Alexander (2004)

Genre

Adventure| Biography | Drama | History

Director

Oliver Stone

Country

Germany | USA | Netherlands | France | UK | Italy

Cast

Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Anthony Hopkins, Jared Leto, Rosario Dawson, Christopher Plummer, Jonathan Rhys-Meyers, Gary Stretch, Joseph Morgan, Raz Degan, Neil Jackson, Francisco Bosch, Denis Conway, John Kavanaugh, Nick Dunning, Rory McCann, Ian Beattie, Annelise Hesme, Garrett Earley

Storyline

The story of Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell), the King of Macedonia and one of the greatest military leaders in the history of warfare that conquers much of the known world.

Opinion

None of the history teachers I had made Alexander the Great interesting so I really never cared about him. I thought an Oliver Stone movie starring Colin Farrell could have made a difference. Boy, if I was wrong.

"Alexander" is a rather slow and at times tedious and soporific film that is far away from being great.

Even though Alexander the Great has never been one of my favourite historical figures, studying him over and over again produced some results. For instance, I know what a complex figure he was. The tactical genius and indomitable character I was expecting to see isn't in the film. Instead we get an Irish boy with bleached hair.

Other than failing to properly portray both the greatness of such a character and the greatness of his exploits, Oliver Stone decided to focus on the homosexual relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion. I don't think there's anything wrong with that, but Stone should have approached to it differently. The values in Alexander's day were different from the values of our day, and the homosexual relationship between Alexander and Hephaestion would have not been the same today. He decided to portray both men like two girls - apparently that's how a man that does have sex with another man acts like -, but this is no sitcom, Mr. Stone.

The film doesn't even have a proper narrative structure. It keeps on flashing back to the past throughout the whole thing, and the plot is so incoherent it needs Anthony Hopkins's constant narration to make sense. Also, there's the embarrassing dialogue.

The cast doesn't make it better. Colin Farrell is awful in here, and plays Alexander as a weak and emotionally distraught man whose facial expressions are painful to watch. Angelina Jolie plays Alexander's mother and for some weird reason she has a Russian kind of accent. The out of place accents are all over the place and very distracting - I mean, Greeks having Irish accents? Can't you do better than that? -, and the acting is over the top.

The Last Samurai (2003)

Genre

Action | Drama | History

Director

Edward Zwick

Country

Japan | New Zealand | United States

Cast

Tom Cruise, Ken Watanabe, Hiroyuki Sanada, Shin Koyamada, Tony Goldwyn, Masato Harada, Shichinosuke Nakamura, Timothy Spall, Seizo Fukumoto, Koyuki, Billy Connolly, Shun Sugata, Sosuke Ikematsu, Scott Wilson, Togo Igawa

Plot

Nathan Algren (Tom Cruise), a veteran of the U.S. Civil War, is hired by the Emperor Meiji (Shichinosuke Nakamura) to train an army capable of wiping out the samurai. But when Algren is captured by the samurai and taught about their history and way of life, he finds himself conflicted over who he should be fighting alongside

Opinion

I wasn't expecting much from this film, I thought it would be just another high-budget film starring Tom Cruise, without any depth. I've never been more wrong in my life. I absolutely loved it and I regret not watching it before.
The Last Samurai is a brilliant story of honour, tradition and courage, and glorifies the Samurai lifestyle in a sublime way.
The film, masterfully directed by Edward Zwick, manages to capture Japanese men living in a transition world: the fall of the Bushido and the rise of a modern empire.
The action/fighting scenes are spectacular. The sublime music, provided by Hans Zimmer, contributes in making the film even more fantastic.
Tom Cruise - actor I don't particularly like, and the reason why I watched this film only now - gives his best performance ever. However, Ken Watanabe, who plays Samurai leader Katsumoto, steals the show with his intense and mesmerising performance, and the Oscar is definitely worthy, but the Academy rarely fails to disappoint.

Buy on Amazon.com

Quotes

Katsumoto: You believe a man can change his destiny?
Algren: I think a man does what he can, until his destiny is revealed.

Emperor Meiji: Tell me how he died.
Algren: I will tell you how he lived.

