Expert Says Hollywood 'Alexander' Gets a Lot Wrong

Stone may have been thrown by historians' lack of agreement

by Rebecca J. Ritzell -- Intelligencer Journal

December 03, 2004

Fair Use Only

LANCASTER COUNTY, PA - "Alexander" may be a lousy movie, but that's not entirely the fault of director Oliver Stone.

Eugene Borza, a historian regarded as one of the world's leading experts on ancient Macedonia, derailed Stone's new film with relish Thursday when he spoke in a crowded Stahr Auditorium at Franklin & Marshall College.

The movie opened Nov. 24 and finished a disappointing sixth at the box office over Thanksgiving weekend. Borza, a retired Penn State professor, prefaced his criticism by describing the many ways Alexander has been mythologized since the day he died in 323 B.C.

But to make a good film, a director needs to understand his subject. That's not easy when your subject is a legend. Borza said Stone doesn't understand Alexander, but then, neither do historians.

"Movie critics have complained that the movie lacks coherent vision. The fault may not be Stone's," Borza said. "We know what (Alexander) did, and it continues to astonish us, but we don't know how or why he did it."

Alexander, son of Philip II of Macedonia, was respected as a military commander by age 18, crowned king of the Greek city states at age 20 and conquered much of the world, from Athens to India, before he died of an infectious disease at age 32.

"That's a stunning career," Borza said.

Some historians, and Stone, argue that Alexander's goal was spreading the gospel of Greek culture, the so-called Hellenization of the ancient world. That was never Alexander's policy, Borza said. The general was a talented commander out to test himself and his men for no good reason.

"Stone suggests some noble purpose for Alexander's mad, bloody tromp across Asia," Borza said, "He and his historical consultant shared a need to give meaning to a meaningless conquest."

Borza has devoted much of his life to researching Alexander and his adventures. He's the author of four books and countless papers on Macedonian history. Alexis Castor, a professor in F&M's classics department, invited Borza to campus because she respects his work, although not all historians do.

"Macedonia itself was for years considered the academic equivalent of a frontier saloon," Castor said.

Borza argues that ancient Macedonia - present-day northern Greece and the Republic of Macedonia - should be studied as a nation distinct from ancient Greece. The Greeks never liked Alexander in his day. It was only after he became a respectable legend that they laid claim to him as their own, heterosexual, hero.

"Alexander" is set to open today in Greece, despite complaints from clerics and lawyers that Stone portrays the general as bisexual. Attorneys threatening to sue Warner Bros. Studios were treated to a private screening Thursday.

The kiss between Alexander, played by Colin Farrell, and his childhood friend, Hephaistion, played by Jared Leto, can be interpreted many ways, Giannis Varnakas, one of the lawyers, told the Associated Press after the screening. "We have avoided the worst," he said. "Fortunately it was not what we had feared. The people can go and see the movie."

Borza asserted that Alexander was bisexual. In addition to his liaison with Hephaiston, the historian suspects the general had a close relationship with a eunuch. He also had three wives. The historian reminded his audience that Alexander lived in the 4th century B.C., and was by no means bound to the mores of Orthodox Christianity.

However, he said Stone's use of sexuality in the film is explotive and unnecessary.

Among the films merits, Borza noted that the drinking implements and jewelry are modeled after artifacts discovered 25 years ago in Macedonian tombs. He also approved of several battle scenes.

"The bad news is that errors abound, and it is not historical nit-picking to suggest these could have been avoided," Borza said.

The film uses "Greek" and "Macedonian" interchangeably and refers to Alexander as "the Great" even though the moniker wasn't added for several centuries.

Borza said he could go on, but he needed time to criticize the film's artistic merits, or lack thereof. He called Farrell's acting "amateurish" and the script "incoherent."

The only person the professor thought might like the film, because he liked publicity, is Alexander himself.

"I cannot help but think that, wherever he is, he is looking down on us enjoying this whole spectacle," Borza said.

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