Xenophon movie

[heinrich]

I was wondering, has any director ever thought about making a movie about Xenophon's Anabasis? Wouldn't that be a great theme?HM

[marcus]

I was thinking the same not so long ago. I suppose one of the difficulties is the need to have 10,000 Greeks on screen pretty much all the time (Of course, there are plenty of ways round it.)Has anyone read "The Ten Thousand" by Michael Curtis Ford? It's a novelisation of Xen. Anabasis done on the back of the success of "Gates of Fire". It's OK, but it did leave me thinking "why don't people just read Xenophon?"ATBMarcus

[kate]

Hi,Yes, I read Ford's novel about the Ten Thousand, Marcus. I thought it was OK, if not exactly rivetting. I finished it more because of the subject matter, rather than the author's skill I think, an opinion confirmed when later I tried to read another of Ford's novels about the ancient world. To be honest, I can't remember the title or even be sure I'm correct in thinking it was about one of the fourth-century Roman emperors - which just proves my point I suppose that Ford isn't that great!Cheers,Kate

[agesilaos]

There is a film that is based on Anabasis, this is 'The Warriors' but it is restaged in New York gang culture rather than Fifth Century Persia!

[marcus]

You're probably thinking of "Gods and Legions", about Julian the Apostate.Actually, I thought that was a better book than "The Ten Thousand", not because the writing was necessarily better, more because he wasn't just copying out large chunks of Xenophon and adding some direct speech here and there (which is, somewhat disparagingly, all he actually had to do for the former work).I wouldn't say he's a 'bad' writer, but he's certainly not exceptionally talented (still, Pressfield has shown that you can strike gold with one book, then fall devastatingly down with subsequent work).ATBMarcus