Alexander

I thought it was a good film, albeit overly long. My local cinema even had a 15minute intermission which didn't help.
Where was the scandalous bisexuality? That brief encounter with the dancer was typical of the period and as such cannot warrant surprise.
My lasting impression is how the physical relationship between Alexander and Hephaeston was ignored. It was downgraded to brotherly love, no more than typical man to man hugs of support. How could the 'bible belt' of America be so easily offended? President Bush and Senator Kerry show no less mutual affection. Historically, Hephaeston was Alexander's 'love of my life'. Its significance was glossed over totally.

A good film, beautifully shot, but not emotionally engaging.
 
I disagree completely. It was made abundantly clear at frequent intervals that Hephaistion was the love of Alexander's life and that they were more than frienRAB.

What do you want? A full on porn-fest or something? You don't need hot 'man-on-man'action to know they were in love with each other.
 
Yes, you dont need it showing (however much I'd love it) so show that they loved it. Ilaughed so much as I thought Hephaistion said : 'You have thighs like no other!'




Naturally, I wish people would stop going on about the length. I feel cheated if I'm not in a cinema for 3 hours now anyway. :)_
 
Could someone tell me where I'm going wrong...
Has there ever before been a movie about a physical love story where the couple are never seen kissing? Or even in some state of undress in each other's company?
 
I gave Alexander a second chance last night and found it a lot better than I did the first time round - maybe it's when you know what to expect, you can concentrate on what you actually see and not on waiting and wondering what will happen next. I didn't even found the dialogue quite so embarrassing and empty as it seemed the first time I heard it.

The bits I really don't like are on Alexander's wedding night - Alexander going on about different ways to love seems to just silly; she's her wife and whatever the reason he married her, what is it to her what he feels for her (or for anyone else for that matter)? And I'd gladly gone without the preceding scene between Alexander and Hephaistion too, it jars with how their relationship is presented elsewhere; Hephaistion might be jealous to the world that might take Alexander away from him, but what is there to be jealous about in a wife - but it almost comes across as sexual jealousy that doesn't really make sense in the film.

To some extent I feel they should have tried to give more depth to Hephaistion to properly show (and not just say) that he was the most important person in Alexander's life but on the other hand, none of the Companions (not even Ptolemy) gets any depth... and at a certain level Alexander lacks depth too. Which I thought was somehow appropriate - no point in trying to hammer down definitives when most of the facts are uncertain.

The little unimportant language issue that annoyed/amused me was that the maps seemed to be using Latin place names... (like Aegyptus - not all names, Athens looked Greek but I'm not sure, but at least some?) but obviously, maps in Greek would have been illegible to most of the audiences and more or less defeated their purpose.
 
They DO kiss in the film, Casablanca, and full on the lips! And they're only ex-lovers.
Did you have to trawl back to the forties to find your example?
 
The point is: why does Hollywood brush gay relationships under the carpet, lest the 'moral majority' bigots kick up a fuss, or worse, cause outrage and a mass boycott?
When will Hollywood acknowledge homosexuality and stop perpetuating the 'shame' thus endowed?
Greece even wanted to sue the filmmakers for portraying their hero as bisexual, ashamed of their own history. :confused:
Try living with institutional hatred at that level, just because you exist, and you'll get an inkling of the prejudice suffered by gay people every day.
 
1. Yes, I enjoyed it more 2nd time (though I enjoyed first time round anyway

2. I agree also, it took me ages to figure out which Ptolemy was as a young man! And more Hephaistion can only be good news.
 
Back
Top