Persian Realm

True Points

Yes I agree with your points but at the same time Epic Films or Sword and Sandals set in Ancient Times are rarely aimed at historical accuracy but are often a pretext for Testosteron driven entertainment on a large scale. But Rossen's Alexander has the credit of being faithful to the historical texts of Herodotus and other historians of the Time ( obviously Greek) and the names and locations are accurately depicted unlike Oliver Stone's catasrophic film. The Problem with such larger than life characters now definitively part of human history is to sum up their life and times in less than 2 to 3 hours. What can be done in a book is virtually impossible on film unless it were a TV series.

At the same time I have to say that sword and sandal films of the 50's and 60's all in technicolour have a boyhood schoolyard charm that I cannot resist watching them over and over again without getting bored. The stories and situations are simplistic and the frontier between good and bad is very thin which makes the characters one dimensional to say the least. I nevertheless enjoy watching them like Westerns in which Cowboys vs Indians. You know that the cowboys are no better no worse than the Indians but still enjoy to watch a good fight on screen.

Alexander

Of course to expect any historical accuracy would be futile in either Rossen's or that vain megalomaniac Stone's. This type of genre seeks to gloify the western military invincibility & prowess & wisdom at the expense of everything else, including the truth. The persians acted more noblely when they occupied Athens for a year in 480 BC. They did not loot nor burned it, even though they could have easily, as Alexander did in TakhtJamshid/ Persopolis. A l'egard Alexander's sexuality: as his army was advancing, his commanders were sending him pretty young boys that they had come across in the conquered lands. bisexuality being the norm in the Hellenic world. The projection of a viril 'man', all conquering and manly, rather than a mean bugger would of course not occure in any form of Western representation.