History YMMV / Alexander

* JustHereForGodzilla: Regardless of the film itself or its controversies, fans of ancient warfare desiring to watch a [[BigBadassBattleSequence big time portrayal]] of the Battle of Gaugamela have usually a field day with this movie. While there are a handful of artistic licenses, it's undeniable that a crapton of money and effort was put into making it as faithful to real history as possible.
** Too bad they didn't do the same with the Battle of the Hydaspes. Alex not only won that one using simple yet clever strategy, King Poros was not killed but surrendered and became a respected ally.[[note]]The elephant was okay too![[/note]] Imagine Colin Farrell and Bin Buluerit as Poros speaking the words that have come down through history:
--> '''Alexander.''' How do you wish to be treated?
--> '''Poros.''' [[TheGoodKing Like a king]].

** Oliver Stone and some others blamed Americans and their rampant homophobia when there were some complaints about a bisexual Alexander the Great. They more or less explained that all or most Americans were homophobic and completely ignorant of history. The only problem: there weren't really any complaints on the American side concerning Alexander's sexuality. The complaints were coming from conservative Greeks. No one called them out on it.

** It's hard enough to take Irish Macedonians seriously without taking Alexander's crazy wig changes into account, or that hideous love scene with Roxane (including, maybe especially, the little scene with Hephaistion immediately before)

* RetroactiveRecognition: Creator/RoryMcCann plays Craterus,one of Alexander's generals, years before his role as [[Series/GameOfThrones the Hound]].

** The Macedonians were ''supposed'' to have Irish accents, as this was an artistic device to emphasise the cultural differences between the Macedonians and the Greeks, who considered the latter to be more rough and primitive. The problem is that, aside from the Macedonians, no one else has a consistent accent; see most of the Persians, for example, or Angelina Jolie's very Egyptian-tinted Queen Olympias. (That said, Queen Olympias was from Epirus (modern Albania), which is why hers is different, and the late Achaemenid Empire (Persia) claimed 50 million subjects spread over 8 million square kilometers, so it's understandable that their accents would not be consistent amongst all Persians.

* TheyWastedAPerfectlyGoodPlot: The story of Alexander the Great is one of most incredible in human history. Somehow they managed to take this and turn it into a badly cast narmfest that turned audiences off in droves.

* TookTheBadFilmSeriously: The one whose acting is nigh universally praised in the film is Creator/AnthonyHopkins as old Ptolemy I. It doesn't come off as a surprise since he's done this aplenty in films that ended up [[RuleOfSeanConnery better for this sole reason]].

* VanityProject: Creator/OliverStone ''really'' wanted to make this film. He was in the same time strong-arming his vision on the production ''and'' doing a whole lot of compromises to make and release the film at all. This had predictable results on the theatrical cut.

** At least in the United States, it is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject, unless among history buffs, and those would be always critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Not less importantly, a faithful film about the wars of Alexander would inevitably draw attention to the "West vs. East" theme, which [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical would be an endless source of political controversy regardless of how was it portrayed]] (especially among Iranians and Zoroastrians, who would certainly [[https://www.rferl.org/a/1057143.html complain]] that the portrayal of their Persian ancestors was offensive). Reportedly, several executives who didn't share director Stone's love for the topic were resigned that making this film would be just asking for trouble.

** The issue of Alexander's sexual orientation would invariably be also a pain for the film, ironically enough if we consider that the concept of sexual orientation didn't even exist in the Hellenic culture Alexander lived in. As put by [[https://www.rferl.org/a/1057143.html a journalist]], "while a group of Greek lawyers wanted to take legal action against the movie because they were upset about suggestions in the film that Alexander was bisexual, campaigners for homosexual rights criticized Stone for not making Alexander openly gay," which only starts to summarize the problem.

