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Alexander: Director's Cut


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By Cyril Pearl -- Video Business, 7/18/2005

 
Warner, two discs, color, 167 min. plus supplements, Dolby Digital 5.1, widescreen, Street: Aug. 2, $29.95; First Run: W, Nov. 2004, $34 mil.

"It's hard to go back to the past and be humble and bold," says director Oliver Stone on the Alexander Director's Cut commentary track, about his take on the life of the great conqueror in last year's $150 million epic. Stone could be saying the same about this subsequent version of his film, which has been the subject of endless online rumors and speculation. The Director's Cutarrives sporting more action-focused disc artwork than its theatrical sibling (which is being issued on disc the same day) and a cover sunburst that boasts the alternate version is "Newly inspired, faster paced, more action-packed!" Stone reportedly spent months re-editing and re-configuring his work, which now clocks in with a running time that is eight minutes shorter than the original. But at two hours and forty-five minutes, we're still talking about a lengthy piece of historical cinema. In his commentary, Stone discusses specific cuts and alterations as they roll by on screen, the most notable of which are scenes involving Alexander (Colin Farrell) and his boyhood friend and presumed lover Hephaistion (Jared Leto). Try as he might, it appears that Stone couldn't please both general audiences and Alexander scholars. "I'm criticized by some of the homosexual community for not having them kiss so passionately, but there's no evidence of it," Stone insists at one point—only to note during a later, more emotional sequence, "What can I say? This is no Braveheart." The package's other primary supplement is a three-part, 90-minute behind-the-scenes documentary made by the director's son, Sean. It's refreshingly free of the usual gloss found in most studio making-ofs and offers a bunch of memorably candid interview sound bites with the cast and crew (one funny moment finds Farrell announcing that "cash" helps him decide which film roles to choose). Sean's doc also records a handful of on-set problems, notably one in which several days' worth of film was damaged, sending the production into a near panic. But Sean's daddy assessed the situation, took command and charged forward, just like the legendary warlord at the center of his sprawling undertaking.



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