Hello everyone. Today with me I have Trevor Cully from the History of Persia podcast. This episode is going to be a little bit more loose and relaxed and structure than either of our normal shows and wanted to get together and discuss the

2004 Oliver Stone film Alexander, based on the life of Alexander the Great, the Macedonian

conquer, who is immensely important figure in both of the subjects that we cover. And so I thought

maybe coming from different perspectives, it allows us to dissect the film from both a technical

and, more importantly, a historical perspective.

So, let us begin with a bit of a background detail on the movie. It was directed and written by Oliver Stone,

largely based upon the 1973 biography on Alexander the Great by historian Robin Lane Fox, who also served as the historical advisor for this film.

Released in 2004, it was a critical failure and only barely made back its budget,

an astonishing $155 million, which would be closer to about $210 million today.

While it did not succeed with the critics, it has recently received a bit of a comeback

due to the

praise for its relatively high levels of historical accuracy for a major Hollywood film.

And no thanks to Oliver Stone, constantly releasing new editions.

There are currently four available.

The theatrical, the director's cut, the final cut, which is what I own, and the ultimate

cut.

The last two are considered the

superior films, and both clock in at over three and a half hours, with the final at the longest

at 214 minutes running time. So, before we really analyze, what are your general impressions

after watching it? Well, I guess hello everybody. I thought it was a surprisingly good ancient history

movie. Now, that's not exactly an impressive genre to be working with, but the attention

to detail with the settings and the costumes alone just sets it up to be more faithful to history than most other options out

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