** Surely almost all of the movie. It's hard enough to take Irish Macedonians seriously without taking Alexander's crazy wig changes into account, or that hideous love scene with Roxane (including, maybe especially, the little scene with Hephaistion immediately before)

** The issue of Alexander's sexual orientation would invariably be also a pain for the film, ironically enough if we consider that the concept of sexual orientation didn't even exist in the Hellenic culture Alexander lived on. As put by [[https://www.rferl.org/a/1057143.html a journalist]], "while a group of Greek lawyers wanted to take legal action against the movie because they were upset about suggestions in the film that Alexander was bisexual, campaigners for homosexual rights criticized Stone for not making Alexander openly gay," which only starts to summarize the problem.

** Too bad they didn't do the same with the Battle of the Hydaspes. Alex not only won that one using simple yet clever strategy, King Poros was not killed but surrendered and became a respected ally. Imagine Colin Farrell and Bin Buluerit as Poros speaking the words that have come down through history:

* JustHereForGodzilla: Regardless of the film itself or its controversies, fans of ancient warfare desiring to watch a [[BigBadassBattleSequence big time portrayal]] of the Battle of Gaugamela have usually a field day with this movie. While there are a handful of artistic licenses, it's undeniable that a crapton of money and effort was put into making it as faithful to real history as possible. ** Too bad they didn't do the same with the Battle of the Hydaspes. Alex not only won that one using simple yet clever strategy, King Poros was not killed but surrendered and became a respected ally. Imagine Colin Farrell and Bin Buluerit as Poros speaking the words that have come down through history:

* JustHereForGodzilla: Regardless of the film itself or its controversies, fans of ancient warfare desiring to watch a [[BigBadassBattleSequence big time portrayal]] of the Battle of Gaugamela have usually a field day with this movie. While there are a handful of artistic licenses, it's undeniable that a crapton of money and effort was put into making it as faithful to real history as possible.

** At least in the United States, it is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject, unless among history buffs, and those would be always critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Not less importantly, a faithful film about the wars of Alexander would inevitable draw attention to the "West vs. East" theme, which [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical would be an endless source of political controversy regardless of how was it portrayed]] (especially among Iranians and Zoroastrians, who would certainly [[https://www.rferl.org/a/1057143.html complain]] that the portrayal of their Persian ancestors was offensive). Reportedly, several executives who didn't share director Stone's love for the topic were resigned that making this film would be just asking for trouble.

** Speaking about dubs, the overblown issue of accents in Anglosphere pretty much doesn't gets any mention anywhere outside of it for obvious reasons. For non-English speakers, it made absolutely no difference what accent actors have and that assuming it wasn't dubbed over, nor there is any connotation between [[TheQueensLatin specific accent and historical epics]], further making the entire thing moot.

** At least in the United States, it is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject, unless among history buffs. And those would be always critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Reportedly, several executives who didn't share director Stone's love for the topic were resigned that making this film would be just asking for trouble.
*** Worth to note that this was ''not'' a problem in the European markets, where historical epics are always easy to sell - and the film fared pretty well there.

** It's not a secret that the film performed well in Europe in contrast to pretty much everywhere else, thanks mostly to the proverbial European sensibility for EpicMovie works set in their ancient times (as well as the film's political implications not being as relevant there as they were in the States). Even the infamous 25 Greek lawyers who complained about Alexander's sexual portrayal notably stopped complaining after actually watching the film.
** Within Europe, Spaniards that are not into international film critiques might be downright shocked to find out ''Alexander'' was panned and received a pile of "worst thing" awards. The movie typically draws huge ratings whenever it is broadcasted in TV here, and the Spanish rating site Filmaffinity shows tellingly that, out of its list of professional reviews, all the Spanish ones are positive in stark contrast to the rest. A big reason for this, aside from the continental appeal mentioned above, was the excellent Spanish dub, which covered a lot of the film's narmiest acting and made several cringe-worthy scenes watchable.

** It is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject in United States unless among history buffs, and those would be always critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Not less importantly, a faithful film about the wars of Alexander would inevitable draw attention to the "West vs. East" theme, which [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotPolitical would be an endless source of political controversy regardless of how was it portrayed]] (and particularly in those Asian countries where, even still today, Alexander could only be the BigBad of a film featuring him). Reportedly, several executives who didn't share director Stone's love for the topic were resigned that making this film would be just asking for trouble.

