The camera pans over Athens and a voice-over states: "This is how Alexander entered the cities...."[2][3][4] The film was financed by Angelopoulos himself along with the help of German and Italian television.

There are no chronological jumps--the film begins on New Year's Eve in 1900 and proceeds from there, except for the final sequence when the little Alexander becomes Megalexandros and goes towards the city.

"[9] Dougal MacDonald reviews less favorably: "It is this [technique of long shots and slow pans] which has driven many festival-goers to a state of ecstasy, to assertions that this is imaginative and what filmmaking is really about.

"[10] A reviewer for Time Out lauded the work as a "relentless demonstration of stylistic brilliance", but also stated that "it leaves one wondering why the parable is not more challenging and its point less predictable.

"[11] Vrasidas Karalis writes that the film reflects the contemporary state of political messianism where people see themselves as leaders who have to carry out a specific historical mission.

Karalis adds that Angelopoulos reflected folk painting and "the spatial arrangement of Byzantine iconography," noting the prevalence of slow movement, off-camera action, and the use of earthy colors.