The True Story of Alexander the Great (History Channel)

Starring:Alexander the Great
Studio: A&E Home Video
Product Type: DVD

Description

Tutored by Aristotle, helpless witness to his father's assassination, and a brilliant, pioneering tactician, Alexander the Great had conquered the known world--and sealed his legacy as one of history's most remarkable rulers--by the age of 25. In the year 334 B.C., 20-year-old King Alexander of Macedonia decided to bring the farthest reaches of the world under one domain. Over the next 12 years, he led a grand army across more than 20,000 miles and eventually brought all of Asia under his control, only to perish from battle wounds at the age of 32. Incorporating dramatic onsite reenactments with high-end computer graphics and the expertise of renowned scholars, THE TRUE STORY OF ALEXANDER THE GREAT is special presentation from THE HISTORY CHANNEL®, examining the life and career of this military genius, impassioned lover, and fearless leader. Hosted by Peter Woodward (Conquest), this definitive program is available on DVD for the first time. DVD Features: The Making of The True Story of Alexander The Great Featurette; Interactive Menus; Scene Selection

Customer Reviews:

very interesting for ancient history buffs.......2007-05-29

This was a very interesting documentary. And without commercials is even better.

Very Disappointing Documentary About Alexander.......2007-04-10

Being a true Alexander buff that I am, I was very disappointed with this DVD. It's apparent from its production values that the History Channel didn't want to allocate the resources (expenses) that a production about the life of history's greatest conqueror deserves.

The battle scenes and the enactment of the drama are very amateurish. It's almost like you'd rather see Peter Woodward sitting behind a desk talking about Alexander. I didn't even really consider the bias elements that another reviewer noted as I sat uninterested through the program. It would have been okay if I was catching it on TV, but I soon felt that it was a waste of money and not deserving of being in my collection of all things Alexander.

You'll get a LOT more out of reading a few good books about Alexander and watching the Oliver Stone movie (the third 'Final Cut' version). It's better than worthless as it attempts to teach the viewer at least something about Alexander - hence two stars - but it'd be best to catch this on the History Channel sometime rather than spending the money on such a poorly conceived program.

Heavily biased.......2007-02-27

Standing alone as a documentary, without any pre-knowledge of Alexander the Great, one would view this as highly informative and well structured.

However, if you know even the basics of what Alexander did, you'll find yourself a bit concerned with the way events are told.

If you're an expert, you'll feel bitter at how this "documentary" is very biased.

It tells a very informative account of Alexander's exploits, with the typical documentary style of a narrator along with the side-angle shot of historians and experts talking about subjects, along with some re-enactments of some events and the commercial breaks, even re-enactments of Plutarch, Arrian, Curtius Rufus, and such telling us directly what they wrote about Alexander.

However, the documentary leaves no room open for ambiguity, as the historians give their one-sided opinions on Alexander's character and the documentary goes along with that without showing other views.

For one, the documentary (this includes many of the experts' testimony) takes the ancients' words and twists their ambiguity for their own interpretation. Alexander is portrayed as a power-hungry, greedy, drunken little boy who isn't happy doing anything but conquering people. When he kills Philotas, he is obliged to kill Parmenion, but the documentary simply leaves it at "he also had his father Parmenion killed" without further explanation, leaving non-experts feeling as if Alexander brutally had Parmenion killed just because he was Philotas's father.

The events which paint Alexander in a favorable light (such as treating Darius's body with great respect) are given a very empty, neutral tone, while most all other events paint Alexander like a brutal, tyrannic, drunken dictator, burning Persepolis because he was drunk and wanted to please the Greeks, attacking cities like Mali and crossing the Gedrosian desert because he wanted to squeeze some last conquests out of his army, essentially screwing them when he promised them they'd come home. The very least that can be said against this bias is that it doesn't directly claim that Alexander had his father Philip killed.

The purpose of a documentary is to provide an unbiased, accurate, highly detailed and informational account, and occasionally make it entertaining. This documentary fails in its first task, to be unbiased. It's almost as if the writers had no opinion on the subject, interviewed three or four historians who gave their relatively negative opinions, and made that the general theme of the entire piece.

