It is not a remake of the 1956 film. Based in part on the book Alexander the Great, written in the 1970s by the Oxford University historian, Robin Lane Fox.
Alexander: Conquer your fear, and I promise you, you will conquer death.
Plots:
The film is based on the life of Alexander the Great, King of Macedon, who conquered Asia Minor, Egypt, Persia and part of Ancient India. It shows some of the key moments of Alexander's youth, his invasion of the mighty Persian Empire and his death. It also outlines his early life, including his difficult relationship with his father Philip II of Macedon, his strained feeling towards his mother Olympias, the unification of the Greek city-states and the two Greek Kingdoms (Macedon and Epirus) under the Hellenic League, and the conquest of the Persian Empire in 331 BC. It also details his plans to reform his empire and the attempts he made to reach the end of the then known world.
The story begins 40 years after 323 BC, around 283 BC, with Ptolemy I Soter, who narrates throughout the film. We see Alexander's daily life and the strained relationship between his parents. Alexander grows up with his mother Olympias and his tutor Aristotle, where he finds interest in love, honor, music, exploration, poetry and military combat. His relationship with his father is destroyed when Philip marries Attalus's niece, Eurydice.
After Philip is assassinated, Alexander becomes king of Macedonia and Greece. Having briefly mentioned his punitive razing of Thebes and burning of Persepolis, Ptolemy gives an overview of Alexander's west-Persian campaign, including his being declared as the son of Zeus by the Oracle of Amun at Siwa Oasis, his great battle against the Persian Emperor Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela and his eight-year campaign across Asia.
Also shown are Alexander's private relationships with his childhood friend Hephaestion and later his wife Roxana. Hephaestion compares Alexander to Achilles, to which Alexander replies that, if he is Achilles, Hephaestion must be his Patroclus (Achilles' best friend and, maybe, lover). When Hephaestion mentions that Patroclus died first, Alexander pledges that, if Hephaestion should die first, he will follow him into the afterlife. Hephaestion shows extensive jealousy when he sees Alexander with Roxana and deep sadness when he marries her, going so far as to attempt to keep her away from him after Alexander murders Cleitus the Black in India. After Hephaestion succumbs to an unknown illness either by chance or perhaps poison, speculated in the movie to be Typhus carried with him from India. Alexander distances himself from his wife, despite her pregnancy, believing that she has killed Hephaestion. He dies less than three months after Hephaestion, at the young age of 32, keeping his promise that he would follow him.
The story begins 40 years after 323 BC, around 283 BC, with Ptolemy I Soter, who narrates throughout the film. We see Alexander's daily life and the strained relationship between his parents. Alexander grows up with his mother Olympias and his tutor Aristotle, where he finds interest in love, honor, music, exploration, poetry and military combat. His relationship with his father is destroyed when Philip marries Attalus's niece, Eurydice.
After Philip is assassinated, Alexander becomes king of Macedonia and Greece. Having briefly mentioned his punitive razing of Thebes and burning of Persepolis, Ptolemy gives an overview of Alexander's west-Persian campaign, including his being declared as the son of Zeus by the Oracle of Amun at Siwa Oasis, his great battle against the Persian Emperor Darius III in the Battle of Gaugamela and his eight-year campaign across Asia.
Also shown are Alexander's private relationships with his childhood friend Hephaestion and later his wife Roxana. Hephaestion compares Alexander to Achilles, to which Alexander replies that, if he is Achilles, Hephaestion must be his Patroclus (Achilles' best friend and, maybe, lover). When Hephaestion mentions that Patroclus died first, Alexander pledges that, if Hephaestion should die first, he will follow him into the afterlife. Hephaestion shows extensive jealousy when he sees Alexander with Roxana and deep sadness when he marries her, going so far as to attempt to keep her away from him after Alexander murders Cleitus the Black in India. After Hephaestion succumbs to an unknown illness either by chance or perhaps poison, speculated in the movie to be Typhus carried with him from India. Alexander distances himself from his wife, despite her pregnancy, believing that she has killed Hephaestion. He dies less than three months after Hephaestion, at the young age of 32, keeping his promise that he would follow him.
