AllMovie

While it is arguably better than Oliver Stone's more recent remake, the 1956 Alexander the Great is a rather mediocre epic. Part of the problem is simply the passage of time; the fight scenes which might have looked rather realistic in the 1950s now seem to be rather paltry in numbers and lacking in imagination. That lack of imagination is present throughout; it's as if director Robert Rossen all of a sudden found himself behind the camera with neither a real vision nor a real passion for the project. In the right circumstances, Rossen could be a director of insight; that's far from the case here. It's not that his work is actually bad, but an historical epic about a larger-than-life character demands someone at the helm whose direction is equally larger-than-life, if not moreso. Rossen is hampered by a script that thinks it is delving deeper into its characters than it actually is, resulting in some leaden speeches that end up quite platitudinous. Alexander undergoes a tremendous character change, but the psychological depth that would underscore that transformation is missing. Under the circumstances, Richard Burton is left to do little more than declaim in a vague and empty fashion; he does not provide the grandeur that the character demands and that the writers have largely omitted. Much better is Fredric March as his father, practically stealing much of the movie from Burton. Claire Bloom does quite nicely with a nothing part, and the supporting cast is solid throughout. Alexander gets a lot of the facts right, which earns it points; it's just a shame the facts were not presented in a more cinematically engaging fashion.