Warrior Ancient and Medieval Rules

[Phil Gardocki]

Come late.
Watch Guagamella.
Enjoy the pike men going through the maneauvers.
Ignore all the red paint and sudden changes of film speed.
If at a multiplex, Leave theater and find one running "Spongebob"
When that is over, return, and sit through another half hour before the
Battle of the River Ganges. (or was that Hydraspes?)
You can leave at that point.

Highlights:
Seeing Anthony Hopkins without cringing.
Watching Scythed Chariots do flips.
The cityscape of Babylon.

Minor inacuraccies.
Philip being assassaneded in public in Greece, instead of a drunken brawl at
his palace,
Alexander taking an arrow while charging an elephant. I believe he took
that while stroming one of the many cities in India.

You're right. Alex was wounded in the thigh while
storming Tyre, which was in rebellion at the time.
Not India. The movie had many historical
inaccuracies, but otherwise it would have been boring
for he non-history buffs, so I wasn't disappointed.
See below for the list I spotted.

It did get the people right; I was pleased to see many
names from the Alexander Successor armies in the
movie: Lysimachus, Ptolemy, Antigonus, Seluces, etc.

I am afraid I disagree overall, not because of the
inaccuracies but for other reasons. Not even the
battle scenes were worth seeing. Stone was doing his
usual "war is hell" routine; the battle scenes were so
chaotic and fast moving, I believe the term is
"subliminal cut speed," that you couldn't appreciate
either the maneuvers or the HTH combat.

Stone concentrated a lot more on psychological makeup
and the whole "power corrupts" theme both with Phillip
and Alexander. I can't say more without spoilers.
You would only like the movie if you like this kind of
thing (I do, or I would if it had been done better).

Errata - Spoiler alert
Alex chases Darius into Afghanistan for three years.
It was Bessus, not Darius, who was dead within a
month. Jibe at the present situation in Afghanistan?

Skipped over battle of Issus.

Fell out with his father while he was young. It was
after he became commander of the cavalry.

Mother was Persian; she was Greek, I believe.

Skipped several years of his life; he dies right after
he returns from India in the movie.

Roxanne was from a hill tribe in Afghanistan; I would
have to double check, but I think she was Persian
aristocracy.

Alex tells his army that they're going home out of
guilt. Actually, it was because of the mutiny.

Alex marches his army home through the desert because
of a logistics error; in real life he did it to punish
them for the mutiny. The whole movie whitewashes
Alex's less admirable traits.

A. Ronnfeldt



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[Bill Chriss]

>
> You're right. Alex was wounded in the thigh while
> storming Tyre, which was in rebellion at the time.

Correct


> Mother was Persian; she was Greek, I believe.

Sort of. Olympias was from Epirus which is now southern Albania and
Northwestern Greece, later Pyrrhus' homeland.


> Roxanne was from a hill tribe in Afghanistan; I would
> have to double check, but I think she was Persian
> aristocracy.

No. Roxanne actually was the daughter of a Bactrian hill chieftain as
reasonably well portrayed in the movie. Alex also married one of Darius'
daughters, but she was not Roxanne.

> Alex tells his army that they're going home out of
> guilt. Actually, it was because of the mutiny.

Well, that depends who you believe. One other inaccuracy is that it was
actually Koenos (Coenus), not Krateros, who spoke up for those who wanted
to turn back.

>
> Alex marches his army home through the desert because
> of a logistics error; in real life he did it to punish
> them for the mutiny. The whole movie whitewashes
> Alex's less admirable traits.
>


Oh, I would say it made him look pretty bad. It spends a lot of time on
the assumption of his homosexuality, an assumption hardly provable, if not
outright denied by the sources. I agree that it was an altogether
disappointing film with a few good and accurate portrayals of minor
characters and the nature of phalanx warfare.




Greek