Hollywood released one of its epic historical-movie blockbusters in 2004 entitled: Alexander, directed by the distinguished director Oliver Stone.

The movie endeavours to recreate the events of the Hellenic conquests and the downfall of the first Persian Achaemenid Empire. It is important to note however, that simply because a movie is high budget, casts high profile Hollywood actors and is directed by top ranking directors, does not make it flawless.

Beyond the entertainment value of Oliver Stone’s latest project, a number of serious errors do exist in the movie, many which may appear trivial. These “trivial” errors are nevertheless of consequence to Iranians, Greeks and all viewers in general. Movies are a powerful medium of leanring and persuation, irrespective of how vociforously we are told that the movie is simplyClassical (Greco-Roman) historian, is a Fellow of New College, Oxford and University of Oxford Reader in Ancient History. His writings and role in the 2004 movie “Alexander” has highlighted the power of Eurocentricism in academia and the media. Eurocentrist thinking, like all ideologically-driven biases, distorts historiography.

The Shahrbaraz Blog contains numerous Blogs that outline Dr. Fox’s distorted Alexandro-philia and his tendency to write with a patronizing and anger-ridden tone against ancient Iran. Dr. Fox’s book is a standard reference text in the area of Alexandrian Studies:

A typographical movie shot of the battle of Gaugamela, shows the Greeks advancing in ordered and disciplined ranks. In contrast, the armies of Darius III are shown as little better than an amorphous mob. This is a false image of the Achaemenid army. The