Released Date: 16 November 2004
Genres: Action, Romance, Biography, History, War
Casts:
Colin Farrell as Alexander The Great
Angelina Jolie as Queen Olympias , mother of Alexander
Val Kilmer as King Philip II , father of Alexander
Anthony Hopkins as Ptolemy I Soter
Jared Leto as Hephaestion
Rosario Dawson as Roxana
Jonathan Rhys Meyers as Cassander
Rory McCann as Craterus
Gary Stretch as Cleitus
Ian Beattie as Antigonus
Neil Jackson as Perdiccas
Raz Degan as Darius III of Persia
Christopher Plummer as Aristotle
John Kavanagh as Parmenion
Annelise Hesme as Stateira
Nick Dunning as Attalus
Denis Conway as Nearchus
Marie Meyer as Eurydice
Bin Bunluerit as Porus
Francisco Bosch as Bagoas
Joseph Morgan as Philotas
Toby Kebbell as Pausanias of Orestis
Erol Sander as Pharnakes
Elliot Cowan as Young Ptolemy I Soter
Connor Paolo as Young Alexander
Patrick Adolphe as Alexander's Servant Boy
Brian Blessed as Wrestling Trainer
Tim Pigott-Smith as Omen Reader
Oliver Stone as Macedonian Soldier at Zeus Statue
Quotes:
Hephaistion: You know better than any great deeds are donned by men who took, and never regretted. You're Alexander! Pity and grief will only destroy you.
Alexander: Have I become so arrogant that I am blind?
Hephaistion: Sometimes to expect the best from everyone is arrogance.
Alexander: Then it's true. I have become a tyrant!
Hephaistion: No! But perhaps a stranger. We've come too far. They don't understand you anymore.
Alexander: They speak of Phillip now as if I were a passing cloud, soon to be forgotten. I've failed. Utterly.
Hephaistion: You're mortal. And they know it. And they forgive you because you make them proud of themselves.
Alexander: Have I become so arrogant that I am blind?
Hephaistion: Sometimes to expect the best from everyone is arrogance.
Alexander: Then it's true. I have become a tyrant!
Hephaistion: No! But perhaps a stranger. We've come too far. They don't understand you anymore.
Alexander: They speak of Phillip now as if I were a passing cloud, soon to be forgotten. I've failed. Utterly.
Hephaistion: You're mortal. And they know it. And they forgive you because you make them proud of themselves.
Olympias: My poor child. You're like Achilles; cursed by your greatness. You must never confuse your feelings with your duties, Alexander. A king must make public gestures for the common people. You will be nineteen this summer, and the girls already say you don't like them, you like Hephastion more. I understand, it's natural for a young man. But if you go to Asia without leaving a successor you risk all.
Alexander: Hephastion loves me. As I am. Not who.
Alexander: Hephastion loves me. As I am. Not who.
Cassander: Alexander, if we must fight, do so with stealth. Use your numbers well; we should attack tonight when they least expect us.
Alexander: I didn't cross Asia to steal this victory, Cassander.
Cassander: No, you are too honorable for that, no doubt influenced from sleeping with tales of Troy under your pillow. But your father was no lover of Homer's.
Parmenion: The lands west of the Euphrates, Alexander, and his daughter's hand in marriage! Since when has a Greek ever been given such honors?
Alexander: These are not honors, Parmenion, they're bribes! Which the Greeks have accepted too long! You forget, Parmenion, that the man who murdered my father lies across the valley floor.
Parmenion: Come, Alexander, we're not really sure if it was Persian gold behind the assassination. It is no matter! Your father taught you never to surrender your reason to your passion! I urge you, with all my experience, regroup! Fall back to the coast, raise a larger force!
Alexander: I would, if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander. And no more than earth has two suns will Asia bear two kings. These are my terms. And if Darius isn't a coward who hides behind his men then he'll come to me tomorrow. And *when* he bows down to Greece, Alexander will be merciful.
