Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #8330 in DVD
• Released on: 2005-08-01
• Rating: Suitable for 15 years and over
• Aspect ratio: 2.35:1
• Formats: Box set, PAL, Special Edition, Widescreen
• Original language: English
• Subtitled in: English
• Number of discs: 2
• Running time: 175 minutes

Amazon.co.uk Review
If you're determined to spend three hours with Oliver Stone's take on the personal and military struggles of ancient Macedonian conqueror Alexander the Great, you should know that Alexander (Colin Farrell, in blonde disarray) is not half so much fun as mom Olympias (Angelina Jolie) or his future wild bride Roxane (Rosario Dawson). Indeed, it's the women in Alex's life who provide the movie's most satisfying action: Jolie, sporting some kind of Russian accent, wraps herself in snakes while hissing promises of Farrell's destiny; Dawson disrobes and threatens to cut Farrell's throat before shtupping his brains out. The rest is leaden history, supposedly novel because it showcases epic battle sequences and addresses Alexander's great love for his buddy Hephaistion (Jared Leto). But the man-on-man romance is limited to teary hugs, and the battles are indecipherable messes-you have to wait for Anthony Hopkins' narration to tell you what happened (in fact, you have to wait for Hopkins' narration to tell you everything that happens). There's some spectacle on display but, alas, not much that is truly spectacular. --Steve Wiecking, Amazon.com

Synopsis
Oliver Stone’s ALEXANDER charts the life of one of history’s most influential leaders, Alexander the Great. From epic battles to his tumultuous personal affairs, the film offers a rare insight into the life of a man who, by the age of 27, had conquered 90% of the known world.

Customer Reviews

Sucks
What a shame Oliver Stone ruined this potential blockbuster!
It does portray the life of Alexander historically, with accuracy. That is about as far as it goes. The casting was the worst since Troy. My feeling was that half the actors were miscast and the thought of Angelina Jolie being Alexander's mum, makes the mind boggle. The big battle scene is confused and unclear. If you compare it to the battles in 'Kingdom of Heaven' you can see that there is no comparison at all. In short it was woefully inadequate and will make it impossible for another director like Ridley Scott to pick up the baton for we have now lost Alexander's story to a lot of irish twits running amok in what seemed an aimless film. Sorry, there are much better films around. Don't waste your time on this one.

Woeful
I adore history (and studied it at uni), and was very excited about this film. How could a film about Alexander be anything but brilliant? If you want to know - watch this film. It's mind-numbingly boring.

Refreshingly accurate - awesome story. This is real History!
First off it is sad to see so many negative reviews for this masterpiece. For once we have a film that has been written to portray the true life of a historical figure and not a Hollywood 'version' of events that have been twisted out of all imagination to please those who don't know a particular period of history beyond what they have read in kids books.

The film is beautifully shot and has had some real research done for the costumes and locations and even social interactions and occasions. As a history lesson this would be fine but these are merely the details that enrich the staggering story of Alexander.

Alexander was an immensly flawed character, who had many moments of brilliance, showed compassion, tactical genius and single minded motivation to achieve the unthinkable. He was also in equal measure sometimes cruel and mentally unstable. All of this has been captured wonderfully in this film to show that Alexander wasn't an "All American Action Hero (TM)" but a real person.

In 4th Century Greece it was accepted that men should have male partners, and again thank god that Stone had the guts to show this reality. The truth was that Alexander spent very little time with his wife preffering to spend it with his childhood friend Hephaistion.

The battle scenes are immense, especially the last battle in India, which go a long way to imagining the horror of massed hand to hand fighting, with the blood and confusion it brings. There is little gratuitous violence and certainly this film is more about the character of Alexander and the relationships between his men, his mother and father, and how these all contributed to the character, than it is a documentary on every battle he fought.

The Irish accents used by the Macedonions are there to illustrate how the Macedonians differed to the rest of Greeks. Indeed the rest of Greece saw Macedonia as a Barbarian country.

The bottom line is that this is a well studied film, which hasn't attempted to be a crowd pleaser by showing false history.
If you enjoy history or want to know more about Alexander then watch this film. I have a degree in Classics and have read many many books on Alexander since, and whole heartedly applaud and recommend this film.