Oliver Stone's Alexander gets my vote for best film of the year- it's one roiling, grand guignol of a movie.
It opens with Alexander's death: he drops the ring Hephaistion gave him which represented "the sun and the stars".
We are then told of his magnificent life by Old Ptolemy, played perfectly by Sir Tony Hopkins.
His mother was a major force in his life, as was his father, but he could have done without both I think- his mother claimed Zeus & Dionysus both had a hand in his creation and his father is an alcoholic womanizing spectre of war hanging over his head.
(Val Kilmer and Angelina Jolie stand out among a litany of things that stand out in this film).
Colin Farrell should be proud of his performance- he has never acted like this before. He's never cranked it up like this before.
He's lit like a roman candle for much of the movie, and it's great to see. I was proud watching him. He's got a picture in the can that'll be revered forever by film buffs.
And what film buff doesn't get excited by a production designed by Jan Roelfs- the production designer on Peter Greenaway's
The Baby of Macon and Gattaca? Or how about that lush, stylized artistic camerawork by the guy who shot 8 Mile and Frida?
Nirvana, children, nirvana!
This film has everything you could ask for in a historical epic. How on earth Ebert thinks this flick "isn't that great" is beyond me. This film is beyond great- it's classic, it's Stone's best to date, it's history baby.
With our extensive empire,
with the varied action of our thoughtful adaptations,
and our common Greek, our Spoken Language,
we carried it into the heart of Bactria, to the Indians.
ARE WE GOING TO TALK OF SPARTANS NOW!
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