Alexander, The American way
I just came from the cinema after watching Alexander. As you may have guessed from the title of my post I didn’t like it much. There are lots of things that are wrong in the movie, to start with, why did Alexander’s army, and many of his friends speak English with an Irish or Scotch accent ?! does it my any chance have to do with Braveheart ?! or Macedonians and Greek at that time talked in an Irish or Scotch way !? I wonder.. And what’s it with Angelina Jolie’s accent ? Olympias (Alexander’s mother) was from Epirus, northern of Greece .. and not from Northern Russia ! what is it about ? why did she talk in this fake way !
Now, Beside the stupid choice of accent different characters performed in, the movie was far from being Epic, not even close.. The way the wars were shot was as if they avoid showing the war in a big picture .. war shots were close-ups, avoiding showing large scale war scenes.. Now to the part I hated most.. According to the movie, Alexander was after opening Persia to “Free” them .. even more, Alexander used the word “Freedom” in his war speech to soldiers at “Battle of Gaugamela” and used it after it during one of his gay conversations with “Hephaestion” .. Now everyone knows that Alexander was never after “Freeing” people, and “Freedom” .. he was after Glory, and it was what he was remembered for .. using terms such as “Freedom” and “freeing” and so for Babylon and Persia (that is Iraq and Iran those days) reflects the current American media speech, and the same terminology used after the war in Iraq, when they found out that there are no weapons of mass destruction they started the “Freedom” talk.. Oh Come On ! Alexander had tens of slaves, what freedom are you talking about in 330 BC !!
Now beside that, there are historical errors as well in the movie .. Alexander saw 2 of his sons in his live .. Roxana, which in the movie was still pregnant at his death, did have Alexander IV, in the same year he died .. and Alexander had a 4 years old son from a mistress when he died…
I am not sure what was the point of this movie .. Was it entertainment ? or is it historical documentation ? either way I found it to be insulting for my inelegance..
It’s good that you posted it so that I won’t watch it! God how much I hate it when people play with history…
They didn’t make him christian?!
(Disclaimer, I’m being sarcastic)
I really hate it when somebody changes history, and hollywood has a good record of that. Veitnam movies, pearl harbor, …etc. It’s so annoying.
And that’s what they will be doing in the next movie called “kingdom of heaven”, a movie about the crusades. The hero will be in love with an arabic princess i think, and the role is played by a jewish actress (pathetic) anyways it’s not out yet, i think march 2005 and a clash is already happening, as it seems that arabs are framed negatively, which is no suprise I guess. anyways u can check the trailer here http://movies.yahoo.com/movies/feature/kingdomofheaven.html
alright, i am out, and I enjoy reading ur blog, (from a tunisian 18 years old living in new york :) )
Aleaxander was a far more accurate movie than Braveheart. I’ve found it interesting reading people’s comments and thoughts on it though.
It’s interesting to know how differntly we can view the same bit of film.
Braveheart for instance was a piece of nonsense historically.
Oh and for the record Scotch is a drink and it’s highly offensive to use it when refering to Scottish or Scots people. :-)
Mind you I think it’s funny that the accents in Alexander were Irish and Scots, and yet in Braveheart they were anything but Scots.
The language thing is simple though. If they had also spoken in Ancient Greek would anyone have understood them.
Equally if in Braveheart Wallace had spoken in French, or even in Braid Scots, no one would have understood him.
I’m looking forward to Kingdom of Heaven, but I hope that they will show a true interpretation of what happened. It would be a good way to show many of us in the West just what the Crusder’s did in the Middle East and how they managed to create a lot of the hate and mistrust that now exists. I’ve studied the crusades and they were not a proud moment in the history of Europe.
Elaine.
Aleaxander was a far more accurate movie than Braveheart. I’ve found it interesting reading people’s comments and thoughts on it though.
It’s interesting to know how differntly we can view the same bit of film.
Braveheart for instance was a piece of nonsense historically.
Oh and for the record Scotch is a drink and it’s highly offensive to use it when refering to Scottish or Scots people. :-)
Mind you I think it’s funny that the accents in Alexander were Irish and Scots, and yet in Braveheart they were anything but Scots.
The language thing is simple though. If they had also spoken in Ancient Greek would anyone have understood them.
Equally if in Braveheart Wallace had spoken in French, or even in Braid Scots, no one would have understood him.
I’m looking forward to Kingdom of Heaven, but I hope that they will show a true interpretation of what happened. It would be a good way to show many of us in the West just what the Crusder’s did in the Middle East and how they managed to create a lot of the hate and mistrust that now exists. I’ve studied the crusades and they were not a proud moment in the history of Europe.
Elaine.
Some comment about your first comment about the movie where you question why they talked ‘scottish’ in the movie…
The Macedonians were seen as country bumpkins by the Greeks much like the Celts and Scots were seen by the more formal English, that’s why they spoke that way.
Hope that helps you
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