vid: Like Home
song and artist: Chocolate by Snow Patrol
vidder: mresundance
fandom: Alexander
genre: character study
rating: PG-13
disclaimer: Footage belongs Warner Brothers. Music belongs Snow Patrol. Not for profit.
summary: Alexander the Great always seemed a little too big for this world, always straining against its limits. This vid is his life told from his POV.
comments: Any and all are appreciated!
Please do not upload this video, or use clips from it for your own vids. Thanks.
This vid would so not have been finished if it weren't for my awesome beta ladymajavader. I was honestly this close to just abandoning the project, but her support and encouragement motivated me to keep going. A little bit like Hephaistion, she knew all my weak spots on this vid, but still pushed me. Also, all the overlays in this vid I totally owe to her. :D
But unlike Hephaistion, I don't think she looks like Pocahontas.
Streaming: Vimeo (password: alltheseplaces | Youtube
Downloads (zipped files):
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Permanent link (right click save as): 29 MB xvid
29 MB xvid @ 4shared
29 MB xvid @ mediafire
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password: alltheseplaces
Notes
Oliver Stone's Alexander has got to be one of the great missed opportunities of the film world. He had a lot of awesome ideas that were never really realized, which is a shame because it is one of the most visually layered and stunning films I've ever seen. I think part of the reason the film fell so flat is that Stone tried really hard to literally re-create the ancient Greek world, visually and philosophically. A lot of things get lost in the movie if you don't understand certain nuances of ancient Greek culture. Which is kind of a silly, even arrogant way to try and make a blockbuster movie, but whatever. It gives us history nerds something to do.
Despite the film's shortcomings, I love the characters, especially Alex. I love his lust for life, for adventure, for other places, to push outwards to the edges of the world and beyond. I love his determination to live the life he wants to live. He is self-willed, something that is both his great strength and his weakness (he's too stubborn to admit that he's wrong until it's too late, alas). He's literally larger than life, and he strains at the seams of this world, which seems hardly big enough to contain him.
That is by and large, the premise of this vid for me. I wanted to take a character I loved and I wanted to have him tell his story from his POV.
The Eagle
The eagle is kinda important, both in the film and the vid. It's suggested Zeus was Alex's real father. Zeus, for those who don't know, was the sky god in Greek mythology, the king of the gods. He often took the guise of an eagle and would come to earth (usually, truth be told, to rape women; oh you ancient Greeks).
Hence, Stone uses the eagle as a symbol in the film. When Alex does well, the eagle is there. When he doesn't well, the eagle is gone. It's suggested that Zeus was his father, or, at least, Alex was seen over by a higher power that either showed favor or disfavor towards his actions.
I kinda took this vein to some extent. I used the eagle/the sky as "Alex's sense of direction" in life. He's always looking the sky/the horizon, always looking outwards and beyond, as if searching for something he knows he will never find in this world or this life. He moves towards this throughout his whole life, seeking out that last great horizon which may lead him to yet greater things.
Rooooxaaaane
Why the heck is there so much Roxanne in this vid? Heh. Simply put: she's perhaps the greatest political mistake he ever made.
His marriage to her was the beginning of the end for him. I don't know if Oliver Stone conveyed just how much the ancient Greeks despised those they considered "barbarians". Anyone who was not a Greek male whose father was not a Greek male was pretty much worthless in the eyes of many ancient Greeks. For the king of the Greek Empire to marry a barbarian woman from po-dunk nowhere Persia was insulting to many of his men on a number of levels. Alex would've done better to take a Greek wife before he left Greece, or, marrying the Princess of Babylon. At least as a Princess of the Persian Empire, she deserved respect as the daughter of a worthy king and adversary.
As it was, the marriage caused strife between Alex and his men. Distrust began to erode the bonds between him and his men.
At the end of his life, when Roxanne was pregnant with his heir, she did not have the political strength to safeguard her own life or the life of her future child if Alex was gone. He was the only thing that kept her and her future child alive. She knew what would happen if he died, and, it is what did happen: both her and her son were killed.
I think Roxanne never really understands Alex and his culture, which is why she gets so pissy about Alex sleeping with other guys. A Greek woman probably would've understood better. To Roxanne, Alex's practices were as barbaric to her as her ways were barbaric to the ancient Greeks.
I could say more, but I think that's all I want to say in the thinky thoughts part.
I hope you enjoyed the vid. If you did, please leave a comment! Or if you didn't, you can still comment. :) Vidders love feedback.
Awards and Honors
2008 Best of the Best for Character in the Broken Road Video Awards.
Best Character, Round Four of the Broken Road Video Awards.
Best Character, Round 14 of A Delicate Flower Video Awards.