* OneSceneWonder: Creator/AnthonyHopkins as old Ptolemy telling the story of Alexander years after his death. It's probably the best piece of acting in the whole movie and it's pretty poignant.

* RetroactiveRecognition: Rory [=McCann=] plays Craterus,one of Alexander's generals, years before his role as [[Series/GameOfThrones the Hound.]]

** Creator/OliverStone being the director also hurt the movie, as aside from being an already controversial filmmaker for his own political views, he had never directed a project of this nature and magnitude, and it showed in many aspects.
** The issue of Alexander's sexual orientation would invariably be also a pain for the film, ironically enough if we consider that the concept of sexual orientation didn't even exist in the Hellenic culture Alexander lived on. As put by a reviewer, "while a group of Greek lawyers wanted to take legal action against the movie because they were upset about suggestions in the film that Alexander was bisexual, campaigners for homosexual rights criticized Stone for not making Alexander openly gay," which only starts to summarize the problem.

** It's not a secret that the film performed well in Europe in contrast to pretty much everywhere else, thanks mostly to the proverbial European sensibility for EpicMovie works set in their ancient times. Even the infamous 25 Greek lawyers who complained about Alexander's sexual portrayal notably stopped complaining after actually watching the film.

---> "You lawv kheem?" "He is Hephaistion."

** At many levels. In the first place, it is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject in United States unless among history buffs, and those would probably be critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Not less importantly, a faithful film about the wars of Alexander would inevitable draw attention to the "West vs. East" theme, which [[WhatDoYouMesnItIsNotPolitical would be an endless source of political controversy regardless of how was it portrayed]] (and particularly in those Asian countries where, even still today, Alexander could only be the BigBad of a film featuring him). Finally Creator/OliverStone being the director also hurt the movie, as he was an already controversial filmmaker who had never directed a project of this nature and magnitude, and it showed in many aspects.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Regardless of the film itself or its controversies, fans of ancient warfare desiring to watch a [[BigBadassBattleSequence big time portrayal]] of the Battle of Gaugamela have usually a field day with this movie. While there are a handful of aspects to improve, it's undeniable that a crapton of money and effort was put into making it as faithful to real history as possible.

** On the other side if the fence, Stone didn't have much say in what ended up being released as the Theatrical Version. The film is edited in such fashion the already {{Narm}}ful material starts to just grate on the audience. The DVD releases are considerably better and acclaimed as such.

** Creator/ColinFarrell's performance swings back and forth between extremes, one being hyper-manly LargeHam and the other being a cripplingly wimpy mama's boy, with hilarious facial expressions and even more hilarious hair. Come to think of it, his ''hair'' deserves this entry.

* WTHCastingAgency: Creator/ColinFarrell as Alexander the Great. Also Creator/AngelinaJolie as Olympias, who plays Alexander's mother, yet Jolie is only a year older than Farrell.

** At many levels. In the first place, it is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject in United States unless among history buffs, and those would probably be critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Not less importantly, a faithful film about the wars of Alexander would inevitable draw attention to the "West vs. East" theme, which would be an endless source of political controversy regardless of how was it portrayed (and particularly in those Asian countries where, even still today, Alexander could only be the BigBad of a film feauring him). Finally Creator/OliverStone being the director also hurt the movie, as he was an already controversial filmmaker who had never directed a project of this nature and magnitude, and it showed in many aspects.

** The Macedonians were ''supposed'' to have Irish accents, as this was an artistic device to emphasise the cultural differences between the Macedonians and the Greeks, who considered the latter to be more rough and primitive. The problem is that, aside from the Macedonians, no one else has a consistent accent; see most of the Persians, for example, or Angelina Jolie's very Egyptian-tinted Queen Olympias. (That said, Queen Olympias was from Epirus (modern Albania), which is why hers is different, and the late Achaemenid Empire (Persia) claimed 50 million subjects spread over 8 million square kilmoeters, so it's understandable that their accents would not be consistent amongst all Persians.

