Alexander

I've just come from watching Alexander and can't understand why anyone would complain of it being too long. I was disappointed that it ended so soon. It is a stunning film, utterly authentic in matters of costuming, setting and weaponry. The battle scenes convey all the horror of hand to hand combat as practised in the ancient world. The historical context is delivered by an aged companion of Alexander and veteran of his wars in Egypt, very convenient for the majority of us who aren't too familiar with the history.

I have no bother with the Irish and Scottish accents. Consider, the great civilizations of the period were Egyptian and Persian. Alexander's Macedonian generals were provincials, the grandsons of shepherds - much more like Irish/Scottish English speakers of today who are sandwiched between the major polities of UK and USA.

I have trouble anyway believing in the American speaking Greeks and Romans we usually get in Holywood epics. Ancient romans doing cowboy-speak? It never really works. So Alexander's Irish accent is fine by me. Well done Oliver Stone for using it so effectively.

Acting in this film is superb and the faces are very distinctive so it's no big deal if we don't quite catch all of those unfamiliar Greek/persian/scythian names. We can grasp the characters perfectly from the truly fine acting.

Ummmm ... and what a fine tasty lot Alexander and his men are and don't those Greek costumes give us lots of fine leg to view. Maybe that's another reason I was so disappointed that the film wasn't at least an hour and a half longer.