Alexander the Great (1956)

Summary. Alexander is born to Queen Olympias, who claims that she was inseminated by a god. Phillip, king of Macedon divorces her, causing family rift but nevertheless Alexander goes to war with him and later as governor of a vassal state. After a variety of family feuds which result in suicides and murder, Alexander at the head of an army embarks on the conquest of Asia. Alexander gradually becomes obsessed with his origins saying that he is the son of a god. After killing a friend in a drunken brawl he loses his will to conquer and eventually dies at the age of 32.

Content: No nudity or sex. Some drinking of wine from goblets. The family of the king of Macedon argue a lot, and sometimes deaths occur. Alexander’s progress to becoming a military leader is shown. There are a lot of battles mostly with no real identification of who is winning. Alexander and his advisers sit about in tents and look at maps.

A View: I usually quite like this old stuff, since they portray a set of scenes using real crowds and real soldiers when necessary. No CGI for them. But it seemed to me that Richard Burton was miscast as Alexander, or poorly directed, and the whole film, including the battles was extremely boring. The director is said to have followed the actual events in Alexander’s life as closely as possible, but this might be the problem. Don’t give this old and crusty outing any of your time.

I find that I have 50 films in the Historic Drama category, and there is no doubt that this is the worst. Better outing in the same style include El Cid, Cleopatra and Spartacus.

I find that I have 50 films in the Historic Drama category, and there is no doubt that this is the worst. Better outing in the same style include El Cid, Cleopatra and Spartacus.