Alexander (2004)

Awards
- 6 wins & 19 nominations

Trivia
The biography of Alexander by Oxford University professor Robin Lane Fox was an original inspiration and source of information for writer and director Oliver Stone. As a historical advisor, Professor Fox didn't get on-screen credit. His price for giving his advice was to be allowed to take a place at the head of what is one of the largest cavalry charges ever filmed. Professor Fox was used to riding around the English countryside, but gladly dressed up as a Macedonean cavalry officer to live his dream of charging for Alexander.

Goofs
Ptolemy I is depicted recounting the story of Alexander in 283 B.C. The Lighthouse at Alexandria, seen in the background, was built during the reign of his son Ptolemy II, around 270 B.C.

Quotes
Old Ptolemy: The truth is never simple and yet it is. The truth is we did kill him. By silence we consented... because we couldn't go on. But by Ares, what did we have to look forward to but to be discarded in the end like Cleitus? After all this time, to give away our wealth to Asian sycophants we despised? Mixing the races? Harmony? Oh, he talked of these things. I never believe in his dream. None of us did. That's the truth of his life. The dreamers exhaust us. They must die before they kill us with their blasted dreams.

Alternate versions
The Director's Cut is 9 minutes shorter than the 175-minute theatrical version. It is a reworked version although seamless to many. 18 minutes were cut and 9 added. Many of the added or extended sequences involve Val Kilmer and Angelina Jolie's characters. The battle of Gaugamela now starts earlier. Taking a cue from classic movie epics, the opening reel now set up the basic themes with greater economy: Alexander's Oedipal relationship with his parents, Olympias' ambitions for her son, the boy's need to surpass his father, and the entirely natural way in which myth/religion is shown as integral to the ancients' behavior. Oliver Stone reworked the third act, too, juxtaposing events in India and Greece. Jolie's Olympias emerges now more as a genuinely pathetic figure in the whole tragedy. Ptolemy's final scene was edited. Stone also slightly reworked Alexander's death scene because of audience feedback, adding 17 seconds to the scene.

Connections
Featured in Charging for Alexander (2004)

Though many have had very negative things to say about it, I felt that it was a good movie. Watching that Colin, I forgot that he was Colin and started to see Alexander. Just for that I felt that this movie is of some worth. I have to admit some of the lines sent chills down my spin, but the movie on the whole was good. Historically this movie could not have been far off. Pertaining to Alexander's death, I liked how the cause was left ambiguis. Those that say that Stone butchered History in making this movie I find to be wrong. Though Alexander might not have been blond, why not by the way, much of what was portrayed went against common belief but true to what we have learned of the great conqueror. I guess summed up, this was a GOOD movie, I enjoyed myself, and was able to immerse myself in Stone's interpretation of the life of a GREAT man.