It is worth noting that up until this point in the film the cinematography has been fairly traditional and conventional. When this scene begins it has its unique look
but still looks very traditional.
The beginning of the sequence is set amidst a barbaric battle. The look appears far more grainy and with greater contrast than the rest of the film. Cinematographer Rodrigo Prieto states that to create this look he chose a more grainy film stock to which he later subjected the negative to a bleach bypass process. This process enhances contrast and grain so that shadow detail is lost.
The graininess and dynamic range of contrast works extremely well in the forest setting. Shafts of sunlight appear blown out and over exposed leaving the action in the shade at the correct F-stop. With the characters frantically rushing around in this environment it heightens the sense of chaos. Should someone on a horse ride under a shaft of sunlight they momentarily become far too overexposed and then return to the correct exposure in and instance. This is repeated constantly in the background action, as well as to the principle cast. The resulting effect is one of a very unstable and unpredictable commotion.
With regards to the overall story, this artistic and technical decision taken by Oliver Stone and Prieto seems to fit the general idea of the narrative. At this point in the story Alexander and his army have been at war for many years and the romance of it all is far behind them. The wounds and weariness of constant campaign are wearing down Alexander’s forces. The harshness of the contrasting, grainy image effectively mirrors the mindset and atmosphere of the scene in question –a vast contrast to the clean beginning to the film.
However, as the scene progresses the complexity of the cinematography unfolds even further. Alexander is extremely frustrated and upset by this and urges his own horse Bucephalus to continue. He leans over and gives words of encouragement to his charger. At this point there appears a series of quick staccato-like flashback shots to Alexander’s childhood. These relate to what Alexander is saying to the horse. He tells Bucephalus not to be afraid, this being a throwback to earlier in the story. Some of the flashback shots match the composition of the present action exactly adding even more of a comparison to the scenes.
These quick flashbacks appear far more pleasant and clean than that of the battle. It could be assumed that the filmmakers wished to compare the stark differences between these two moments in the story. Whilst they resemble each other in action and dialogue and composition, the past appears a far more pleasant and ‘innocent’ time in Alexander’s life.
Moving on from this moment Alexander mounts a viscous charge all by himself. There follows a single shot in which we see Alexander galloping towards us, sword drawn and a wild, blood crazed look in his eye. This shot is shown in a faster frame rate than usual, that gives the effect of the action in very slow motion. The shot is also noticeably and quite deliberately out of focus. Oliver Stone makes mention of this fact in the DVD commentary, he states that “Here we just wanted to go out of focus. It just felt like he (Alexander) was out of his mind and it shouldn’t be in focus.”
I believe this is very fair justification for deliberately making use of what is essentially an imperfection or mistake as it suits the character’s frame of mind well.
The slow motion is in fact the precursor to an even more complicated sequence. Alexander is galloping to attack a giant war elephant. The initial slow motion creates the effect of slowed reality one may experience before a traumatic experience –like that of a car crash. The sequence then opens up into a very artfully and carefully composed wide shot, featuring the elephant on onside and Alexander on the other.
It can be argued that it is in this moment that the cinematography differs in style from that of everything before it. In this sequence both the elephant and Bucephalus rear up onto their hind legs in a simultaneous stand off. This sequence is shown primarily in the wide shot and super slow motion
.
This unusual use of such a fast frame rate to produce slow moving action on screen is an odd departure from the rest of the film, so much so that one might be taken out of the experience. On the other hand, it could equally be argued that its presence in the scene adds a refreshing moment of suspense and relative ‘slickness’ to the film.
Regardless of this slow-mo effects impact on the scene, the visual choice that follows is far more intriguing. Alexander is struck by an arrow and falls off his horse to the ground. This being the first time Alexander has received a life-threatening wound in the story, Prieto and Stone decided to make use of a seldom used technique in cinematography. A visual effects house (Moving Picture company) describes the sequence thusly; “To illustrate how this great warrior’s world and outlook changes Oliver Stone decided to shoot particular scenes of the battle using infra-red technology.”
This process completely compromises the colour palette of the film and makes the image appear awash with reds and deep blacks, showing infrared wavelengths unseen by the naked eye. The resulting appearance gives the impression of blood and death. This drastic stylistic shift begins with a Point Of View shot of Alexander as he hits the forest floor, this being appropriate, as he has just been wounded. The audience must view remainder of the scene unfold through a bloody gauze of red. Prieto justifies his this decision because the story although set in the real world, has a strong link to the gods. Prieto states that; “The film captures that, as if they can see something authorial…something that no one else can see –except in a spiritual moment.”
After this point the scene begins to wrap itself up in a visual style that both portrays the horrors and tragedies of the battle as well as the possible death of a ‘mythic’ hero. Following the hypnotic slow-motion images of the elephant stand-off the pace quickens to a far more chaotic style of cinematography. Cutting from shallow focus handheld shots to wide angled lenses, slow motion to real time, Prieto does not let us get too comfortable with any specific style of cinematography. This scene turns out to arguably be the most extreme level of complex cinematography that Prieto and Stone accomplish throughout the entire film.
