Alexander the Great (1956)

Trying to compress the tremendous, albeit short, career of one of the most influential figures to ever walk across the stage of human existence appears to be beyond the scope of a two hour movie. At least, that is my impression of Robert Rossen’s film of Alexander the Great, starring Richard Burton in the title role. Rossen wrote, produced, and directed the film.

I always considered myself something of a student of Alexander, having read all the books I could get about him whenever I could, so I eagerly popped this movie into my VCR just after I bought it.

Alexander, according to all accounts, was arguably the greatest military leader ever to set out on the path of conquest. He began his career early by engineering the assassination of his father Philip. Philip had earlier divorced Alexander’s mother, thereby jeopardizing Alexander's succession to the throne. Alexander immediately purged all enemies, blaming the assassination on them and had his leadership of the coming Persian Expedition, which had belonged to his late father, affirmed by the Greek States. When Thebes tried to withstand his leadership, he utterly destroyed their fighting force, razed the city, and sold the rest into slavery. There was no more opposition to his will after that. This was quite an accomplishment for a boy of twenty, and from a backward nation (Macedon) at that.

Alexander, accompanied by 30,000 infantry and 5,000 cavalry crossed to Asia Minor. He was almost immediately set upon by a Persian army at a battle near the Granicus river where he completely defeated the combined forces of three Persian Satraps. Working his way down the coast of Asia Minor, he captured the Greek cities, one by one, then he penetrated the interior and conquered all the way to India. In all, Alexander fought four battles that are considered history-making, including the Granicus.

The other side of Alexander’s character was darker, as seen in his overthrow of his father. He also had a tremendous drinking problem and was impatient with anyone who he felt was hindering his goals, whatever they were, at the time. A brief example: Black Cleitis was a brave soldier who saved Alexander’s life at the Granicus. Alexander, planning to become a god, wanted his Macedonians to prostrate themselves before him as the Persians did. The free-thinking Cleitis balked and Alexander, in a drunken rage, thrust a spear through his old comrade.

The movie tends to go through all these incidents in a way, but really does not emphasize the tremendous battles that Alexander won. It appears that Burton and a handful of extras are galloping around a soundstage, not a cast of thousands as would be more fitting.

Similarly, the stakes that the Persians were fighting for was not sufficiently emphasized. King Darius was literally fighting for his country’s existence. Alexander had much less to lose than the Persians but it made the Persian Empire, then some two hundred years old, look weak and insignificant when it was in fact the dominant world power at the time. To put Alexander’s achievement in perspective, his conquest would be as inconceivable as if Mexico came up and utterly defeated the United States today. And by the way, occupied it and ruled it for 300 years.

The acting is very high quality with outstanding performances by a bevy of British actors, including Burton, Frederic March (Philip), supporting actors Stanley Baker, Michael Hordern, Claire Bloom, Harry Andrews, and Peter Cushing. Black Cleitis was excellently played by a Spanish actor (Gustavo Rojo), as were most of the bit parts.

Photography and costuming was nearly flawless as well, except for the battle scenes which seemed smaller than life at times. The major criticism was in the screenplay which tried to cram too much into a limited time.

Rossen might better have limited the movie to a specific portion of Alexander’s career and made a more detailed account than trying to cram everything into a single two-hour movie. Still, Alexander the Great is a decent effort and the good acting outweighs the ambitious scope of the screenplay. Three stars.

More information about Alexander the Great can be obtained from the following:

Alexander

The Campaigns of Alexander

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