ALEXANDER

Year: 2004
USA & UK: Warner Bros Pictures
Cast: Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Rosario Dawson, Jared Leto, Christopher Plummer, Gary Stretch, John Kavanagh, Nick Dunning, Marie Meyer, Jonathan Rhys Meyers, Elliot Cowan, Joseph Morgan, Ian Beattie, Denis Conway, Neil Jackson, Garrett Lombard, Chris Aberdein, Rory McCann, David Bedella, Jessie Kamm, Fiona O'Shaughnessy, Connor Paolo, Patrick Carroll, Brian Blessed, Peter Williamson, Morgan Christopher Ferris, Robert Earley, Aleczander Gordon, Mick Lally, Michael Dixon, Tim Pigott-Smith, Raz Degan, Erol Sander, Stephane Ferrara, Tadhg Murphy, Jean Le Duc, Francisco Bosch, Annelise Hesme, Tsouli Mohammed, Toby Kebbell, Laird Macintosh, Rab Affleck, Feodor Atkine, Harry Kent, Sam Green, Bin Bunluerit, Jaran Ngamdee, Brian McGrath
Director: Oliver Stone
Countries: USA / UK / Germany / Netherlands
USA: 173 mins
UK: 175 mins
USA Rated: R for violence and some sexuality/nudity
UK Certificate: 15 contains strong bloody battle violence
USA Release Date: 24 November 2004
UK Release Date: 7 January 2005


Synopsis

He was many things to many people - a dashing warrior king, filled with ambition, courage and the arrogance of youth, leading his vastly outnumbered forces against the massive Persian armies...a son desperately longing for the approval of his stern, battle-scarred father, torn and conflicted by his mother's legacy...a relentless conqueror who never lost a battle and drove his soldiers to the very edges of the known world...a visionary whose dreams, deeds and destiny echo through eternity, helping to shape the world as we know it today. He was all that and more. He was Alexander the Great.

Oliver Stone's ALEXANDER is based on the true story of one of history's most luminous and influential leaders (Colin Farrell) - a man who had conquered 90% of the known world by the age of 25. Alexander led his virtually invincible Greek, Macedonian, and later Eastern armies through 22,000 miles of sieges and conquests in just eight years, and by the time of his death at the age of 32, had forged an empire unlike any the world had ever seen.

Set in Alexander's pre-Christian world of social customs and morals far different from today's, the film explores a time of unmatched beauty and unbelievable brutality, of soaring ideals and staggering betrayals. The film takes a bold, honest look at Alexander's life and his relationships with his mother, Olympias (Angelina Jolie), his father Philip (Val Kilmer), his lifelong friend and battle commander Hephaistion (Jared Leto), Roxane, his ambitious and beautiful wife (Rosario Dawson), and his trusted general and confidant Ptolemy (Anthony Hopkins).

His extraordinary journey begins when Alexander launches his invasion from Macedonia, first leading his armies to wrest Western Asia from Persian control, then driving his enormously outnumbered troops to an impossible victory over the mighty Persian army itself. Alexander expands his empire into the unknown lands of modern day Central Asia before venturing across the Hindu Kush, further than any Westerner had ever gone, continuing his conquests into the exotic world of India. Incredibly, and possibly unique in the annals of military history, Alexander was never defeated in battle. He relentlessly pushes his army across the sands, mountains and jungles of strange and mysterious lands, conquering every enemy who dares oppose him and weathering near-mutiny by his own men.

The film chronicles Alexander's path to becoming a living legend, from a youth fueled by dreams of myth, glory, and adventure, to his intense bonds with his closest companions, to his lonely and mysterious death as ruler of a vast Empire. Alexander is the incredible story of a life that united the known world and proved, if nothing else, fortune favors the bold.

Introduction

Alexander the Great conquered the world not only by virtue of his military genius, but perhaps even more importantly, with the power of his ideas. What Alexander accomplished in his near 33 years on Earth have reverberated through the centuries, still informing how life is lived throughout the lands he conquered more than two thousand years ago. Although he was the ultimate warrior, Alexander had the soul of an explorer - in his 22,000-mile march, he sought not to destroy, but to re-invent each society in the mold of his own vision for a new world, and perhaps a new destiny for the human race. Through his actions, Alexander temporarily united East and West, spreading Hellenistic thought and culture throughout the Eastern world with lasting effect.

His accomplishments were astonishing by any standards. His empire included lands that now comprise the countries of Greece, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria, Egypt, Libya, Israel, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, Cyprus, Iraq, Iran, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, Pakistan and India. In 323 B.C., the year of his death, it comprised well over two million square miles.

Alexander has been the subject of an enormous body of written works, historical, fictive, psychological and even practical (as evidenced by two recently published books that translate Alexander's military strategy into a guide for modern businessmen), but except for one attempt by Hollywood nearly 40 years ago, no filmmaker has found a way to translate Alexander's extraordinary life to the screen - until Oscar-winning director/screenwriter Oliver Stone took on the challenge of telling the story in the epic Alexander.

The film's production incorporated a multitude of disciplines, all designed to bring the exact quality and look of Alexander's world to life. The numerous sets included detailed re-creations of lavish palaces, the extraordinary Alexandria Library and the magnificent city of Babylon, including its legendary Hanging Gardens, one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. Additionally, each actor's accent was specifically chosen to reflect the interconnected languages and wide array of dialects of the time.

In preparation for their roles, all the actors portraying soldiers, including stars Colin Farrell and Jared Leto, underwent extensive training in ancient battle strategies and the use of exact replicas of Macedonian and Greek weaponry. The battles are epic in scope - recreated for the screen are the Battle of Gaugamela, where Alexander's heavily outnumbered troops resoundingly defeated the vast Persian army, and a vicious battle in the forests of India in which his troops fight against enormous elephants.