Excuse me, Oliver Stone, but I DON’T GET THIS SCENE! It’s a logical error and a crime against the intelligence of your viewers. In a world governed by the law of cause and effect these two would have ended up humping each other all night long. That’s what the meaning of “on the eve of battle it’s hardest to be alone” is.
I always seen this as Hephaistion being about to speak, perhaps offer to stay, then he spots someone inside. Alexander looks over his shoulder, explains his reasoning and Phai reacts with sarcasm which, if memory serves, he regrets moments later when he thinks on his own words and almost turns to come back. But there is definitely something missing, never filmed. A glimpse of who it is inside. Not Bagoas; too early.
I tell you, who’s inside the tent. It’s Oliver Stone, waving with the script. And behind him a bunch of scared producers.
I’ve never seen it this way, that someone might be inside. Interesting. Or perhaps Alexander glances back and sees a desk full with work to do. Remember his mother advised him to never confuse his feelings with his duties. That he was a king and should act like one. So maybe rejecting Hephaistion is an effort at fulfilling his mother’s wishes to grow up. After this he tells Phai that he should not fear because it was only the beginning… he’s delaying everything between them into an unforseeable future and he continues to do so even in the moment of Phai’s death. It becomes painfully clear then that it has always been self-delusional behaviour on his side. It’s clearly stated two times that Phai was the only one he ever loved, still Alex alienates him. I think the tent scene with Bagoas later in the film mirrors this earlier one but it takes the opposite direction. Alex is by then mighty confused about duties and feelings. His duties are no noble excuse for his loneliness anymore. He’s seeking comfort in Bagoas’ arms. At the end of his life he seems to have come to the conclusion that it was a mistake to follow his mother’s advise because it made him a stranger to everyone and himself.
I mourn the film that never was, as you said. There must be a third of the “true” story missing. It’s almost telling itself. I watch Alexander again and again indulging in the irrational expectation that this time it might be what it by all means should have been.
I thought about the idea that there might be someone else inside that tent, but if you think about it, it’s not very likely. First of all, why would he choose someone else over Hephaistion? There was no Bagoas, no Roxanna, no Babylon’s princesses or anything like that and Hephaistion is almost telling him directly what he wants to do. But the fact that Alexander was the first one to say “on the eve of battle it’s hardest to be alone” but then he refuses to be with him, it’s a bit of a tease, isn’t it? and I don’t think that was Stone’s main idea. That’s why I understand Phai’s face after that… I know that maybe if he had followed Alexander the scene would have been ~gayer - the way Jared says “my Alexander” was enough - but, I’m sorry Oliver, if you’re going to let Alexander say that, then you must let Hephaistion get into that tent too. But we KNOW what he meant to Alexander and he was the one in charge to take care of him, to calm him down. And here it seems that Hephaistion is just a desperate general who tries to get laid with his king but he generously refuses and tells him that everything’s going to be ok. Really?
Secondly, I don’t know if anyone of you read it was said that in the eve of THIS battle, everybody were so nervous and afraid and excited for the battle that they couldn’t sleep at all, and they thought the same was going to happen to Alexander. But they were surprised when in the next morning they found him “sleeping deeply like a baby”. So he didn’t want to spend any time alone because he was nervous or afraid. But that’s the only thing that scene is telling me. Or maybe Alexander simply sensed fear in Hephaistion’s words and he tried to reassured him but then.. what? There’s something lost in there; the dialogue and their actions don’t make sense at all.
