Oliver Stone to Release Third Version of Alexander

[lesbiassparrow]

A whopping 3 hrs and 40 minutes long: Linky to this horrifying story.

Why? No one wanted the first two versions. One thing this film did prove, though, is the danger of listening to your historical advisor too closely; I think the film is problematic because it tries to somehow cling to the sources and cut out most of the romance (cutting of the Gordian know, the son of Zeus stuff, etc.) in some misguided attempt to be the sort of film classicists approve of. And while those are accurate battle scenes they're not terribly interesting to watch. Kathleen Coleman should be praising Ridley Scott for not listening to her on Gladiator; the result is an entertaining film and not a turgid pile of rubbish.

Personally, I blame Robin Lane Fox, like I do for many things.

Comments

[morwen_peredhil]

I'm still bitter about sitting through the first version in the theater. I was not expecting much, since I hate Colin Farrell, but it was so very much worse than I had feared it would be. It seems like it would take real effort to create a film as awful as that, let alone three different versions.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I saw it in the cinema too; the only reason I lasted to the end was that I was with someone who writes about Alexander and she wanted to see it. It's so completely boring. And also surely quite incomphrensible to anyone who doesn't know much about Alexander? And they cut all the fun stories out (why no Gordian knot? No trip to Siwa to be told he's the son of Zeus?).

[k-julia.livejournal.com]

in some misguided attempt to be the sort of film classicists approve of

You think that was it? I thought the problem was more the attempt to make Alexander a hero to the contemporary audience; I don't think scholars would need the 'fighting for freedom and democracy, anywhere, any millenium' nonsense, which I thought was the film's worst misstep. I'm all for making things accessible, and I'm not even someone terribly invested in Alexander (meaning you could have sold me a *lot* of 'creative choices' and I wouldn't have blinked), but trying to make Alexander likeable in a traditionally modern way just resulted in WTF?

That, and Jared Leto's eye make-up, of course.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

So many things went wrong with Alexander it is probably hard to lay the blame on any one thing. The insane accents, for one.

But if you ever read any Robin Lane Fox he goes on about his close relationship with Stone and how much he contributed, and I do sort of feel that's why the battles are such let downs - and oddly chosen. Plus they went for the political over the fantastical - the Siwa incident, the other crazier stuff - which smacks of the sort of choice that very staid historians would approve of.

Not to mention Stone's issues with women finding the motherlode in ancient accounts of Alexander.

[twilight-zen.livejournal.com]

Oliver Stone is clearly crazy and cannot accept that's he's become a director that no one wants to see. I mean, if you can't get interest in the director's cut, then it's over. It's like he's trying to rewrite the movie for audience approval or something.

[lesbiassparrow.livejournal.com]

I have no idea what Stone thinks he is doing... I guess it probably doesn't cost a great deal to recut the film and they'll squeeze a few extra dollars out of completists.

The whole thing is insane: the last thing is a bad film needs to be is longer.