After Philip's one scheduled satellite dish installation, we drove to Mobile, rented a U-Haul trailer, then drove to the Home Depot (way out past Burris Farm Market, which is closed 'til February 2005) to pick up the refurbished John Deere lawn mower he bought last week (but couldn't bring home because it wouldn't fit on the back of his truck). We were astonished to find out that when we got there that the manager of the lawn and garden section said that the mower wasn't working properly and needed to be sent back to get looked at. He proved it by starting it up and engaging the blade assembly. It sounded like it needed servicing. But it worked just fine last week... and it was supposedly reconditioned less than three weeks ago. We would've raised a stink, but the guy was very gracious and offered to deliver it out to our place in Wilmer (which is very far away from this particular Home Depot). And it's not like the grass grows very fast in winter... So we were kewl with that. And we could still use the rented trailer to take the mountain of garbage that we've produced by renovating the house... and the stuff we didn't sell or donate from the yard sale.

On the drive home Philip wanted to show me the Harry and David store at the Tanger Outlet Mall (this Alabama one is much larger than the one outside of Baton Rouge). We ended up buying over $70 of yummy goodies.

We stopped in Mobile to see ALEXANDER, which I was very excited about. But I'm sorry to say, it had a lot of problems. Don't get me wrong, I really respect Oliver Stone and I've enjoyed most of his work... but he seemed to have gotten bogged down with not wanting to show the interesting aspects of Alexander the Great. Yes, I'm talking about his sexuality. Sure, it was alluded to, but it was graphically ignored... unlike his hot scene with his hot queen Roxanne. Every time a poignant moment occurred between Alexander and Hephaistion (also spelled "Hephaestion" in some literature) where they surely would've kissed, Colin Farrell and Jared Leto would just embrace. It wasn't natural... it was a total cop-out and at first, kind of creepy, like their love was a sham... It made their "love" seem less than it is historically accepted (by historians, not anti-gay Greek lawyers). It's not that Mr. Farrell was against kissing boys, because he sure kissed Francisco Bosch (the actor who played Alexander's Persian eunuch lover, Bagoas). Intrigued? Please read THE PERSIAN BOY by Mary Renault!

And it wasn't just my gayness wanting to see male-on-male action. Ignoring how prevalent bisexuality was in the society of ancient Greeks and Macedonians is like ignoring the slavery issue in relation to the American Civil War. It was such a part of social relations (in particular for men... and even more so in certain sects of the military) that it's just plain silly to use today's prejudice to justify ignoring it when telling a story from that era. To not show how deeply he loved and was involved with his male lover just makes the grief he shows after Hephaistion's death confusing. And that was a great scene, it needed to be given emotional impact by setting up the loss of love Alexander surely felt.

The film had numerous other problems... too many for me to even list. But let's just say that shaky, blurry camera zooms might make a viewer feel as if he is actually on the shore of an invasion in a World War II movie, because there WERE cameras back then... but it is totally misplaced in an ancient epic. And Philip and I were both irritated by some over-used fish-eye lens shots.

But... it was beautiful. Many beautiful actors, costumes, sets... We were especially impressed by Connor Paolo (who played the young Alexander). He really looked, sounded and acted like a little Colin Farrell.

Ultimately the film, not only shied away from some interesting and pertinent issues, but it was simply cut too long. The story of Alexander is a very interesting story... but this movie tried to make it more about dusty battle scenes than about the man and what he was able to convince his followers (and conquered subjects) to do. I think Alexander had a very "great" idea of how wonderful a united world under one leader could be. And on the other hand, he was a man of his day... susceptible to all the vices of his time. I don't think many people will sit through this movie long enough to learn about the full scope of Alexander's legacy. Documentaries about Alexander tend to be much better at conveying how great he was... and could've been, had he lived longer. I sincerely hope that a future movie or mini-series will be able to tell a version of the story of Alexander that is worth hearing.