Alexander: I didn't cross Asia to steal this victory, Cassander.
Cassander: No, you are too honorable for that, no doubt influenced from sleeping with tales of Troy under your pillow. But your father was no lover of Homer's.
Parmenion: The lands west of the Euphrates, Alexander, and his daughter's hand in marriage! Since when has a Greek ever been given such honors?
Alexander: These are not honors, Parmenion, they're bribes! Which the Greeks have accepted too long! You forget, Parmenion, that the man who murdered my father lies across the valley floor.
Parmenion: Come, Alexander, we're not really sure if it was Persian gold behind the assassination. It is no matter! Your father taught you never to surrender your reason to your passion! I urge you, with all my experience, regroup! Fall back to the coast, raise a larger force!
Alexander: I would, if I were Parmenion. But I am Alexander. And no more than earth has two suns will Asia bear two kings. These are my terms. And if Darius isn't a coward who hides behind his men then he'll come to me tomorrow. And *when* he bows down to Greece, Alexander will be merciful.
Hephaistion: [on his death bed] I'll feel better. Soon I'll be up.
Alexander: We leave for Arabia in the spring, I can't leave without you!
Hephaistion: Arabia... you used to dress me up like a sheik and wave your wooden scimitar...
Alexander: You were the only one who'd never let me win. The only one who's ever been honest with me. You saved me from myself. Please don't leave me, Hephaistion.
Hephaistion: ...I remember the young man who wanted to be Achilles, and then out did him.
Alexander: And then what happens? That was a myth only young men believe!
Hephaistion: But how beautiful a myth it was.
Alexander: How we reach, we fall! Oh, Hephaistion.
Hephaistion: I worry for you without me.
Alexander: I am nothing without you!
Alexander: We leave for Arabia in the spring, I can't leave without you!
Hephaistion: Arabia... you used to dress me up like a sheik and wave your wooden scimitar...
Alexander: You were the only one who'd never let me win. The only one who's ever been honest with me. You saved me from myself. Please don't leave me, Hephaistion.
Hephaistion: ...I remember the young man who wanted to be Achilles, and then out did him.
Alexander: And then what happens? That was a myth only young men believe!
Hephaistion: But how beautiful a myth it was.
Alexander: How we reach, we fall! Oh, Hephaistion.
Hephaistion: I worry for you without me.
Alexander: I am nothing without you!
Alexander: You'll never lose me, Hephaistion. I'll be with you always. 'Til the end.
Old Ptolemy: The surveyors told us we were now on the boarders of where Europe and Asia meet. In fact, we were totally lost.
Old Ptolemy: Within hours we were fighting like Jackals for his corpse. The wars of the world had begun. Forty years, off and on, they endured, until we divided his empire in four parts. I think Alexander would have been disappointed in us.
Alexander: I've come to believe the fear of death drives all men, Hephaistion. This we didn't learn as schoolboys.
Hephaistion: I've always believed, Alexander. But this seems so much bigger than us.
Alexander: Did Patroclus stare at Achilles when they stood side by side at the siege of troy?
Hephaistion: Patroclus died first.
Alexander: If you do... if you were to fall Hephaistion, I will avenge you, and follow you down to the house of death.
Hephaistion: I would do the same.
Alexander: On the eve of battle it's hardest to be alone.
Hephaistion: Then perhaps this is farewell, my Alexander.
Alexander: Fear not, Hephaistion. We are at the beginning.
Hephaistion: I've always believed, Alexander. But this seems so much bigger than us.
Alexander: Did Patroclus stare at Achilles when they stood side by side at the siege of troy?
Hephaistion: Patroclus died first.
Alexander: If you do... if you were to fall Hephaistion, I will avenge you, and follow you down to the house of death.
Hephaistion: I would do the same.
Alexander: On the eve of battle it's hardest to be alone.
Hephaistion: Then perhaps this is farewell, my Alexander.
Alexander: Fear not, Hephaistion. We are at the beginning.
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