Obituaries of 323 B.C.
Has it really been 2,330 years since Alexander the Great died? I thought that Oliver Stone had embarrassed Alexander to death just three years ago.
I started watching Stone’s travesty “Alexander” but I gave up faster than a Persian. (Will anyone here explain to me the appeal of Colin Farrell. He seems like a scrofular pub lout–which by a remarkable coincidence he is.)
Tell me, when did the Greeks have Irish accents? Given Stone’s pathological reinventing of history, I was surprised that we didn’t see James Joyce tutoring the young Alexander. And with computer graphics doing the casting, imagine Barry Fitzgerald as Ptolemy and Victor McLaglen as Philip. Furthermore, Maureen O’Hara is still available for the role of Olympias. If only John Ford had made the film….
However, I don’t think that Ford would have been comfortable with Alexander’s libido. Scrolling through my papyrus editions of Asia on Five Denarii a Day I see that Alexander ‘s favorite bar was called The Hung Gardens of Babylon.