Product Details

• Actors: Richard Burton, Fredric March, Claire Bloom, Danielle Darrieux, Barry Jones
• Directors: Robert Rossen
• Writers: Robert Rossen
• Producers: Robert Rossen, Gordon Griffith
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, HiFi Sound, NTSC
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: MGM (Video & DVD)
• VHS Release Date: January 4, 2000
• Run Time: 141 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
• ASIN: 6301964306
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #289,912 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

Richard Burton stars in Alexander the Great, a middling entry in the 1950s CinemaScope epic cycle. The film boasts excellent production values and a fine cast--including Frederic March, Claire Bloom, Harry Andrews, Stanley Baker, Peter Cushing, Michael Hordern--but rarely comes to life other than as a big fat ancient Greek wedding of the talents of Burton and Bloom. They strike real dramatic sparks together, so much so they would be reunited in Look Back in Anger (1958) and The Spy Who Came In from the Cold (1965). Otherwise the blame must be laid at the feet of writer-director-producer Robert Rossen, who never before or after helmed anything remotely on this scale; his best work would follow with the intimate The Hustler (1961). Rossen simply shows little sensibility for the epic, staging lavish but brief and rather pedestrian battles, and somehow drawing from the usually mesmerizing Burton a performance lacking the charisma essential to a great military commander. Burton fans can enjoy him at his epic best as Marc Anthony in Cleopatra (1963). --Gary S. Dalkin

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars a Great looking DVD!, October 27, 2004

By 

G. Martin "soixantaine" (Glendale, Ca.) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alexander the Great (DVD)

I see that all other reviews where written before the Oct. 19th 04 release of this DVD, therefore referring to VHS only. I purchased and viewed this today, Oct. 27th. 04. It is not my intention to give this a detailed review as has been done at lenght eleswhere. Not my style anyway.
To write about Greek or Roman history/heros with all the factions and diverse warring rulers of those times is tedious at best. And a hard subject to put into a screenplay, to breathe the least. However this is a literate screenplay and all the players are mentioned, just a bit hard to follow unless you've read your Will Durant. Not just another popcorn flick.

No, I just want to say that if anyone is thinking of buying this DVD, I don't think you'd be disappointed, providing you love all the Hollywood epics of the 50's. If you do you may want this one too! Not the spectacle of Quo Vadis, Ben Hur, King of Kings or the pagentry of Cleopatra, but a worthy entry none the less. Matte paintings used in all aforementioned used here as well, but not as many. The Babalonian City is extraordinary and enough glass paintings to convey an epic, unlike the claustrophobic Spartacus. The sets are somewhat meger, like Spartacus, but what lacks there is made up for in the use of Technicolor and Cinemascope and the absolutely remarkable and stunning wardrobe. This is a terrific transfer and will look even better on your 16 x 9 HDTV! The 480 that DVD's put out look as though you might reach for that goblet on wine on the table.
Spain seems to double well for Greece and Persia and although the battles were not of the rousing kind, one over looks this as a trade off to the overall movie. This film also doesn't have that ''Hollywood touch'' of the others of the 50's and seems more adult for that reason {Barabbas 61' is another}.
So if you're looking for another great but not Great 1950's epic just cut the Grodian Knot and ride out of the store on old Bucephalus!
Oh yes, I hope the up coming new release of Alexander, anticipated and welcomed, surpasses this version as there is nothing much better than a good movie, but this 1956 Richard Burton, Fredric March film may be above the mark in the end, as so many remakes or rehashed films can never come close the their predecessors, even with all of the CGI of today. Look at the disappointing Troy, a DVD I won't be purchasing.

22 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Highly Recommended On All Levels, February 27, 2000

By 

Dean M. Motoyama - See all my reviews

This review is from: Alexander the Great [VHS] (VHS Tape)

Great entertainment and historically correct, for the most part. Richard Burton plays a convincing Alexander. From the start, with the background on Alexander's youth and his relationship with his father Philip and mother Olympias, the movie awesomely captures history. The battle scenes are recreated very well. I especially liked the post-battle scene at Chaeronea with the drunken Philip's singing echoing through the valley. Only minor errors, such as Darius's daughter being called Roxanne (a Bactrian princess) instead of Statira, can easily be overlooked. Alexander in fact, married both women anyway. The Persians are also shown historically correct for the most part, especially Darius' murder and the scene at Persepolis. For an under two-hour movie, what you get is quite spectacular. Of course, it would be difficult, if not impossible, to reduce to film everything in Alexander's life.

18 of 22 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A less than stellar 1956 epic film about Alexander the Great, May 17, 2003

By 

Lawrance M. Bernabo (The Zenith City, Duluth, Minnesota) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Alexander the Great [VHS] (VHS Tape)

With films about Alexander the Great directed by Oliver Stone and Baz Luhrmann supposedly being released in 2004 and 2005 respectively, the 1956 film "Alexander the Great" from director Robert Rossen with Richard Burton in the title role is probably going to see renewed interest. However, despite providing a realistic portrayal of a historical legend and being one of the most historically faithful films about the ancient world ever to be made, there is something missing from this would be epic.

"Alexander the Great" was written, produced and directed by Rossen, who had won the Academy Award for "All the King's Men" (1949) and would be nominated gain for "The Hustler" (1961). All three films have in common the realistic portrait of a complex psychological figure. Burton plays Alexander as being both energetic and a visionary, with quicksilver changes in mood. Alexander is both idealistic and practical, intelligent but hot-tempered, courageous but shrewd. Although he conquers the Persian Empire while still basically a boy, this is a conqueror who suffers defeats and almost falls prey to becoming an Oriental potentate just like Darius (Harry Andrews), the Persian king he just conquered. This is a man who can kill a friend in a moment of anger while drunk and weep over the body.

The more you know about the historical Alexander the more impressed you are by the film's fidelity to what appears in Plutarch. Here is the Alexander who worshiped Achilles and loved Homer's "Iliad," who was taught by Aristotle, cut the Gordian knot, destroyed Persepolis, and died a young man at Babylon. The battles sequences, such as the battle at the river Granicus, run rather short, but are not all that bad. The problem is that for all the complexity of Alexander's character and the intensity of Burton's performance, there is no real sense of mission or accomplishment to his conquering the known world. We see what happened, but are curiously unaffected by the film's implicitly explanation for why he did it.

The rationale suggested by the film is found in Alexander's father, King Philip of Macedonia. Played by Fredric March, Philip has a memorable scene after the battle of Chaeronea against the united city-states of Greece when he gets drunk and mocks the Athenian orator Demosthenes for having called him a barbarian. When Philip is assassinated Alexander chases after the assassin and kills him, and even the most basic understanding of Freudian psychology tells us that the son will spend the rest of his life trying to impress his dead father.

In the end the explanation for conquering the world becomes the same as Sir Edmund Hillary's famous quote for why he climbed Mt. Everest. To wit, "Because it was there." When you are on top of the world, there is a certain logic to such a quip. But when the subject is conquering the known world starting with a relatively small kingdom north of Greece, the same idea seems rather hollow. Hopefully Stone and/or Luhrmann can come up with not only better explanations, but much better films.