Theodoros Angelopoulos - Alexander the Great aka O Megalexandros (1980)

[Thorkell A. Ottarsson]

I started my Angelopoulos month (which starts in June) by watching
Alexander the Great. It was the longest film I had not seen by him and
I thought it was going to be a hard film to get through so I decided
to start with the hard part and get it over with. Boy was I wrong.
This was pure pleasure. Visually stunning, very clever play on history
and beautiful symbolism. Some people say that this film has nothing to
do with Alexander the Great. Well they are both right and wrong. It is
not a historical picture about him but he is used as a symbol for the
nation/culture. The film takes place in 1900 but it is just as much
about the 1980s. The greatest thing with this film was the end. The
last 30 minutes are pure gold.

SPOILERS! I just loved the scenes when the crowed circles around
Alexander who is wounded and then he disappeared. Later we see a head
of a statue of Alexander the great bleating and a fascist looking at
it in fear. The end with the younger Alexander wounded on a horse
riding into the 1980 was such a brilliant way to close this "time
travel" masterpiece and leaves one with the question what will Greece
do today (or in the 1980s when the film was made). Watching the film
now and knowing what is happening in Greece at this moment makes this
last scene even stronger.

Pure brilliance! 10/10