Alexander: Director's Cut (2-Disc Special Edition)
One Star
by Brad Bevret, ropeofsilicon.com
Suffice to say I did not enjoy Alexander when I saw it in theaters. The film was disjointed, bounced around way too much, Angelina Jolie seemed to derive her character's accent from old Dracula films and Oliver Stone really never seemed to have a handle on this massive story, and if this is how his script read I can only wonder what the execs at Warner Bros. were thinking when they gave it the green light.
Now, as the reviews impaled Alexander to an early box-office death Oliver Stone is back with a second attempt at bringing the story to audiences with his very own Director's Cut (I wonder what version I saw in theaters?). Stone was quoted by Variety last December
Hmmm... If he could go back, well now he had the chance, did it work? Well, to put it bluntly, NO! He didn't limit the voiceover and he didn't put it in linear order, and if you listen to his commentary and watch the special featurettes he seems to endorse the voice over as well as the disjointed and horribly edited together film as it bounces from one time period to another for no explainable reason other than to simply send the movie into a stuttering seizure.
The largest problem with Alexander is that it is edited horribly. The film starts off telling the story of a young Alexander the Great and then jumps into the future only to have us brought back in time shortly after Stone gets his rocks off with a bloody battle. While this might not sound like too bad of a device, when it is coupled with the ridiculous narration by Anthony Hopkins and each scene ends so abruptly it totally disrupts the feature.
I could also continue to berate Angelina Jolie for her horrible Transylvanian accent, but that is not worth it. I will say, however, that while I believe Colin Farrell was miscast in the title role that he did a respectable job in the film and I place none of the blame for the failure of the feature on his shoulders.
As I barely mentioned earlier this DVD includes a commentary by Stone as well as a group of featurettes focusing on the making of the film, the scoring of the film by acclaimed composer Vangelis and interviews with the cast and crew that take the majority of the time to kiss Stone's ass.
I am by no means an Oliver Stone hater, I loved Wall Street, I enjoyed JFK and even found something to enjoy in Any Given Sunday and those aren't even the films he is best known for (Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, The Doors). I am however someone that despised Alexander and find it an excellent example of just how much a director affects a movie for those of you that thought it was all on the shoulders of the actors.
Alexander still can be good if put in the hands of a talented editor. Stone captured some excellent shots, composed some great scenes and managed to get some good performances, it just appears that this story was too much for him to handle when it came to piecing it all together in the editing room. Maybe if we give Warner's one more shot at an alternate cut we can throw it into much more capable hands for the editing.
