The Flick

[dean]

Hello,Just thought, for what it is worth, I would write my view of the film.That's Hollywood, as they say and Angelie's performance was a little bit OTT. I didn't think that Farrel was bad as Alexander- the scenes between him and Hephaestion were very cliched. They seemed more like brothers than anything else.The film's script, given the wealth of potentially fascinating scenes available- the Gordium knot, the burning of Persepolis etc,etc made scant use of them. I think that Hydaspes was a nice touch with red lens- it was the bloodiest of battles but I was left with the feeling that Alexander was sold short.
On the whole it was quite watchable and I would certainly buy the DVD but I won't probably watch it more than a few times- besides on DVD it will probably lose much of its ummmph,I think that it jumped to Gaugamela without adequately narrating the prior action- Grannicus- etc and leaving Memnon out of it was a mistake..Well about 7 out of 10 I would give it.Best regards,
Dean.

[Linda]

HiI finally got to see it last night as well. I had some hopes, based on what people had said here, but...There was no script - the results of some brainstorming meeting were painfully, abortively displayed. "On the right hand side of the page, let's have all the word we associated with Alexander : blonde! gay! not-gay! a warrior! powerful jealous mother! powerful jealous father! ancient! harem! little frilly skirt..> And on the other side of the page, let's put everything that has been written (and I mean everything) and cut and paste the best bits." And that is what it felt like - a cut and paste job, adding in all the current and not so current theories - Oedipus complex (possibly stopping him loving women), brotherhood of man, revenge of past Persian indignities; mix with some cod religion.. And on the other side of the page, let's put everything that has been written (and I mean everything) and cut and paste the best bits." And that is what it felt like - a cut and paste job, adding in all the current and not so current theories - Oedipus complex (possibly stopping him loving women), brotherhood of man, revenge of past Persian indignities; mix with some cod religion.. And on the other side of the page, let's put everything that has been written (and I mean everything) and cut and paste the best bits." And that is what it felt like - a cut and paste job, adding in all the current and not so current theories - Oedipus complex (possibly stopping him loving women), brotherhood of man, revenge of past Persian indignities; mix with some cod religion..It was a sum of parts rather than a whole, and some of the parts were pretty awful.I sat on a very comfy sofa at our local cinema - and I am glad. I upturned my icecream looking at my watch during Alexander's speech to Ptolomy on some hill, and spent a happy few minutes scraping the ice-cream off the leather seat. I didn't listen to the speech. In fact, by the time we got to the mutiny, I had to stop myself covering my ears to block out Farrell's whiny rants. Jesus, I would have headed for Macedonia a long time before, frankly as I wouldn't have thought anyone capable of stopping me. It lacked so much...Farrell was awful - he constantly looked like he was trying to remember if he had left the iron on, rather than remembering his destiny (George Bush has this look too, but no-one thinks he is running things), Leto started off looking like a squaw and ended up looking like a drowned spaniel - that annoying slightly fey flick of his hair. Why would Stateira/Queen Mum pick him out rather than Alexander, unless it was to ask him to move away as he smelled. Devoted to his thighs - incomprehensible. Farrell looked much more comfortable grappling a big-breasted woman than hugging a weedy bloke (in spite of occasional glimpses of Leto's rippling chest, he was weak), and I don't blame him. Romantic relationships were baffling - the half-naked Bagoas - why? Other familiar incidents were handled badly and out of context - the Bagoas kiss - came at the end of a campaign and a win in a dance comeptiton not as just a titilation, Roxanne - the reasons for marriage were the wrong way around. But you know all this.It was all family drama - and Dynasty