Alexander the Great

TV Movie
1963
50m

IMDb RATING

YOUR RATING

William Shatner, John Cassavetes, Adam West, John Doucette, Simon Oakland, and Ziva Rodann in Alexander the Great (1963)

As Alexander the Great prepares for his battle against his great rival, King Darius III, he must also face down his own war weary army and internal rivals.As Alexander the Great prepares for his battle against his great rival, King Darius III, he must also face down his own war weary army and internal rivals.As Alexander the Great prepares for his battle against his great rival, King Darius III, he must also face down his own war weary army and internal rivals.

See production info at IMDbPro

IMDb RATING

5.1/10

207

YOUR RATING

See production info at IMDbPro

Trivia
This was actually shot as a pilot for a prospective TV show, but it was passed on and shelved. Four years later, when stars Adam West and William Shatner had each reached a certain level of fame to get respectable ratings for the show - West was in the throes of Batman-mania from the success of his Batman (1966) series and Shatner was the star of Star Trek (1966) - it was released as a made-for-TV movie.

Goofs
At the start when Alexander is attacking Persians there is no blood on his sword despite killing a number of them.

Connections
Edited from The Giant of Marathon (1959)

User reviews12

Review

Featured review

Sometimes network executives make the right decisions!

In his autobiography, Adam West stated, "May well be the worst hour of TV in history" regarding this pilot for a proposed TV series that he co-stared in. Is it THAT bad? Of course not - I've seen worse pilots and worse TV series. That's not to say that this is a GOOD pilot, however. I will say that it doesn't look bad - some time and expense was put into making or getting a hold of period costumes and props, though it does look some battle footage was taken from a theatrical movie. And there is some amusement from Shatner's sometimes hammy performance as the title figure, and that this great leader is sometimes portrayed as a kind of adolescent goofball. But that is all that is entertaining about this pilot. It's a real dull affair for the most part, with a lot of stiff and dry dialogue. The pilot also fails to provide enough explanation for viewers who know little to nothing about Alexander the Great and his military campaign, so as a result there are some confusing parts. If you do want to watch this pilot despite what I've said, it can be found on the Mill Creek DVD company's 50 movie pack "The Sensational Sixties", which managed to uncover a decent-looking print for this now public domain production.