Alexander (2004)

Alexander: Directed by Oliver Stone. With Anthony Hopkins, David Bedella, Jessie Kamm, Angelina Jolie. Alexander, the King of Macedonia and one of the greatest army leaders in the history of warfare, conquers much of the known world.

“At first, I didnu0026#39;t feel much of a need to comment on the film, since so many others have written and have said so many things. But I think there are some really important points to made, and I havenu0026#39;t seen anyone make them. So here I am writing.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eIn my opinion, almost everyone misunderstood the relationship between Hephaistion and Alexander. In the modern world, especially in the West, two men are either very close to each other, sleep together, and have sex, or they keep a good comfortable distance from each other and, if theyu0026#39;re friendly, might punch each other on the arm. In this film, we see a relationship that is hard for most people today to understand, namely a passionate love relationship between two men in which sex is not very important and possibly even absent.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAristotle essentially explained the whole film near the beginning when he told the young couple something like the following, as best I can remember it, u0026quot;When two men lie together in lust, it is over indulgence. But when two men lie together in purity, they can perform wonders.u0026quot; Or something like that. Given what I know of that culture, I am sure that u0026quot;in purityu0026quot; means no sex, or at least very little. Thatu0026#39;s why we never see them kiss. In the film, as in many older films, kissing is a metaphor for sex. Even when Alexander kisses his mother, it refers to the idea of sex. Thatu0026#39;s why Alexander kisses Bagoas, but not Hephaistion.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNow Iu0026#39;m not sure if the real historical Aristotle would have made that remark. Thatu0026#39;s not exactly what he says about homosexuality in the Nicomachean Ethics. But the remark is plausible enough since Alexander could easily have heard such an idea during his youth. Plato (before Aristotle) expressed that idea, and Zeno of Citium (after Aristotle) did too. So even if Aristotle never said this to Alexander, it is plausible enough that the idea was in the air and that Alexander heard it from someone or other.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eSome have complained that the u0026quot;homosexualityu0026quot; (assuming that Au0026#39;s relationship with Heph. should even be called that) was thrown in their faces too much. But itu0026#39;s crucial to the plot. Stone is hypothesizing that Hephaistion was essential for what Alexander did. Further, itu0026#39;s a standard Hollywood convention to juxtapose a love story with some great political, military, or otherwise grand event. There are tons of examples. Titanic, Enemy at the Gates, Gone with the Wind, … the list could go on forever. It really is homophobic to complain about Stone continually going back to this theme, because he has a perfectly good artistic reason to do it.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eA few more details: Alexanderu0026#39;s hair. I think that Stone was trying to make Alexander look like Martin Potter in Satyricon — a nod to Fellini.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAlexanderu0026#39;s accent and soft appearance. Another nod to a great director passed on, this time Stanley Kubrick. Farrel really looks a lot like Ryan Ou0026#39;Neil in Barry Lyndon. In fact, he really looks like a Ryan Ou0026#39;Neill / Martin Potter coalescence. I think itu0026#39;s deliberate.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe softness of Alexanderu0026#39;s personality. In a lot of scenes it made sense. He was gentle enough to know how to approach Bucephalus and tame him without scaring him. He was open minded enough to adopt a lot of Persian culture and encourage intermarriage, while the other more u0026quot;he-manu0026quot; folks around him were less comfortable with the idea.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eYes, if you havenu0026#39;t figured it out by now, I do like the film. Peopleu0026#39;s hatred of the film is hard for me to understand.”