Katsumoto: The perfect blossom is a rare thing. You could spend your life looking for one, and it would not be a wasted life.

Katsumoto: Perfect... They are all... perfect...

Simon Graham: [narrating] And so the days of the Samurai had ended. Nations, like men, it is sometimes said, have their own destiny. As for the American Captain, no one knows what became of him. Some say that he died of his wounds. Others, that he returned to his own country. But I like to think he may have at last found some small measure of peace, that we all seek, and few of us ever find.

Rating

10/10

The Iron Lady (2011)

Genre

Biography | Drama | History

Director

Phyllida Lloyd

Country

France | United Kingdom

Cast

Meryl Streep, Alexandra Roach, Jim Broadbent, Iain Glen, Olivia Colman, Anthony Head, Nicholas Farrell, Richard E. Grant, Susan Brown, Martin Wimbush, Paul Bentley, Robin Kermode, John Sessions, Roger Allam, David Westhead, Michael Pennington, Angus Wright, Julian Wadham, Nick Dunning, Pip Torrens, Ronald Reagan, Reginald Green

Plot

An elderly and prisoner in her own home Margaret Thatcher (Meryl Streep), Britain's first woman Prime Minister, talks to the imagined presence of her recently deceased husband (Jim Broadbent) as she struggles to come to terms with his death while scenes from her past life, from girlhood to British Prime Minister, intervene.

Opinion

The Iron Lady is not as good as I thought. The storytelling is a huge misfire. Boring at first, enhances a bit, and it gets boring again. This film is mostly about an elder and mentally unbalanced Margaret Thatcher, which remember her life through flashbacks. I would have liked a deeper insight into how she run the country.
Meryl Streep is outstanding and mesmerising as always, but she slightly uplifts the film.

Buy on Amazon.com | Buy/Rent on Amazon Instant Video

Quotes

Margaret Thatcher: Watch your thoughts, for they become words. Watch your words, for they become actions. Watch your actions, for they become habits. Watch your habits, for they become your character. And watch your character, for it becomes your destiny. What we think, we become. My father always said that. And I think I am fine.

Airey Neave: If you want to change this party, lead it. If you want to change the country, lead it.

Rating

6.0/10

All the President's Men (1976)

Genre

History | Thriller

Director

Alan J. Pakula

Country

United States

Cast

Dustin Hoffman, Robert Redford, Jack Warden, Martin Balsam, Hal Holbrook, Jason Robards, Jane Alexander, Meredith Baxter, Ned Beatty, Stephen Collins, Penny Fuller, Robert Walden, Frank Wills, F. Murray Abraham, David Arkin, Henry Calvert, Dominic Chianese, Ron Hale, Polly Holliday, James Karen, Basil Hoffman

Plot

In June 1972, a security guard (Frank Wills, playing himself) at the Watergate complex finds a door kept unlocked with tape. He calls the police, who find and arrest five burglars in the Democratic National Committee headquarters within the complex. The Washington Post assigns reporters Bob Woodward (Robert Redford) and Carl Bernstein (Dustin Hoffman) to cover the story. They uncover the details of the Watergate scandal that leads to President Nixon's resignation.

Opinion
Based on the 1974 non-fiction book of the same name by Carl Bernstein and Bob Woodward, All the President's Men is a fantastic political thriller and a good reconstruction of the journalistic investigation on the Watergate that caused quite a stir in the United States.
Conspiracy film specialist Alan J. Pakula's direction is flawless. Supported by the charming and charismatic Robert Redford, Dustin Hoffman shows off his great acting skills.

Buy on Amazon.com | Buy/Rent on Amazon Instant Video

Quotes

Ben Bradlee: All non-denial denials. They doubt our ancestry, but they don't say the story isn't accurate.

Harry Rosenfeld: When you've got 'em by the balls, their hearts and minds will follow.

Ben Bradlee: You know the results of the latest Gallup Poll? Half the country never even heard of the word Watergate. Nobody gives a shit. You guys are probably pretty tired, right? Well, you should be. Go on home, get a nice hot bath. Rest up... 15 minutes. Then get your asses back in gear. We're under a lot of pressure, you know, and you put us there. Nothing's riding on this except the, uh, first amendment to the Constitution, freedom of the press, and maybe the future of the country. Not that any of that matters, but if you guys fuck up again, I'm going to get mad. Goodnight.