** The issue of Alexander's sexual orientation would invariably be also a pain for the film, ironically enough if we consider that the concept of sexual orientation didn't even exist in the Helenic culture Alexander lived on. As put by a reviewer, "while a group of Greek lawyers wanted to take legal action against the movie because they were upset about suggestions in the film that Alexander was bisexual, campaigners for homosexual rights criticized Stone for not making Alexander openly gay," which only starts to summarize the problem.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: At many levels. In the first place, it is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject in United States unless among history buffs, and those would probably be critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Not less importantly, a faithful film about the wars of Alexander would inevitable draw attention to the "West vs. East" theme, which would be an endless source of political controversy regardless of how was it portrayed (and particularly in those Asian countries where, even still today, Alexander could only be the BigBad of a film feauring him). Finally Creator/OliverStone being the director also hurt the movie, as he was an already controversial filmmaker who had never directed a project of this nature and magnitude, and it showed.

* GermansLoveDavidHasselhoff: It's not a secret that the film performed well in Europe in contrast to pretty much everywhere else, thanks mostly to the proverbial European sensibility for EpicMovie works set in ancient times, but Spaniards that are not into international film critiques might be downright shocked to find out ''Alexander'' was panned and received a pile of Razzie Awards. The movie typically draws huge ratings whenever it is broadcasted in TV here, and the Spanish rating site Filmaffinity shows tellingly that, out of its list of professional reviews, all the Spanish ones are positive in stark contrast to the rest. A big reason for this, aside from the continental appeal mentioned above, was the excellent Spanish dub, which covered a lot of the film's narmiest acting and made several cringe-worthy scenes watchable.
** The overblown issue of accents in Anglosphere pretty much doesn't gets any mention anywhere outside of it, for obvious reasons. For non-English speakers, it made absolutely no difference what accent actors have and that assuming it wasn't dubbed over. Nor there is any connotation between [[TheQueensLatin specific accent and historical epics]], further making the entire thing moot outside Anglosphere.

* JustHereForGodzilla: Regardless of the film itself or its controversies, fans of ancient warfare wanting to watch a big time portrayal of the Battle of Gaugamela have usually a field day with this movie. While there are a handful of aspects to improve, especially in the portrayal of the Persian side, it's undeniable that a crapton of money and effort was put into making it as faithful to real history as possible.

* AudienceAlienatingPremise: At many levels. In the first place, it is hard to deny the life of Alexander the Great was simply not a popular or interesting subject in United States unless among history buffs, and those would probably be critical with the resultant product anyway due to the inherent difficulty to portray it in cinema. Not less importantly, a faithful film about the wars of Alexander would inevitable draw attention to the "West vs. East" theme, which would be an endless source of political controversy regardless of how was it portrayed (and particularly in those Asian countries where, even still today, Alexander could only be the BigBad of a film feauring him). Finally Creator/OliverStone being the director also hurt the movie, as he was an already controversial filmmaker who had never directed a project of this nature and magnitude, and it showed not only in the crowd's predisposition, but also in the film's bizarre casting, questionable storytelling and sheer quantity of narm.

** The Macedonians were ''supposed'' to have Irish accents, as this was an artistic device to emphasise the cultural differences between the Macedonians and the Greeks, who considered the latter to be more rough and primitive. The problem is that, aside from the Macedonians, no one else has a consistent accent; see most of the Persians, for example, or Angelina Jolie's very Egyptian-tinted Queen Olympias.
*** Queen Olympias was from Epirus (modern Albania) which is why hers is different. And the late Achaemenid Empire (Persia) claimed 50 million subjects spread over 8 million square kilmoeters. It's understandable that their accents would not be consistent amongst all Persians.

* BetterOnDVD: The various longer cuts of the film are as a rule considered immensely superior to the theatrical cut. Stone himself concurs.

** Colin Farrell's performance swings back and forth between extremes, one being hyper-manly LargeHam and the other being a cripplingly wimpy mama's boy, with hilarious facial expressions and even more hilarious hair. Come to think of it, his ''hair'' deserves this entry.

* WTHCastingAgency: Colin Farrell as Alexander the Great. Also Creator/AngelinaJolie as Olympias, who plays Alexander's mother, yet Jolie is only a year older than Farrell.