India - 9 Years Later
Alexander:
You break my heart, you men.
Afraid. Of course you have fears. We all have fears...because no one has ever gone
this far before. And now we are weeks from the encircling ocean, our route
home.
We'll build a fleet of
ships...and sail all the way back down the Nile to Egypt. And from Alexandria, we
shall be home within weeks. There to be reunited with our loved ones. To share
our great treasures and tales of Asia. And to enjoy our imperishable glory to
the ends of time.
Crowd:
Follow Alexander. I'll follow you.
Alexander:
What? Silence?
Crowd:
We're with you, Alexander!
Crateros. Crateros. And another one.
Createros:
My king. I'm a fighting man. I don't like no bellyaching. I
won't tolerate it in any of my units. I lost many a man. Young ones, never been
with a woman. Some died of disease. Some were butchered in Scythia by the banks
of the Oxus.
Some died good. Some just didn't get no luck. But they died.
Forty thousand I come over with eight years ago. And we march after you more
than 10,000 miles. In the rain and the
sun, we fought for you. Some of us, 50 battles we've been in. We killed many a
barbarian. And now when I look around, how many of them faces do I see?
Now you want us to fight more of these crazy monkey tribes
east of here. We hear talk of thousands of these elephant monsters...cross a hundred
more rivers.
Alexander:
Crateros. Good Crateros. Who better than you to speak, most
noble of men. But you know there's no part of me without a scar or a bone
broken. By sword, knife, stone, catapult and club.
I've shared every hardship with all of you.
Createros:
Aye, you have, my king, and we love you for it.
Crowd:
You have, you have!
Crateros:
But, by Zeus, too many have died.
You have no children, Alexander, and we're just...humble
men, we seek no disturbance with the gods. All we wish for...is to see our
children and our wives and our grandchildren one last time...before we join our
brothers in that dark house they call Hades.
Alexander:
Yes. You're right, Crateros. I have been negligent. I
should've sent you veterans home sooner, and I will. The first of you shall be
the Silver Shields.
Then every man who's served seven years. With full pensions
from our treasury. And respected, rich, loved. You'll be treated by your wives
and children as heroes for the rest of your lives...and enjoy a peaceful death.
But you dream, Crateros. Your simplicity long ended when you
took Persian mistresses and children...and you thickened your holdings with
plunder and jewels.
Because you've fallen in love with all the things in life
that destroy men!
Do you not see? And you, as well as I, know...that as the
years decline and the memories stale...and all your great victories fade...it
will always be remembered, you left your king in Asia!
For I will go on, with my Asians.
Crowd:
To the jackals with you, then, Alexander. We come for you,
and you discard us. Shame!
We want to go home, Alexander.
We're tired of glory.
We want to see our wives and children before we die.
I've got children I haven't even seen.
I want to see my children.
Alexander:
I paid for your bastard children. I've taken nothing for
myself. And all I've asked of you is one more month.
Crowd:
Shame.
Hephaistion:
That's your king.
Crowd:
What would your father say?
Alexander:
I've taken you further than my father ever dreamed. So go home.
I look to the barbarians for their courage. I go east.
Crowd:
He wants us dead so we can't speak of his crimes.
Alexander:
Who said that?
Crowd:
We won't make it to Macedonia.
Alexander:
You despicable coward. Come forth. Make your accusations public.
Crowd:
Why? So you can have us killed?
Son of Zeus.
You desecrate your real father's memory.
Or did you murder him like you did Cleitus?
Alexander:
Hide! Hide in this mob because I'll take your life.
You men insult my honor, my paternity. Arrest him.
And him. Yes. And you, this loudmouth Demetrius.
You call me murderer? I have no such blood on my hands.
And him. Yes, you'll know the pain of treason.
You mock my shame for Cleitus and say I'd harm a hair of my
father's head.
Arrest him. After all I've done for you, you swine. You cowards.
Traitors. Come on, then. Where are your daggers?
1 comments:
"respected, rich, loved. You'll be treated by your wives and children as heroes for the rest of your lives...and enjoy a peaceful death.
But you dream, Crateros. Your simplicity long ended when you took Persian mistresses and children...and you thickened your holdings with plunder and jewels.
Because you've fallen in love with all the things in life that destroy men!"
Love love love this scene. We accept less than our dreams, our "great visions", because we fear death. We fear we might not get the opportunity to feel certain sensations or we fear losing the sense of comfort we have in our present condition, so we fail to devote ourselves to the things we truly believe in; to the pursuit of a vision. This scene brings this out so well.
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