Possible new movie for inspiration

[MaxiVisVires]

Gladiator was much better than Troy or Arthur. Yea, it wasn't historically accurate, but what movie is? Megablocks even comic book movies aren't historically accurate. As for Arthur, that was by far the most unhistorical and worst version of Arthurian Lore. That first scene in seeing Hadrian's Wall said it all. The movie isn't even worth the matinee price IMO.

[MaxiVisVires]

and yes I know gladiator wasnt about a real person, but still...)

The Emperor guy was real. The son that is. And yes, he wanted to have his way with his sister. And did. And he wanted to have his way with anything with a skirt. And did. Oh, and he wanted to have his way anything wearing pants. And did. Sick puppy he is. Yes, you gotta love the History Channel.

[Luís]

and yes I know gladiator wasnt about a real person, but still...)

The Emperor guy was real. The son that is. And yes, he wanted to have his way with his sister. And did. And he wanted to have his way with anything with a skirt. And did. Oh, and he wanted to have his way anything wearing pants. And did. Sick puppy he is. Yes, you gotta love the History Channel.

You too have history channel?
How good.

[Magnus]

I've avoided the new King Arthur movie, although I understand it features some interesting female outfits Seriously, can someone who has seen it tell me if there any other reasons for a military history buff to see it?

As someone who has actually read Homer (OK the English Lattimore translation), I enjoyed Troy far more than I anticipated. Once I got used to the idea that the plot was completely changed I thought it was interesting how they portrayed it as a battle of men, rather than Gods. My main problem with it was that it didn't develop Achilles and Patroklus's relationship enough for the viewer to understand why Patroklus's death provoked the wrath of Achilles - which at the end of the day is what the Illiad hinges on.

Braveheart is a classic, Gladiator was most impressive, and I can't wait to see Alexander. And I hope this rumored movie Gates of Fire about Thermopylea is still happening. The book was excellent!

[doctorsparkles]

I've avoided the new King Arthur movie, although I understand it features some interesting female outfits Seriously, can someone who has seen it tell me if there any other reasons for a military history buff to see it?

Historically accurate or not, I felt that King Arthur had a nice story to it, and though not the classic Arthur either, it was an interesting take on the legend. Also, there's a fair amound of eye candy in it, and I'm not just talking about Guinevere in leather straps and tribal warpaint (though that was pretty nice too).

[JPinoy]

The History Channel is having a special show about Alexander the Great on Nov. 7th. Thats about 2 days, I think, after the release of the Alexander movie.

I really can't wait for this film to come out. Im hoping they have the Battle of Gaugamella (somewhere in modern Iraq), where Alexander has his final showdown with Darius. In this battle Alexander has about 70,000 Greeks, Macedonians, and allies. Darius on the other hand mustered just about the entire Persian army for this all or nothing battle. Darius' Persians and allies had about 400,000 troops under his command. Beat that Sauron!

IF, they have this battle in the movie, it would totally PWN the Battle of Pelennor Fields from LOTR. For one reason, its history and it did happen. Indian War Elephants instead of Mumakil, the Heratoi (Alex's Companion Cavalry) instead of Rohirrim, and many more!

[TwoTonic Knight]

Can't speak for the historical accuracy of the story, but the preview I saw had all the armor and costumes straight from the illustrations of Peter Connelly's Greece and Rome at War. Hopefully the troops will keep formation and not break into the typical Hollywood Mob Melee. The whole flipping point to pikemen is keeping formation.

[TheOrk]

and yes I know gladiator wasnt about a real person, but still...)

The Emperor guy was real. The son that is. And yes, he wanted to have his way with his sister. And did. And he wanted to have his way with anything with a skirt. And did. Oh, and he wanted to have his way anything wearing pants. And did. Sick puppy he is. Yes, you gotta love the History Channel.

Are you referring to Nero or Caliglia?

Darius' Persians and allies had about 400,000 troops under his command. Beat that Sauron!

While reading a movie magazine it said Sauron had an 600,000. But with ''technology'' these days, the animation will probley be cooler.

[TwoTonic Knight]

and yes I know gladiator wasnt about a real person, but still...)

The Emperor guy was real. The son that is. And yes, he wanted to have his way with his sister. And did. And he wanted to have his way with anything with a skirt. And did. Oh, and he wanted to have his way anything wearing pants. And did. Sick puppy he is. Yes, you gotta love the History Channel.

Are you referring to Nero or Caliglia?

He was refering to Commodus, but his father was real, too, Marcus Aurelius (last of the "Five Good Emperors"). Sounds more like he was talking about Caligula, but all these mad emperors blur together after awhile to me.

[JPinoy]

Darius' Persians and allies had about 400,000 troops under his command. Beat that Sauron!

