The classic film, Alexander the Great (1956), follows the life of Alexander the Great, a successful military commander of all time who had conquered most of the known world by the time of his death at only thirty-three years.
Written, directed, and produced by Robert Rossen, the ambitious film tells of how Alexander managed to create a huge empire that included Macedonia, Egypt, Syria, Persia, and Asia Minor. Some of the actors in the film include Richard Burton (as Alexander the Great), Claire Bloom (as Barsine) Frederic March (as Philip of Macedonia), Danielle Darrieux (as Olympias), and Barry Jones (as Aristotle).
The events depicted in the movie are historically accurate. As is shown in the movie, Alexander was born in Pella in 356 BC when his father, King Philip II of Macedonia, was championing a campaign to take over Olynthus. After giving birth to Alexander, Philip’s II wife, Olympias, persistently claims that he is of divine birth.
Although Philip II accuses her of infidelity, he endeavors to groom Alexander to succeed him. Consequently, he ensures that the young man receives the highest level of education in Greek cultural practices. The famed Greek philosopher Aristotle, who made him to accept that the Greeks were the most civilized, taught him history, mathematics, logic and other subjects.
Alexander’s eager to rule is aroused when his father allows him to rule the city of Pella, the capital of Macedonia. Phillip did this because he was spending too much time in the battlefield. As the first taste of power made the young man to be confident, he soon started to take his father to the wars he was fighting to conquer other areas. For example, in the Battle of Chaeronea (338 BC),
Alexander and his father managed to capture the city of Athens. This victory assures Alexander of a great future; however, Philip accuses his wife of infidelity and divorces her and this leads to a chasm in his relationship with his father because his succession is uncertain as some people in the palace thought of him as being an illegitimate child.
When one of Alexander’s friends assassinates Philip II, he ascends to the throne and claims the loyalty of all the Greeks and also assumes all the titles that had been accorded to the late king. After this, driven by a god-like conviction, he embarks on a mission to bring the all region of Asia under his authority. As much as he is not going to live for many years, the extent of his accomplishments is going to be without parallel. The depiction of these events makes the film to be historically accurate.
On the other hand, besides its historical accuracies in depicting the life of Alexander the Great, the film also has some historical inaccuracies. Since the movie is not a historical documentary, the filmmakers added some fiction to it, which makes it historical accuracy questionable. The filmmakers decided to omit some other battles and events that took place during the time, for example, the siege of Tyre.
These were avoided supposedly because of time constraints. Other historical inaccuracies in the film arise from representation that the ancient Macedonian culture was the same with that of other people like the Persians and the portrayal the Alexander’s troops defeated many of their enemies in a single conflict while historical facts show that they had to engage in several fierce battles in order to be victorious.
Perhaps the filmmakers wanted to make the changes from the facts so as to produce the film within their allocated budget, production schedules, availability of actors, and the desire to ensure that the plot supports their own artistic vision. In addition, these changes were to make the film acceptable for the cinemagoers of the 1950s.
Watching the movie enables one to learn about the specific period in history when Macedonian rule was present in huge swathes of Asia. The Macedonian Empire and the Greek culture expanded to other parts of the world because of the mighty influence that Alexander had.
In the huge territories he had conquered, the hybrid Hellenistic culture developed as the Greek culture blended with the local cultures. Even after his death in 323 BC, the areas he had conquered were still under the influence of the Greek culture for the next two hundred to three hundred years.
Through Alexander’s 11-year conquests of the known world, the movie depicts him as one of the most successful military intellects in history. The movie also enables us to learn how the Macedonian people highly esteemed their culture. For example, King Philip II was obliged to divorce his wife because of infidelity issues and Alexander was almost not considered an heir to the throne because he was not a legitimate child.
Although the lavish, historical movie has some historical inaccuracies, this does not qualify it to be a propaganda movie. Alexander the Great is an important historical figure, which the movie succeeds in portraying in his short life, yet well lived.
The film simply presents the facts on the rule of the Macedonian Empire, without attempting to sway the viewers to a particular religious or political way of thinking. The changes from the facts that the filmmakers made in the production of the movie were not aimed to misrepresent the historical truths, but they were included because of the reasons outlined in the earlier sections of the paper.
More so, the filmmakers took three years in researching and developing its screenplay. Could they have devoted this kind of effort so as to produce a propaganda film? In this regard, the filmmakers aimed to represent the life of Alexander the Great as accurately as possible to the cinemagoers of the mid-twentieth century.
The movie shows aspects of stereotyping, especially that concern women and other ethnic groups. In the film, the role of women is misrepresented as secondary and they have no place in the society. For example, King Philip II divorced his wife simply because of the rumors he was hearing without having the facts on the table.
The movie does not show any constructive dialogue between the king and the queen in an attempt to resolve their differences. The movie stereotyped other ethnic groups. It tried to over-represent the Greek culture as if it was the most important culture that existed at that time. The attempts by the producers of the film to simplify the historical facts so as to reduce its length is damaging since it takes the steam out of the beautiful plot of the story that has been developed.
The historical events and the personalities depicted in the movie reflect what is currently happening in our society. Thirst for power is making nations to fight against one another as they seek to expand their boundaries. Infidelity within marriage is a cause of breakup of most marriages today. Stereotyping the minorities or a certain ethnic group is still present in our modern society.
Brutality is also a common occurrence as people are prepared to murder their friends when they want to gain positions in government or in an organization. In addition to the older version of the film, the newer version of the film, Alexander (2004), directed by Oliver Stone is not a remake of the former and it is based on the historical book Alexander the Great authored by Robin Lane Fox.
As much as both the versions of the films are based on the life of Alexander the Great, the newer version has more historically accurate sets, good editing, does not have erratic continuity, and is generally of better technical quality. More so, the newer version concentrates more on Alexander’s youthful life, his relationships with his parents and some of his advisors, and his conquering of Persia and India.
In conclusion, Alexander the Great (1956) depicts the events that took place in the life of the great ruler, Alexander the Great, in the vast Macedonian Empire. Because of his skills and strategies, he managed to conquer the entire known world and influenced them to adopt completely or mingle the Greek culture with theirs. The newer version of the film is considered to have a more in-depth analysis of the life of Alexander.