Oliver Stone’s Alexander and the cinematic epic tradition

Paul, Joanna (2009). Oliver Stone’s Alexander and the cinematic epic tradition. In: Cartledge, Paul and Greenland, Fiona Rose eds. Responses to Oliver Stone’s Alexander: Film, History and Culture Studies. Madison, Wisconsin, USA: University of Wisconsin Press, pp. 15–35.

URL: http://uwpress.wisc.edu/books/4569.htm

Abstract

About the book:
This volume brings together an intriguing mix of leading scholars in Macedonian and Greek history, Persian culture, film studies, classical literature, and archaeology —including some who were advisors for the film—and includes an afterword by Oliver Stone discussing the challenges he faced in putting Alexander’s life on the big screen. The contributors scrutinize Stone’s project from its inception and design to its production and reception, considering such questions as: Can a film about Alexander (and similar figures from history) be both entertaining and historically sound? How do the goals of screenwriters and directors differ from those of historians? How do Alexander’s personal relationships—with his mother Olympias, his wife Roxane, his lover Hephaistion, and others—affect modern perceptions of Alexander? Several of the contributors also explore reasons behind the film’s tepid response at the box office and subsequent controversies.

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