A Greek Thanksgiving

So Thanksgiving was great. As usual, everyone ate too much, but a good time was still had by all. I managed not to get drawn into any political debates (pretty much everyone here is an ultra-conservative Republican – if you want to really wind them up just mention abortion, John Kerry, or Hilary Clinton). Not surprisingly I long ago managed to suck my sister into my movie-going madness. We have a longstanding tradition in which the girls all go out to see a movie every Thanksgiving night after dinner. (It’s a leave-the guys-home-with-the-kids escapism kinda thing.) The choices of what to see this year were not particularly promising, but considering we’ve seen such “gems” in the past as “Alien 3” and “Solaris,” I still had hope that we could at least top those. So it came down to seeing “National Treasure” or “Alexander.” Despite my insistence to my mom and sis that I would be perfectly willing to sit through NT again, they didn’t seem to believe me, so “Alexander” it was. (I think the fact that “Alexander” started almost an hour earlier had something to do with it as well. They must have missed me telling them that it was 3 hours long.) I did not have high hopes for this film. I had heard some really, really bad things about it. Well, it was not Oliver Stone’s best film by any means, but it was definitely way better than I expected. Oliver Stone is a great director; even with his films that I hate, I am still willing to admit that they are beautifully shot. From a totally artistic perspective they are always extraordinary. “Alexander” is no exception. A lot of it is very dream-like and different from what you would normally find in what is largely a battle epic. One scene was even shot using color infrared film and is a very cool technique that you don’t see very often. The movie is worth watching for the elephant battle scene alone. Val Kilmer is great as Alexander’s father, Phillip - a nomination for Best Supporting Actor would not be unwarranted here. We all know how I feel about Angelina Jolie and she does a decent job as his mother, Olympias. In some scenes she is really great. In others she seems to be trying too hard. I expect better from her. I have been skeptical about Colin Farrell playing Alexander since I heard he was cast like a year ago. He did a better job than I ever would have thought possible, but I still stand by my initial reaction that he was horribly miscast. Like Angelina, there are some scenes where he gives a really great performance. Then there are others where he is just horrible – that Irish brogue of his slips through a couple of times and is just bad, bad, bad in the context of the film. The story is good and is based fairly firmly in what historical information exists regarding the real Alexander the Great. (There are a couple of great scenes with his horse Bucephalus that of course I loved.) The script could have used some tweaking. I know it’s supposed to be an epic but that 3 hour run time could have been cut by probably ½ an hour and I don’t think the film would have lost anything. In fact, I think it would have made it tighter and less “rambling.” Colin gives a few too many inspirational, “rally-the-troops,” kinda speeches and after like the 3^rd one, I was pretty much over his proclamations. Still, for people who like “sword-and-sandal” films, it’s definitely worth checking out. It’s nowhere near as good as “Gladiator,” but I liked it better than “Troy” - although I’ll still take naked Brad Pitt over naked Colin Farrell any day :)

“Which dreams indeed are ambition, for the very substance of the ambitious is merely the shadow of a dream.”

– William Shakespeare – “Hamlet” - Act II, scene ii

Oh, and I almost forgot - fuck ;)