Angelina Jolie and her Russian accent was TERRIBLE, as was the effeminete “gay” scenes. Homoeroticism in Greece was carried out with aquite a manly appearance. Macedonians especially, were what one would consider “macho” and clan-like, warrior-type, men. Even in these homoerotic relationships the way it was carried out wasn’t as was portrayed by Oliver Stone who BTW is a superb craftsman IMO.

As regards to strategy, Gaugamela was perfect-just too short. The arial view showing the phalanx formations, and the oblique order, Alexander’s right feint and then his cutting back and charging straight at the Persian center that he managed to thin out by drawing their cavalry to their left flank was AWESOMELY protrayed IMO. It really gave me a better understanding of just how the tactic worked.

Hydaspes was beautiful from a dramatic and cinematic point of view. The contrasty colours, the scene of AtG charging straight into the Indian infantry and slashing everything in his path, the movie’s best scene where AtG and Bucephalus face Porus and his elephant…Even the aetherial infra-red shots, with the King being carried in his shield and seeing his mate and his horse down…

I could on and on…I loved the film…

however, i still think it is implausibly fictional.
because as i know (correct me if i am wrong), coliseum floor is for slave and animal fighting. the winner will be emancipated as free citizen.
has any noble, aristocrat, or even citizen ever fought on the coliseum floor?
to demonstrate bravery and legitimacy why wouldn’t comolus go for a duel with someone at his status, or fight a real war?
winning over a wounded slave is not bravery.

well. this is a movie. i am probably thinking too much.

Chinese emperors typically inherited their position. Roman emperors usually had to fight for theirs. Commodus inherited his position and may have tried to make up for this by participating in gladiatorial contests. The final scene in Gladiator was fictional, as was the character Maximus, as well as the portrayal of Commodus as effeminate. But Commodus was personally quite the pugilist*, although somewhat lacking in other important qualities of a leader. But look at it this way – even one of the greatest of the Roman emperors, Julius Caesar, ended up getting murdered.

• The real Commodus would probably have defeated any Roman legatus (Romans did not use the term “general”) put before him.

Okay, I watched a couple minutes of Alexander, and I think I might have to be drunk or really tired for it. I loathe Colin Farrell.

Speaking of movies…in my opinion one of the best scenes of Napoleonic combat was in Kubrick’s “Barry Lyndon.” It was slow, measured, and although it didn’t show any views of grand strategy I though it showed the viewpoint of the average soldier quite well. Anyone else have recommendations for war films showing that era?

(The duels in that movie were also superbly shot…as were those in “The Duelists.”)

By the way, anybody watching Rome now? I just got the first four eps and am gonna give it a look.

you can cut directly into the war scenes though :) still worth seeingg and won’t miss much of the moive.

the film lacks coherence, and failed to portray gaugamela, and … hydaspes. you map alone is much better than that whole film.

i don’t understand why hollywood became so reluctant to show maps today. if for visual effect, with all the CGI, they could have shown the aerial view of how Drius was cut into his left field in gaugamela. but all we saw was chaotic body fights.

gladiator’s opening scene is totally confusing, same stupidity of focuing on sword fights. you don’t know who attacked the left and who was on the right in the battle. the at the end the roman emperor was stupid enough to go into the coliseum to challenge maximus as if he was playing in a cheap HK martial art film.