Stone loves Alexander too Much

Oliver Stone and Spike Lee were two of the most spirited, angry, emotional voices in American film throughout the 1980s. Twenty years can change anyone. Both of them have put out a string of boring films that lack the energy, emotion, and inventiveness of their earlier work. Alexander is depressing precisely because it is so conventional. There are no surprises. Sure there are fine passages and the film isn't deathly boring - although it certainly crosses the line into dull. The biggest non-surprise is Oliver's continued anger towards/lack of interest in women. This misogyny makes Alexander the Great an almost perfect protagonist for Stone's vision - and this may be why the film has more reverence than any other film in the Stone filmography. For once he has taken on a subject that was as distrustful and fearful of women as he himself appears to be. Traditionally the Stone "hero" has had a blindly/blandly supportive wife who usually confronts the hero at some point about how lousy a husband he is because he answers his higher calling at the expense of her (this is the character arc for the female leads in Talk Radio, JFK, and The Doors). This time he gives us a psychotic, manipulative mother (played in what can only be called an extreme performance by Angelina Jolie) and a wife who seems full of spark but seems to bore the director once Alexander sleeps with her. Stone does not have enough faith in his actors. This film will not embarrass any of the actors because they exist only as part of the huge machine. There is little human behavior on the screen, only shouting, fighting, and pontificating. Alexander's motivations are explained in the simplest of Freudian terms, and Stone does not wish to spend much time on any of the supporting characters. Jared Leto is used iconicly as Alexander's soulmate. I laughed every time he was on screen because Stone treats him the exact same way the creators of My So Called Life did during the early episodes of that show's only season. He is an iconic representation of everything pure in Alexander just as he was an iconic representation of everything desirable to Angela in that show. The other time I laughed is when the boy hired to play Alexander as a 10 year old speaks. He has the thickest Irish accent in the film - as if that is supposed to help us forget Farrell's inability to totally lose his brouge. The film is not a total disaster, it is competent and it shows that Stone has paid attention to the works of David Lean. But it lacks any sense of discovery, wonder, or wisdom. And I wouldn't want to watch it again.