2/5 A Disposable Doc About a "Great" (?) Man
  by Chris Roberts (Astoria, NY)
With all the panache of a college lecture (snore) this documentary/love letter to Alexander the Great really doesn't justify its existence. It mostly exists to convince us that Alexander was the greatest military conqueror in history, not unlike Oliver Stone's "Alexander." But unable to stand on its own this documentary (clocking in at 66 minutes) is best viewed as a companion piece to that film. Here we get the requisite chapter on how as a young boy he tamed a wild horse. That story always seemed like hero building for no good reason to me, you know, like how George Washington never told a lie. We, as a people, are so simplistic that we need some childhood story about our heroes that encapsulates their accomplishments in life. At 10 he conquered a horse, at 20 he conquered the world!

A lot of this film has us looking at maps while they describe his military adventures. We also get some very low tech diagrams that attempt to illustrate his famous battles. None of these affects stimulate the eyes or brain, but the portrait it creates is striking nonetheless. The empire he is responsible for across Eurasia really is unprecedented in history, and to watch as it grows and grows is impressive. Of course there is nothing even resembling a philosophical look at the situation. Why did Alexander want all of this land? Or more practically, What did he do with it once he got it? How did he go about maintaining it? Anybody can go on a bloody march across a large piece of land, but that hardly makes it their empire.

It is interesting to me that Alexander is revered the way that he is. Is he "great" simply because he conquered land (with an inherited army as this documentary points out)? Certainly their have been greater accomplishments throughout history. Gandhi the Great has a nice ring to my ears. Of course the short answer is that military achievements (unquestioned in this case) are sexier than peaceful ones. We don't marvel at the size of the empire that Gandhi brought to its knees, we marvel at the size of the empire Alexander created. So the question I ask is, Isn't rooting for Alexander the same as rooting for imperialism? But I've gotten off track, mainly because what I am reviewing left me somewhat numb. As a snapshot of a historical figure, I guess it works. To watch this is to make only a small investment of time and yes I did learn a few things. Like early on when I learned that when Alexander conquered lands he would routinely sell the entire population into slavery. Now to me that sort of ruthlessness has to be admired in some way. How can somebody have such lofty goals about being so cold blooded? But again it brings me back to Gandhi, the man who risked his life for the selfless freeing of others. Alexander waged a campaign against freedom, and all for his selfish goals.