{"id":4539,"date":"2004-11-27T22:31:59","date_gmt":"2004-11-27T22:31:59","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/victorhanson.com.108-166-28-151.mdgnetworks.com\/wordpress\/?p=4539"},"modified":"2013-04-04T22:33:11","modified_gmt":"2013-04-04T22:33:11","slug":"culling-from-among-mediocre-in-hollywood","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/culling-from-among-mediocre-in-hollywood\/","title":{"rendered":"Culling From Among Mediocre in Hollywood"},"content":{"rendered":"

A short review of Oliver Stone’s\u00a0Alexander the Great<\/em><\/h1>\n

by Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n

Private Papers<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I thought it was simply terrible. The film goes on for nearly three hours, but we hear nothing of what either supporters or detractors of Alexander, both ancient and modern, have agreed were the central issues of his life. Did he really believe in a unity of mankind, and were his mass mixed marriages, Persian dress, and kowtowing cynical, sincere, or delusions of megalomania? We see nothing of the siege of Tyre, Gaza, much less Thebes or even the burning of Persepolis. Other than the talking head Ptolemy, none of his generals have much of a character. There is nothing really in detail about the page purging other than a single reference; Stone, I would have thought, could have had a field day with Alexander\u2019s introduction of both crucifixion and decimation.<\/p>\n

The Gedrosian desert gets a few seconds. And what was the elephant scene in the jungle? Was that supposed to be dirty fighting in India, or the battle at the Hydaspes\u2014which in fact was a brilliant Macedonian victory? The elephants were visually good, but without context or significance. So since Stone omitted the controversial and key issues of Alexander\u2019s career, what do we get instead for at least over two thirds of the movie? Mostly sit-com drama, with gay and bi- subplots, in various bedrooms and banquet halls. Olympias was something out of a teen-aged vampire movie, not the sophisticated and conniving royal we read about in the sources.\u00a0 It is the old\u00a0Dallas<\/span>\u00a0or\u00a0Falcon Crest<\/span>\u00a0glossy pulp in Macedonian drag. Stone\u2019s Alexander is a pouty, wimpy bore; the real figure, whatever your thoughts on him, was a killer and a fearful man of action. Gladiator\u2019s Maximus was a far more engaging and forceful character\u2014and that was a far better film as well.<\/p>\n

\n

There is also irony here. If we remember the embarrassing\u00a0Troy,<\/span>\u00a0we are beginning to see, that all for all the protestations of artistic excellence and craftsmanship, Hollywood has become mostly a place of mediocrity, talentless actors and writers who spout off about politics in lieu of having any real accomplishment in their own field. I\u2019ve heard so many inane things mouthed by Stone that I would like someone at last to address this question\u2014why would supposedly smart insiders turn over $160 million to someone of such meager talent to make such an embarrassing film? Alexander the Great is third-rate Cecil B. Demille in drag.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\n

\u00a92004 Victor Davis Hanson<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A short review of Oliver Stone’s\u00a0Alexander the Great by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers Well, I thought it was simply terrible. The film goes on for nearly three hours, but we hear nothing of what either supporters or detractors of Alexander, both ancient and modern, have agreed were the central issues of his life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false,"jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[87,796],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p466Sb-1bd","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":5295,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/so-much-lost-and-little-gained\/","url_meta":{"origin":4539,"position":0},"title":"So Much Lost and Little Gained","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 5, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Stone's leftist agenda robs\u00a0Alexander\u00a0of authenticity. by Bruce S. Thornton Private Papers A\u00a0movie as bad as Oliver Stone's\u00a0Alexander\u00a0usually would not be worth notice, but Stone has indulged several cinematic and political pathologies that are illuminating. Some of the film's flaws are curiously old-fashioned, redolent of studio schlock of the 1950s--the bombastic\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4524,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/gay-old-times\/","url_meta":{"origin":4539,"position":1},"title":"Gay Old Times?","author":"victorhanson","date":"December 18, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Oliver Stone perpetuates a classical myth by Victor Davis Hanson National Review Magazine The consensus about Oliver Stone's\u00a0Alexander\u00a0is that the film's splashy gay motifs could not overcome the stilted dialogue, ludicrous Irish-brogue and Count Dracula accents, and excruciating minutes of dead screen time devoted to model-like poses, secretive eye contact,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "December 2004"","block_context":{"text":"December 2004","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2004\/december-2004\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4575,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/alexander-the-greatest\/","url_meta":{"origin":4539,"position":2},"title":"Alexander the Greatest","author":"victorhanson","date":"October 9, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson The Times Literary Supplement A review of: Alexander the Great: The Hunt for a New Past\u00a0by Paul Cartledge (341 pp., Macmillan. \u00a318.99) Alexander: Destiny and Myth\u00a0by Claude Moss\u00e9 (244 pp., Edinburgh University Press. \u00a349.99.) Alexander the Conqueror: The Epic Story of the Warrior Kingby Laura Foreman\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Reviews"","block_context":{"text":"Reviews","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/opinion\/reviews\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":2811,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/obamas-abominable-obeisance-cultural-perspectives\/","url_meta":{"origin":4539,"position":3},"title":"Obama’s Abominable Obeisance: Cultural Perspectives","author":"victorhanson","date":"May 2, 2009","format":false,"excerpt":"by Raymond Ibrahim PJ Media Is Obama\u2019s deep bow (with slightly bent knee) to the Saudi king as bad as it seems? The White House, apparently forgetful that we live in the Internet age, where everything is swiftly [1]documented and disseminated\u00a0\u2014 or else thinking it leads a nation of the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Raymond Ibrahim"","block_context":{"text":"Raymond Ibrahim","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/our-contributors\/raymond-ibrahim\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":13065,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thought-of-the-day\/","url_meta":{"origin":4539,"position":4},"title":"Thought of the Day","author":"victorhanson","date":"March 30, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Victor Davis Hanson \/\/ Private Papers Water, Water and Not a Drop?Behind the national headlines are lots of other stories. Here in California, the Department of Water Resources and the Federal Bureau of Reclamation announced that they may not (be able to?) honor the meager 5% of the contracted water\u2026","rel":"","context":"With 18 comments","block_context":{"text":"With 18 comments","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/thought-of-the-day\/#comments"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":4327,"url":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/war-and-the-west-then-and-now-part-i\/","url_meta":{"origin":4539,"position":5},"title":"War and the West, Then and Now: Part I","author":"victorhanson","date":"July 19, 2005","format":false,"excerpt":"by Victor Davis Hanson Private Papers This is a transcript of a recorded talk of about 50 minutes before an audience on February 11, 2004 at the University of Oregon. Part One Military Dynamism: Freedom, Civic Militarism and Decisive Battle I would like to talk tonight about what I would\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "July 2005"","block_context":{"text":"July 2005","link":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/ahref=\/index.php\/categories\/angry-reader\/categorylink\/a\/archives\/2005\/july-2005\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4539"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4540,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4539\/revisions\/4540"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4539"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4539"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/victorhanson.com\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4539"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}