Alexander in Empire Magazine

[marcus]

Empire Magazine has finally devoted more than a paragraph to Alexander, and has been very even handed about it (as far as I can tell, not having seen the film yet).For a start, they give it four stars out of a possible five. A selection of quotes includes:"The battle scenes extraordinarily reconstruct the horror of war in a time when seeing the whites of your enemy's eyes was a tactical necessity. If Troy was tame and bloodless, Alexander is wild and drenched in carnal violence.""The film never feels so alive as when it's immersed in death."Good battle scenes, then! "Alexander's bisexuality ... is dealt with maturely, but repeatedly.""Yes, this is a movie of spectacularly brutal battle scenes and intense attention to detail, but, as wowed as you are, you come away never *truly* tasting the immensity of Alexander."These are actually two of the more negative comments - there are plenty of positive ones (they did score it highly, after all).On thing I was very pleased to see what in the short interview with Jared Leto, they asked how he felt about the bisexuality issue. His reply was:"(Grumpily) You can't put that term in that time period."Someone's been doing a bit of background reading, then! :-)All the bestMarcus

[iskander-32]

Marcus HailGood feed back I say, The main worry I have with the movie isnt the eye for detail.As your review says It didn't show us the real Alexander with rewspect to the battles,, I myself feel the essence of Alexander is his genioius and mastery of the art of war and battle even if the battles are great the really has to be emphasis on how Great infact the Greatest in this field.RegardsKennyI would have like viewers to see the battles and say how did the guy pull the feats of impossibility off?

[ruthaki]

You're right, Kenny, but would we have wanted 3 hours of straight battles? Although they missed out some of our favorites the ones shown were pretty gruelling. And, as Stone said in a recent interview, he had to choose between what to focus on and he chose 'relationships' of Alexander. I, too, would have liked to have seen more of the man and his inner turmoil, his brilliant strategies etc, but in three hours what can you expect??

[amyntoros]

The full review (though no interviews) can be found at:http://www.empireonline.co.uk/site/inci ... =10522It's already getting interesting, seeing the differing attitudes to the movie as compared to the majority of US reviews. Am very curious as to how the British and European Pothos contingent will find this film. No doubt January will bring another flurry of posts on this subject! :-)Linda Ann

[jan]

Linda, If Europe does not react the same as America, since they surely know more about Alexander than most Americans do, I will be astounded. The problem is how one sees Alexander, and the vision that Stone has is not the Alexander that is depicted in any of this biographies that I have read.I was surprised to hear that you liked it. I could hardly believe it!Jan

[amyntoros]

Jan, you said "The problem is how one sees Alexander, and the vision that Stone has is not the Alexander that is depicted in any of this biographies that I have read."That was exactly my point in one of the two posts I made giving my opinion of the film. Of course Stone's vision isn't any Alexander from the biographies! This *is* an Oliver Stone film and it can only be Stone's vision up there on the screen. Still, you only have to read a few of the biographies to see there is no *one* Alexander there either. Can you compare Renault's Alexander to Worthington's? Or Cartledge, Reames-Zimmerman, O'Brien, Badian, Bosworth, Borza, Lane Fox, et al? As Marcus already pointed out, we can't even agree on *one* Alexander in this forum. The real Alexander, or as close as we can ever get, is in the ancient sources, and we can read them any time we want. Each modern writer colors the man with their own opinions and insights. Oliver Stone did exactly that, only on film instead of paper.I don't have to agree with a historian's vision of Alexander to enjoy his/her book, and I don't have to agree with a director's vision to enjoy the movie. It seems I am in the minority here and may remain so after the movie opens in Europe, but I *did* enjoy the film - more than I have even admitted to in this forum as I see no point going into further detail. Everyone else who sees it can make up their own mind. Pro or con, it doesn't matter in the end. Each person's own Alexander will still be there long after the movie has faded.Best regards,Linda Ann