Not the best documentary. If you watch this, keep in mind what Alexander accomplished, not just militarily, but in uniting barbarous tribes under civilization, spread technology and culture, did not erase Persian culture, but embraced it and even tried to mix it with Greek. He was a heavy drinker, yes, he made mistakes, yes, but if we judge everyone by a select few actions, we see Stonewall Jackson as a wicked, intolerant, hateful man, Hannibal as a genius mad with anger and hate for Rome, on a bucherous quest to murder Romans, and Caesar as a cold-blooded murderer and dictator. Ambiguity in his actions is what makes Alexander the Great, son of Zeus-Ammon, truly human, and this documentary fails to capture this.

The True Story of Alexander the Great.......2006-11-13

"The True Story of Alexander the Great" rewards the viewer with a comprehensive look at the life of the greatest conqueror who ever lived. From his birth and his misterious mother, his education by one of the greatest of the Greek scholars, to his brilliant military campaigns and his strange death at only thirty two, you will learn a lot about this great leader. This documentary is far better than Oliver Stone's film, "Alexander!" and much better organized, narrated and produced than most of the documentaries that I have seen. I really enjoyed watching this documentary and have watched it multiple times.

Iskandar.......2005-10-28

I loved this DVD because it covers some graphics that in Mr. Wood's DVD were not included. The vast kindom and life of Alexander is very hard to cover in only one DVD.Also different opinions are important.

The Real Alexander the Great: The True Story of the Man Who Ruled the World

Average customer rating:

A Disposable Doc About a "Great" (?) Man

The Real Alexander the Great: The True Story of the Man Who Ruled the World
Starring: Real Alexander the Great
Manufacturer: Eagle Vision USA
ProductGroup: DVD
Binding: DVD

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ASIN: B0009ML22E
Release Date: 2005-06-14

Description

The story of this extraordinary man who forged the greatest empire the world has ever seen continues to fascinate us. His youth, military genius and personal heroism inspired fighting men to follow him to the ends of the earth. He sacked cities, destroyed armies, toppled dynasties and acquired enormous wealth. When he died at age 32, he was worshipped as a god.

"The Real Alexander The Great" uses dramatic battle recreations and 3-D computer graphics to provide new perspectives on the life and legacy of Alexander the Great, along with the disintegration of his Empire.

Customer Reviews:

A Disposable Doc About a "Great" (?) Man.......2006-11-26

With all the panache of a college lecture (snore) this documentary/love letter to Alexander the Great really doesn't justify its existence. It mostly exists to convince us that Alexander was the greatest military conqueror in history, not unlike Oliver Stone's "Alexander." But unable to stand on its own this documentary (clocking in at 66 minutes) is best viewed as a companion piece to that film. Here we get the requisite chapter on how as a young boy he tamed a wild horse. That story always seemed like hero building for no good reason to me, you know, like how George Washington never told a lie. We, as a people, are so simplistic that we need some childhood story about our heroes that encapsulates their accomplishments in life. At 10 he conquered a horse, at 20 he conquered the world!

A lot of this film has us looking at maps while they describe his military adventures. We also get some very low tech diagrams that attempt to illustrate his famous battles. None of these affects stimulate the eyes or brain, but the portrait it creates is striking nonetheless. The empire he is responsible for across Eurasia really is unprecedented in history, and to watch as it grows and grows is impressive. Of course there is nothing even resembling a philosophical look at the situation. Why did Alexander want all of this land? Or more practically, What did he do with it once he got it? How did he go about maintaining it? Anybody can go on a bloody march across a large piece of land, but that hardly makes it their empire.

It is interesting to me that Alexander is revered the way that he is. Is he "great" simply because he conquered land (with an inherited army as this documentary points out)? Certainly their have been greater accomplishments throughout history. Gandhi the Great has a nice ring to my ears. Of course the short answer is that military achievements (unquestioned in this case) are sexier than peaceful ones. We don't marvel at the size of the empire that Gandhi brought to its knees, we marvel at the size of the empire Alexander created. So the question I ask is, Isn't rooting for Alexander the same as rooting for imperialism? But I've gotten off track, mainly because what I am reviewing left me somewhat numb. As a snapshot of a historical figure, I guess it works. To watch this is to make only a small investment of time and yes I did learn a few things. Like early on when I learned that when Alexander conquered lands he would routinely sell the entire population into slavery. Now to me that sort of ruthlessness has to be admired in some way. How can somebody have such lofty goals about being so cold blooded? But again it brings me back to Gandhi, the man who risked his life for the selfless freeing of others. Alexander waged a campaign against freedom, and all for his selfish goals.

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