Alexander the Great 1956

In a sweeping, deeply textured retelling of a pivotal era, the film unfolds against a chorus of power struggles between the rising Macedonian kingdom and the fractured Greek city-states. At the center is Alexander, a magnetic figure who grows from a spirited youth into a formidable conqueror, while the shadow of Philip II looms large—ambitious, pragmatic, and relentless in his drive to mold Greece into a unified force and push it toward a broader, perilous ambition. The drama opens with the tension between war and statecraft, as Demosthenes of Athens argues for resistance, warning that Philip’s design threatens the very soul of the Greek world.

Olympias, the king’s wife, carries a volatile rumor that will seed a tragic course: she claims that their son is “a god born of a god.” This proclamation is not just a personal boast but a political spark, a spark that will inflame factions, alliances, and grudges for years to come. Philip’s initial reaction is suspicion and anger, but wise counsel from trusted generals like Parmenio counsels patience—let the boy mature, let him learn, and let him decide his own path when the time is right. The boy grows under a gilded roof, but his education is anything but comfortable: at the school at Mieza, he studies history, mathematics, logic, and rhetoric under the tutelage of Aristotle, who frames a hunger for glory in the young prince. Alexander’s own voice expresses a fierce longing for glory, telling his teacher that, like Achilles, he would rather endure a brief, shining life than a long one without distinction.

When Philip advances, he makes a bold move, sending Alexander to rule as regent in the Macedonian capital, Pella, to stave off gossip about the succession and to concentrate power. The boy learns the realities of leadership in the crucible of campaign life, and the two leaders—father and son—move together on the campaigns that will become legend. The Battle of Chaeronea marks a turning point in Greek affairs, a brutal signal that the old city-states must recognize Macedonian supremacy. After the victory, Alexander demands loyalty and resources from all Greece to fund his father’s grand designs, insisting that they be ready to stand with Pella against Persia.

The family drama intensifies as Philip, in a strategic but ruthless reshuffling of alliances, divorces Olympias and marries Eurydice, a move that deepens the chasm between father and son and casts doubt on Alexander’s future. The tension inside the royal court erupts when Pausanias, once a devoted supporter of Alexander, is mocked for his loyalty. Olympias’s influence is implied as Pausanias’s fate takes a dark turn: he assassinates Philip, and Alexander acts quickly, killing Pausanias in the moment. Eurydice’s death follows—either suicide or a forced disappearance—while Olympias’s fingerprints, whether direct or indirect, cast a long shadow over Eurydice’s infant son, Caranus, and the succession question itself. In the wake of these murders, Alexander consolidates power, winning the loyalty of the Macedonians and taking up the mantle of leadership with newfound resolve.

The political chessboard shifts again as Memnon, an influential adviser from Darius’s court, is exiled for failing to pledge loyalty to Alexander, marking the Persian side of the looming conflict. The young conqueror then sets his sights on Asia, leading a clash of civilizations that will test his nerve, strategy, and almost mythic self-belief. In the Persian realm, Memnon counsels prudent, waiting warfare, while the Persian lords underestimate the “boy” who has already begun to feel invincible. The campaign begins with bold strides, including the legendary crossing into Asia and the decisive confrontations that follow.

A series of pivotal moments define the road to empire: the daring encounter at the Granicus River, where Alexander’s audacity and tactical brilliance begin to reshape the map; the solving of the Gordian Knot with a single, decisive sword stroke; and the mounting belief among his troops that a lunar omen can be read as a signal that the Macedonian sun will outshine the Persian moon. Before Babylon, a cunning seer named Aristander proclaims his prophecies, and a young king whose faith in the heavens grows bolder with each victory begins to see the world as his own domain.

When Darius III finally falls, his own will becomes part of the myth—the king bequeaths Roxane, the daughter of the Persian noble house, to Alexander in a bid to fuse two worlds into one. Roxane herself becomes a crucial figure in this saga, and the alliance is forged in the heart of Babylon, with the prior regicides in the Persian court avenged in the wake of Darius’s downfall. Throughout these triumphs, the Macedonian camp holds to a grim realism: epic deeds do not erase old feuds, and loyalty is a volatile currency. The story tracks not only military triumphs but also the moral and psychological costs of power.

In the glow of Babylon’s fires, Alexander raises his banner of invincibility and declares exacting, almost blasphemous dreams: > I am the son of God. > the world is my domain…We will march to the end of the world. These pronouncements, half prophecy, half swagger, echo through the ranks as the army presses on toward more distant horizons. In India, the news travels back to Athens and to the wider Greek world, where [Aeschines] might voice reverence and skepticism alike, while the growing legend of Alexander’s triumph fuels both awe and fear: > He has outdone the gods.

Yet the fever of conquest carries with it heavy human costs. In a drunken, fateful quarrel in the camp, the brilliant general Cleitus loses his life at Alexander’s hands, a blow that sobers the young king and exposes the vulnerabilities behind his ascent. Grief and reflection follow as he returns to Babylon, where alliances shift and personal life tightens its grip on political power. He marries Roxane in a union that cements his hold over the conquered territories, but illness soon returns and the dream of a seamless empire begins to fray. As death approaches, Alexander longs for the world and his own power to be carried beyond the river that has witnessed so much blood: he whispers a final, almost paradoxical wish that his body be cast into the Euphrates to mislead the world about his final rest—and he confesses the brutal, irreversible truth that will define his legacy: to the strongest.

This is not merely a chronicle of battles and treaties, but a meticulous portrait of how ambition, destiny, family, and politics collide to forge one of history’s most enduring legends. The film threads together intimate moments of education and doubt with sweeping, panoramic scenes of conquest, showing how a prince’s education, his father’s cunning, and the brutal calculus of empire propel a man toward becoming a legend whose shadow stretches across time.