While reading a movie magazine it said Sauron had an 600,000. But with ''technology'' these days, the animation will probley be cooler.

I have the movie magazine and I don't remember reading that at all. I do remember what the editors/producers/PJ said when I was watching the "making or ROTK" in the TTT dvd that Sauron had 200,000 troops. Also keep in mind this is HISTORY not Fantasy which Im talking about.

Besides, as big as Saurons and Darius' armies can be, they still pale in comparison to the Persian King Xerxes' army who tried to invade Greece with about 1,000,000 soldiers. Heck, some accounts go as far up as 3,00,000.... But this was just for 1 invasion.

China on the other had regularly fielded 500,000 troops per side during their Warring States period. The Zhou Dynasty at one point employed over a million soldiers as did the Tang Dynasty. The same was true of the Qin/Chin Dynasty when they won the Warring States period.

[Jojo]

Also keep in mind this is HISTORY not Fantasy which Im talking about.

Besides, as big as Saurons and Darius' armies can be, they still pale in comparison to the Persian King Xerxes' army who tried to invade Greece with about 1,000,000 soldiers. Heck, some accounts go as far up as 3,00,000.... But this was just for 1 invasion.

I wonder how good Herodot was at counting :-)


Bye
Jojo

[JPinoy]

Probably just quadrupled the actual number to make the pre-Alexander Greeks look good at fighting against massive odds. But then they fought in a choke point, had it been an open field the Spartans and their allies would've been swept aside.

Anyhow, the Chinese still has more troops than Sauron, or Xerxes, or Darius.

[Trigger]

I've been looking forward to thism ovie for a while. Although I'm not sure if I'll be able to see it.

[Sir Kohran]

I will probably see it, because it looks like something good could be made of the story, but after my disappointment with King Arthur, my initial expectations for this movie won't be that high.

[rogue27]

Two thumbs down.

There are no spoilers below.

While I don't know enough about Alexander the Great to be certain of the movie's historical accuracy, some portions seemed a bit fishy and cooked up based on what I have read and heard.

Regardless, the movie only contained two battles. The first one was filmed poorly with dust concealing most of the action. The camera perspectives also did a poor job of showing where everything was in relation to everything else, so I never really knew what was going on. The dust was realistic. It will be raised up by charging horses in a desert. However, at one point, the movie is nothing but 3-5 seconds of a dust cloud with nothing else visible. I get the point! It was dusty! Now let me see what's going on!

The other battle was much more visible, but a few parts seemed as if they were shown in double time. Still, it was pretty neat.

The scenery and costumes were pretty good. Babylon and the Library of Alexandria looked great. In fact, the DVD might be worth purchasing just for the scenes inside of Babylon for people who want to build that stuff.


Unfortunately, the movie was too focused on Alexander's mother. I think more time was spent in scenes with Alexander's mother than on anything else. The movie would display maps often, but it would not explain what it all meant. It kept showing a map with "Babylon" in the middle, but no lines showing troop movements or anything. A vague and short narrative would occasionally describe what Alexander did, but I never got a sense of the big picture from that.

Little details:

• No Gordian Knot

• No Oracle at Delphi

• Although it was shown that Alexander was taught by Aristotle, very little of Alexander's leadership, administrative, and tactical skills were demonstrated in the movie. That is unfortunate because those skills are what allowed Alexander to keep a handle on such a large empire.

• It was briefly mentioned that Alexander slept with "tales of Troy" under his pillow, and that was a nice detail because Alexander really did keep a copy of The Iliad beneath his pillow.

• The aftermath of Alexander's death (that's not a spoiler, everybody eventually dies) was summed up in about two sentences. That was a shame, because his death had a large impact on a lot of people.

• Braveheart did it well enough, but I am now getting very tired of cheesy inspirational speeches being given before major battles.

• Alexander supposedly knew the names of his 40,000 original troops. However, at one point in the movie, he asks one of his troops his name.

• Alexander was said to wait for the rest of his men to be treated before his own wounds would be treated. This was shown in one scene.

• It is widely known that Alexander's army involved a lot of homosexual activity. Alexander believed that it kept morale high and allowed his troops to fight better. The movie did retain that aspect, and there was a lot of "male bonding". However, it was only with Alexander and his buddy. Nothing was ever implied or suggested for any other portion of his army.

• I doubt that the real Alexander tried to inspire his army by yelling "You'll live forever in glory! You'll never die!" It sounds more like Alexander was reading the script for that recent Troy movie.

Main reason I dislike the movie: Too much stuff with Alexander's mother and heartfelt conversations between Alexander and his buddy. Why was that a problem? Those scenes were extended far beyond what was needed to move the plot along, and the time could have been better used to better explain the actual battles and progress of Alexander's empire. Alexander was also shown to be dumb and arrogant through the whole thing. There is no point at which he is very likeable.