Alexander

I watched Alexander the other night.

I had forgotten that it was directed by Oliver Stone. I turned it on at 7:15 thinking that I would be done before bedtime.

Wrong. Oliver Stone doesn't know how to make a movie under 3 hours. (ok, that may be a gross overstatement but still . . .)

The other thing Oliver Stone can't resist is a hint (or more) of conspiracy. He not very subtly hints that Alexander's mother was responsible for his father's death and that Alexander, rather than dying of a fever, was poisoned.

Poetic license?

I don't know but I do know that each time Stone started hinting at conspiracy, I started thinking, "Oh, there he goes again."

I fastforwarded through the battle scenes, of which, surprisingly, there were only two but they were extremely graphic and bloody. Since Alexander's story is, for the most part, a story of battles and conquest, I did appreciate Stone's decision not to emphasize the fighting.

Stone did a decent job of illuminating the difficulties Alexander faced in knowing whom to trust and in maintaining his hold on conquered territories as his reach broadened.

The casting left something to be desired. Angelina Jolie, as Alexander's mother, Olympias, was strange. Colin Farrell, as Alexander, never quite convinced me that he was Alexander the Great. He played Alexander's moments of weakness and doubt much more convincingly than his moments of triumph.

Stone did portray Alexander's relationship with Hephaestion in such a way that it came across as honorable and admirable, never sordid.