16 of 16 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
An Entertaining And Highly Detailed Account., December 5, 2004
This review is from: The Making of Alexander: The Official Guide to the Epic Film Alexander (Paperback)
Robin Lane Fox is not a name readily associated with Hollywood or movies. And yet the man has been seeked out by important filmmakers for years to help with projects based on the life Alexander The Great that eventually never left the starting line. This is just one of the fascinating facts we discover in Fox's "The Making Of Alexander," a book where Fox describes how Oliver Stone's epic came to be and how Fox was tagged on as not only a consultant, but also as one of the members of Alexander's cavalry (this is actually what Fox asked for in return for his services). Making Of books tend to read like CNN on the set, simple, straightforward accounts of how the script was written, how the actors were cast and what calamities and surprises took place during shooting. Fox's book contains all these, but with a special flavor because here we have an outsider to this world, an Oxford historian who's biggest thrill is riding horses and hunting in the winter who's suddenly called-up by a producer and asked to meet the notorious Oliver Stone and aid him in the details of Alexander's world. "The Making Of Alexander" is a creative adventure, a humorous look at moviemaking and a richly detailed history lesson on the conquests of Alexander and details of the Ancient Greek world. Fox writes with the fervor of someone who deeply cares about the subject, Stone's film is of great importance to him because it brings everything Fox writes and lectures about to the big screen. Stone's critics will be surprised to find that Fox considers Stone a true artist, a man who deeply cares about history and is fascinated by it and treats it will absolute respect in his movies. The book also clarifies how historical films may seem inaccurate, but that is only because a director is given about 2 or 3 hours to tell a story spanning numerous years and so material must be condensed or taken out. The details of how the movie's elaborate sets like the Hanging Gardens of Babylon were constructed are fascinating and the passages where Fox describes charging with elephants and re-creating famous battles are exciting and touching considering we get the sense of Fox being a historian living out his dreams (Fox is the author of "Alexander The Great," often considered the best of the Alexander biographies). This is also a visually enticing book. The photos from the film and sets are excellent and give us a clear picture of how the movie was constructed. "The Making Of Alexander" even settles some questions long asked in the press, like, did Colin Farrell and Angelina Jolie get it on? (They did).
"The Making Of Alexander" is an entertaining journey, an adventure of minds trying to compose a gigantic movie with what resources are available. It is the story of a historian suddenly finding himself in the roller coaster ride known as Oliver Stone and coming out alive to tell the tale.
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13 of 14 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Alexander IS Great!!, December 5, 2004
This review is from: The Making of Alexander: The Official Guide to the Epic Film Alexander (Paperback)
Having come to this page and finding the single review below, I feel compelled to write one of my own.
I have always been interested in Alexander, a unique & enigmatic man who has never failed to engage, challenge, fascinate - and yes, rouse passions & create controversy - through the centuries and across cultures. I was not however, much interested in the movie initially. To me, Oliver Stone spelled `contemporary American pop culture',
far removed from `ancient Greek civilization'! I had never seen Colin Farrell in a movie but had seen snippets of
interviews on TV and to say that I wasn't impressed with what I saw, would be an understatement.
I did end up seeing the movie out of curiosity and I think I can guess why it hasn't been a box office hit. Had the filmmakers used Alexander's story to create a big budget Hollywood epic, full of glamour and fantasy and everything else that appeal to mass audiences in search of simplistic entertainment, it would have been a hit. Instead, they've done just the opposite - they have used the medium & technology of the film to interpret and dramatize Alexander. As such anyone with some interest and knowledge of Alexander would not fail to recognize the power and richness of the movie. And the more one has read and knows of Alexander, the more I think they would appreciate the beauty, the depth, the thought-provoking nuances....
The reason I found this book such a great read is that it gives you a wonderful insight into the entire process of the creation of the movie. It's written by Robin Lane Fox - an Oxford professor & the author of one of the most respected contemporary biographies of Alexander - who was involved with the film from early on. To me, reading about the long gestation of the script, the intellectual debates, historic analyses, personal visions etc. that went into the writing of it, was fascinating. Equally fascinating was Colin Farrell's comments on Alexander - some very
powerful stuff....which made me realize why his Alexander came across as so real! (Needless to say I now feel rather horrible about all my prior uncharitable thoughts!)
But there is a great deal more in the book that truly enhanced my appreciation and enjoyment of the film. Mr. Fox is an enthusiastic chronicler of all kinds of details - everything from casting, sets, costumes, boot camp, special effects to film financing headaches, Hollywood rivalries and on-set romances! There's also a lot of great color photographs of both the actors and the sets.
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9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
Robin Lane Fox Behind the Scenes of "Alexander", December 16, 2004
This review is from: The Making of Alexander: The Official Guide to the Epic Film Alexander (Paperback)
Robin Lane Fox is among the best of our historical authorities on Alexander of Macedon along with Peter Green, W.L Adams, and a few others. As historical advisor to Oliver Stone and an action extra, he was in a unique position to offer diffinitive comments on the making of the epic film "Alexander" and his views are nicely presented in this handsome volume. Sadly, the film has been viewed as uneven by critics and the public with not a few questions about the portrayl of history. Fox concluded that the film is not history; it is cinema. And some critics should keep that in mind about certain dramatic techniques used in this film and its screenplay. This book is not simply an apology for all of this. It is a rare and interesting inside view of one of the most ambitious film projects of the new century. I too came away from the film a bit disappointed, but Robin Lane Fox's commentary convinced me that whatever the film's failures, it was not because of a lack of effort or good intention. Remarkably, as we learn here, the attention to detail in this project was generally right on, with only a few intentional lapses for the sake of story. Fox mixes his historical expertise with fascinating depictions of how an epic film is produced. The most interesting chapters deal with the training of action extras, and the preparation of the two major battle scences that actually helped answer certain historical questions about soldiers and warfare in ancient times. Alexander, the man, the warrior, the king, the visionary, remains a mystery through all of this. But Fox sheds some new light here. The volume includes a brief introduction by (and apparently autographed by) the director Oliver Stone.
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