VHS : Alexander The Great [1955]

Rating: - Rossen the Lesser
The faux Shakespearian dialog by Robert Rossen not only induced me to chuckle but it has the unfortunate effect of inspiring Richard Burton to give a bellowing, mannered performance -- maybe hoping to distract from his pitifully non-athletic physique and grotesque blonde wig.

The direction, also by Robert Rossen, reminds me of the worse of the old Italian sword-and-sandals films with failed efforts to make a cast of tens seem larger and make cheap sets to look lived-in.

The history is mix of authentic and questionable, but the vital importance of military tactics has been reduced to simple brute force in cheaply staged battle scenes.

Lovely French icon Danielle Darrieux (in a dark wig -- contrary to Burton) comes off best as the embittered and ambitious mother of Alexander. She and the 'famous moments of legend' earn any positive rating I give this.

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Rating: - Alexander the Great+ Richard Burton= GREAT movie
In 1955 Alexander the Great was shown in cinemas worldwide over 50 years later it is being watched on DVD in the comfort of your own home and what a movie it is Richard Burton is gold as Alexander apart from the stiff wig he has on that never moves.
For people who know very little of Alexander this is worth every penny.
A great film to watch when you have a spare 2 hours a lot of people complain about this movie but they obviously jumped on the bandwagon on that subject
How ever don't watch the new Alexander film with Colin Farrell watch this instead.
I'm hoping someday they will bring a special edition of this film out but until then I'm happy with the DVD I have.

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Rating: - "The world is my domain"
One of the best things about this epic based on Alexander the Great is watching and listening to Richard Burton ply his magnificent craft. He was 29 at the time this film was made, and his resonant voice is remarkable, and one of the most unique sounds to be heard in the cinema. He is unfortunately wearing in a strawberry blonde wig that has so much spray on it, it could be made of plastic, but otherwise makes a marvelous Alexander, in one of his rare appearances in a "ancient costume epic", others being "The Robe" and the infamous "Cleopatra".

Written, directed and produced by Robert Rossen, it has some excellent dialogue, overall fine acting, and of course, battle sequences with 1001 extras. There is also quite a bit of "beefcake", but not many who are ready for the bare chest exposure, including Burton, whose abs are almost absent, and many of the extras are flabby and rotund, and hard to imagine are warriors.
Shot on location in Spain, the cinematography by Robert Krasner, in typical '50s vibrant Technicolor, is wonderful. Claire Bloom is beautiful as Barsine, a dark and hairy, savage and quite unrecognizable Frederick March is terrific as Philip of Macedon, Harry Andrews is a good Darius, and Danielle Darrieux is Alexander's crafty mother. Others of note in the cast are Stanley Baker as Attalus, and Peter Cushing as Memnon.

Though flawed, this is a film that can be viewed repeatedly, for its well written scenes, Burton's acting, and a smattering of history as well, which though condensed and altered to fit the Hollywood format, has some basis in truth; it is also fascinating to note that if one listens carefully, one will hear things reminiscent of recent news stories; history seems to be a wheel that is ever turning, and for the brief time that Alexander was in power, he would say "The world is my domain, and it is my mission is to rule it and rebuild it".
Total running time is 136 minutes, and the DVD extra is the original theatrical trailer.

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Rating: - Somewhat boring history lesson
I got the feeling that this movie was trying to stay as close as possible to the known history. What emerges is a rather tedious history lesson. More than half of the movie is taken up with intrigue involving Alexander's mother (who is played by a French actress) and her attempts to make certain her son succeeds Phillip to the throne of Macedonia. (Phillip had several other offspring from several other women.) The film shows Alexander's character improving throughout his short life, as he at first takes after his mother in cruelty and ruthlessness, then becomes increasingly magnanimous as his empire grows and he becomes more successful. There is a strained attempt to make the movie more uplifting at the end. (My understanding of the reality is that Alexander drank himself to death, which is not depicted in the movie.)

Richard Burton turns in a strong performance. On the downside, the sets are cheesily cheap, and the battle scenes are totally unconvincing, both in micro and in macro. The films seems to have been somewhat underfunded, so far as it concerns sets and set-piece battles. There is no attempt to explore strategy, tactics, or anything else that might have played a role in making Alexander so successful as a general and a conqueror. The movie would have been better if it had made some attempt to portray those things, even at the expense of making a longer movie. It should also have been more truthful about the end of his life.

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Rating: - An Epic That Never Was
Someday, someone is going to make a great film about Alexander. Writer/director Robert Rossen took a worthy stab at it in the mid-50's. The result was interesting but ultimately disappointing. Perhaps Rossen tried to squeeze too much into a standard running time. Some scenes, usually the historic ones, seem rushed and truncated while others, the fictionalised ones involving women, seem superfluous and drawn out. Visually, the film is quite good. In fact, it is one of those films where the stills are frequently more impressive than the actual movie. But Rossen obviously wanted to make an "intelligent" epic. Some of the script and casting reflect that. The supporting cast has a number of respected British thesps - Claire Bloom, Harry Andrews, Peter Cushing, Michael Hordern, Stanley Baker. But there are also a lot of Italians whose dialogue is dubbed by those same two guys who did all the film dubbing in the 1950's. One can only wonder who chose Fredric March (hammy as ever) as Philip of Macedon or Danielle Darrieux (who apparently had only one facial expression) as his mischievous queen. But the critical casting was Richard Burton as Alexander. He certainly looks the part. But he frequently suffers from his career-long inability to adapt his stage-acting technique to the more intimate demands of cinema. Or maybe that's how he thought a wannabe god should behave. For the rest, the many battle scenes tend to be more confusing than spectacular, the uncertain pace suggests a lot of pre-release cuts, and the music not only sounds primitive but seems to have been recorded in someone's cellar. Still, the film is an interesting failure and well worth seeing once. But you'll end up admiring its ambitions rather than the result.