ignorance, but to indicate the decisions that were made about something that already existed in the script.It's interesting as an article, but it does smack me as being an attempt specifically to find fault.When I get a chance I shall read the rest of it!All the bestMarcus

[yiannis]

Hi Cyrus,
As you know, I'm flying back to Greece for work and Christmas holidays soon. Once there, I'll also take the time to see Alexander and give you feedback face to face when I return to Iran, on the 5th of January. Do you think it will be screened in Tehran so we can see it together? :-)Jona, when are you coming?Regards,
Yiannis

[S]

Greetings Cyrus,Thank you for the posting. It was interesting. I've seen similar work on Jeshuah before (about ten years ago); that is still happens says something about the reluctance of dominant cultures to yield ground (smiling)It remains my personal contention that if a director is going to choose to portray a historical character/characters or event in a movie, or portray a culture or people and taking into account that people from around the globe will see the movie, then said director and scriptwriters
have an obligation to do quality research and focus on presenting the persons and events accurately- and if the story is too big to tell within a time or budget limit, then they need to select one part of a story and do it right. If they do not want to do this, they need to focus on fictional characters. While I do not necessarily agree with everything in the article you posted, I agree with the principles.It is my feeling that too many people directing and guiding this movie may have begun to believe their own publicity. As one reviewer noted "The dismal failure of this movie might well be the revenge of the gods for hubris on several levels". A friend just sent us a copy of "Making Alexander"- my sympathies go with the actors who put themselves through such pain to "do it right" little knowing how wrong their director had things, including casting. They deserved better. In a time when almost everything one could hope to know about any time, culture, people, or place is readily available on the Internet (and acknowledging that a lot of nonsense is there too, so care must be taken), there is no longer an excuse to indulge in ethnocentrism, stereotyping, poor research or simply bad story telling- from any side. All the excuses in the world do not make an excuse.

Again, thank you for an interesting article. The more voices, the better, eh?Regards,
Sikander

[Cyrus]

Hi Yiannis,A Persian proverb says "Yek tir o chand neshan" (One arrow and many targets), so you want to hit many targets (Work, Family ,Christmas holidays, Alexander movie, ...) by an arrow (Coming back to Greece)! Good luck! About Alexander movie, you can assume that we Iranians have boycotted this movie, however the fact is that Mullah never allow such movies to be shown in Iran!

[Cyrus]

I don't want to switch it to a political discussion but I think showing Babylon as the heart of Persian Empire in an American movie relates to the current situation of Iraq in the middle east and the Islamic world!

[marcus]

Hi Cyrus,What you say is true; however, do we know for sure that Babylon *is* depicted as the 'heart' of the empire? (Those who have seen the film might be able to tell us)After all, Alexander seems to have decided, at some point, to make Babylon the heart of *his* empire, and he did, after all, die there. It's not as if Stone is depicting Alexander burning Babylon.That's not to say that I disagree with your point; it's just that I'm not in a position to say whether it's actually as bad as it might seem.All the bestMarcus

[jona]

"however, do we know for sure that Babylon *is* depicted as the 'heart' of the empire? (Those who have seen the film might be able to tell us)"I saw the movie (I was invited to a pre-premi+¿re for the press), and indeed, Babylon is shown as the heart of the Persian Empire. Actually, only one scene is laid in Iran, the death of Darius. All other scenes are in what is now Greece, Egypt, Iraq, Uzbekistan, and Pakistan. I have mixed feelings, but the movie was better than I had come to expect.Jona

[xxx]

Cyrus, this is a bad article full of as many errors as Stone's movie. Clearly, this article was written to provide the author's agenda, not necessarily scholarship. That he would use Sekuda as a reference and claim that Alexander was not blonde based on the mosaic (even though we have mosiacs from his birthplace that show him as blonde and ancient references that claim him to be so) alone are not very encouraging.

[tino]

Cyrus, this is a bad article full of as many errors as Stone's movie. Clearly, this article was written to provide the author's agenda, not necessarily scholarship. That he would use Sekuda as a reference and claim that Alexander was not blonde based on the mosaic (even though we have mosiacs from his birthplace that show him as blonde and ancient references that claim him to be so) alone are not very encouraging.I do not believe any of the mosaics unequivocably show Alexander as 'blonde'. The Pella mosaics look simply to be an artists method of portraying the youthfullness of Alexander and Hephaestion while the Pompeii mosaic of Alexander as Ares not only does not seem 'blonde' but everyone depicted has the same hair colour. Now how likely can that be?Also, as the article states, there is no direct reference to his hair being 'blonde' as opposed to 'fair'. I am curious to what is wrong with the author quoted (Sekunda) anyways?