Rating

9.0/10

The Imitation Game (2014)

Genre

Biography | Drama | History | Thriller | War

Director

Morten Tyldum

Country

United Kingdom | United States

Cast

Benedict Cumberbatch, Keira Knightley, Matthew Goode, Mark Strong, Charles Dance, Allen Leech, Matthew Beard, Rory Kinnear, Alex Lawther, Jack Bannon, Victoria Wicks, David Charkham, Tuppence Middleton, James Northcote, Steven Waddington

Plot

The film shows Alan Turing (Benedict Cumberbatch) and his team of code-breakers in Hut 8 racing against time as they attempt to break Nazi Germany's Enigma code at Britain's top-secret Government Code and Cypher School at Bletchley Park during the Second World War. 

Opinion

Alan Turing, not a man, a genius. If I am able to write this and you are able to read it, it is because of him. But let's return to the film, shall we? The Imitation Game is a wonderful film, and, if you haven't already, I highly recommend you to watch it. It gets emotional at some point, and I will not deny that I cried.

Don't be fooled by the plot, because the essence of this movie is not breaking the Enigma's code, but the diversity: the protagonist's behavioural diversities and homosexuality; but also being a woman in a man's world.

I read somewhere on the Internet that Benedict Cumberbatch's performance was not that good after all. Well, may I dissent? Benedict Cumberbatch was almost perfect. I don't think there are many actors that could have portrayed with such sensitivity this forgotten genius.

Quotes

Alan Turing: Are you paying attention? Good. If you are not listening carefully, you will miss things. Important things. I will not pause, I will not repeat myself, and you will not interrupt me. You think that because you're sitting where you are, and I am sitting where I am, that you are in control of what is about to happen. You're mistaken. I am in control, because I know things that you do not know.[pause] What I will need from you now is a commitment. You will listen closely, and you will not judge me until I am finished. If you cannot commit to this, then please leave the room. But if you choose to stay, remember you chose to be here. What happens from this moment forward is not my responsibility. It's yours. Pay attention.

Alan Turing: Do you know why people like violence? It is because it feels good. Humans find violence deeply satisfying. But remove the satisfaction, and the act becomes... hollow.

Joan Clarke: Do you know, this morning I was on a train that went through a city that wouldn't exist if it wasn't for you. I bought a ticket from a man who would likely be dead if it wasn't for you. I read up, on my work, a whole field of scientific inquiry that only exists because of you. Now, if you wish you could have been normal... I can promise you I do not. The world is an infinitely better place precisely because you weren't.

Joan Clarke: Sometimes it is the people who no one imagines anything of who do the things that no one can imagine.

Rating

9.5/10

More Expirations, Netflix Gets Sneaky

Not to keep sounding notes of expirational doom, but when a film as brilliant as Memento (2000, reviewed here) is poised to leave Instant in a few short days�even if it's not at the traditional end-of-month�I'm happy to be called a Netflix nag. It's not the only movie worth checking out that will be expiring on August 14 (11:59 P.M., to be exact). Also getting a premature burial are three history-centric titles, not to mention those that vanished mysteriously on August 1 (addressed after the jump).

Agora (2009)

Although taking place in Alexandria in the 4th century A.D., Agora's not really a sword-and-sandals flick (though there are plenty of both). It's more an intelligent study of religious intolerance and the passing of Classical Antiquity into the first flowering of Christianity, featuring an excellent Rachel Weiss as the enlightened pagan-philosopher Hypatia. Director Alejandro Amenabar (Open Your Eyes, The Hours) brings a jaundiced view to the Christian hordes sacking and stoning everything in sight, but it's refreshing to see a period film of this scale not caught up in empty-headed spectacle and obligatory CGI nonsense, and with such a strong female at its center. As usual in such an undertaking, the history tends to get fudged, but that doesn't detract from the overall message or the gist of what actually went down�and what continues to transpire even in our own, apparently enlightened, age.

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