Alexander (2004)

The magnificent Gates of Babylon, through which Alexander and his troops triumphantly march after his victory over Darius, were actually constructed on location in Marrakech. “There are parts of the eastern gate of Babylon preserved in a museum in Berlin,” says Roelfs, “but although it gave us great ideas for the overall design, I didn’t want to just copy it. I struggled for quite a while, and then came up with the notion that the main gate into the city is actually connected to a bridge over the Euphrates River. At that point in history, Babylon was the land of milk and honey, a fertile land on a major river. When Alexander enters, we have to know that it’s the richest place on earth.”

Gleaming with blue-glazed stone and reliefs of mythological creatures, the Babylon gates built for the film were constructed to a height of 37 feet. They would later be extended to 80 feet with the addition of visual effects, which would also create the entire panorama of the city of Babylon itself. The strappings on the huge wooden gates were made of actual brass, and the huge statues of winged bulls looming over the bridge leading into the gate were carved in England and then shipped to Morocco, where they were painted and finished. An illustration of the care to even the smallest details can be found in the sequence in which Alexander and his army enter the city – set decorator Jim Erickson made certain that no yellow rose petals were to be included in the rain of flowers showered on the soldiers, as the avid gardener knew that in the 4th century B.C., yellow roses only existed in China.

Also constructed at Pinewood was a watery cave set lined with more than 20 primitive, sometimes barbaric paintings – designed and painted by illustrator Simon Thorpe – depicting ancient Greek myths, in which Philip educates young Alexander in the terrifying and violent ways of the world in which they live.

Alexander grew up in the royal palace of Pella, Macedonia’s capital. The detail of the production’s re-creation of the Palace was considerable. Olympias’ chambers – in which Alexander spent his earliest days – contain powerful frescoes from Homer’s The Iliad, and the floor is comprised of a mosaic of inlaid pebbles, with hand-painted bas relief human figures decorating the walls. The palace courtyard was utilized for both Philip’s riotous wedding feast, and for a sequence in which Alexander and his young friends are trained in the art of wrestling.

London’s Shepperton Studios played host to the ambitious re-creation of one of the world’s lost treasures, the Alexandria Library, from which Sir Anthony Hopkins as Ptolemy recounts his memories of his days with Alexander to attentive scribes. The geometrically designed marble floor offsets mosaic frescoes depicting Alexander’s heroic deeds. The shelves that lined the walls held over 25,000 different scrolls.

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