Ok, but to me both things worked fine together. I actually liked the way Nolte portrays his character very much. But I guess I'll have to watch it again, as I recalled that Penn survives in the end... 
Haven't seen Alexander yet, due to the fact that only one person I spoke to liked the film. Everybody was complaining about it so much, and i heared that the theatrical release was cut as well, so I decided to skip it.