I just finished an excellent, although at times silly, documentary on Alexander’s route from Macedonia to India, In the Footsteps of Alexander (on Sir Younghusband’s recommendation—thanks). Narrated by a rowdy Englishman—who reminds me of all the worst types of Western rifraf you run into overseas—the documentary is four hours long and really does show you where Alexander went. From Tyre to Libya, Iraq to Tajikistan, it was a stunning route that I’d like to take myself someday should money and various responsibilities fall on the back burner.
Check out the route:
All on foot and horseback. Amazing.
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COMMENTS / 5 COMMENTS
Younghusband added these pithy words on 30 Jan 05 at 5:09 amI really wouldn’t describe him as being “rowdy.” More like a pansy-ass public-school boy who looks lost without his tweed jacket with leather elbows and loses half his bodyweight during the trip. Not to say I don’t like the guy… ;)
In any case the documentary is great, especially when they just leave Kabul the night before the Taliban take it over, then meet up with the Northern Alliance general who he had met drinking in a London pub! I like the “special thanks” to Rashid Dostum in the final credits.
Highly recommended viewing.
Curzon added these pithy words on 31 Jan 05 at 6:01 pmHey, Alexander ROCKED! Highly recommended viewing, both as a movie, as a history lesson, and for basic aesthetic reasons.
Peter added these pithy words on 31 Jan 05 at 8:16 pmOh. My bad then. I thought it sucked because it flopped at the box office. Then again, the average movie goer isn’t a history/geopolitics buff. :)
Curzon added these pithy words on 31 Jan 05 at 8:35 pmI actually saw Alexander with my church pastor, who studied the classics at Oxford and teaches Latin at a local private school. His is a TOTAL ancient history buff who convinced me to see it on the big screen. We weren’t expecting much, but we were very pleasantly surprised. The lack of chronology bugged me, but the history was dead-on accurate.
My pastor’s theory on why it flopped was the blatant homosexuality that upset everyone in the Red states. As he noted, a lot of people in the Midwest who are so eager that their kids learn the classics become pretty appalled when they learn of all the open homosexuality that took place in Rome and Ancient Greece (the gay Caesar Tiberius and others, the bi(tri?)sexual orgys, the gay culture of Sparta, etc etc ad absurdum).
