‘Alexander’ director hides truth on Iran history

An Iranian historian has claimed that the anti-Iran movie ‘Alexander’ fails to reveal the truth about Iran.

In ‘Cinema VS History’, hosted by ifilm, veteran historian Khosrow Motazed sheds light on the reality behind anti-Iran films produced by Hollywood.

The historian said in an episode of the show that the director of ‘Alexander’ has exaggerated in showing the supremacy of the Europeans over ancient Iran.

The movie attempts to depict Iran as a vincible country that has been defeated by a strong European will as well as highlighting that a European power demolished the Achaemenid Empire.

The historian complements the movie in terms of technicalities; however, noting that the movie distorts the truth from a historical point of view.

Much of the movie is about Alexander’s attack on Iran and his battles with King Darius III.

The film shows that Alexander leads a smaller army in comparison to the fully equipped Achaemenid Army, but finally, his army wins.

In the movie, like other anti-Iran movies, the clothing of Iranians is distorted and the director showcases Iranians with Arabian clothing.

The director also features the daughter of Darius III, who marries Alexander, as a black woman.

In the movie, Iran has a very weak army that lacks strong leadership, and thus it cannot resist or push back the European attackers.

The director is clueless in the case of the Alexandrian invaders who looted Iranian cities, depicting Alexander as a commander with strong feelings for human beings and proper behavior.

‘Alexander’ is a 2004 epic historical drama based on the life of the Ancient Macedonian general, Alexander the Great.

It was directed by Oliver Stone and starred Colin Farrell.

After the release, while it performed well in Europe, the American critical reaction was negative.

Persian history aficionado Kaveh Farrokh also questioned the failure of the flick to depict the Persepolis burning at the hands of Alexander and observed that, in the film, "Greek forces are typically shown as very organized, disciplined, and so on, and what's very disturbing is, when the so-called Persians are shown confronting the Macedonians, you see them turbaned. Turbans are not even Persian items. Their armies are totally disorganized. What is not known is that the Persians actually had uniforms. They marched in discipline, and music was actually used.”

Reacting to such criticism, Stone has claimed that he had no time or resources to portray accurately a multitude of battles at the expense of storytelling.

MG/AG