Alexander: The Director's Cut (2004)

Twenty years ago, Two-time Oscar winner Oliver Stone (Platoon, JFK, Wall Street) finally had the opportunity to direct the grand-scale historical epic which he and several of his directing peers (Scorsese, Kubrick) had been trying to helm for decades.....the story of Alexander the Great who once lead a MASSIVE Macedonian Empire which at one point comprised around half of the land mass in the Eastern Hemisphere during ancient times.  He lived one hell of a life conquering much of the ancient world and here he is played by Colin Farrell (In Bruges, The Banshees of Inisherin, The Penguin) whose casting DID raise some eyebrows at the time of release....especially given that he portrayed this character with his heavy Irish accent.  And beyond that, Oscar-winner Angelina Jolie (Girl Interrupted, Salt, Mr. & Mrs. Smith) was cast as his mother Olympias....even though she was only one year older than Farrell at the time.  Beyond that, the stellar cast also includes Val Kilmer, Rosario Dawson, Anthony Hopkins, and the late, great Christopher Plummer among several others.  Also co-written by Oliver Stone, this would also be THE last big budget film he would helm as the $150 million production was not only a commercial flop but also destroyed by critics at the time of release.

And yet....a few years later, Stone was able to release his own extended "Director's Cut" on DVD (and eventually Blu-Ray) which is considered by many (himself included) to be a far superior version of this story as it includes 40 additional minutes of footage including some extended action sequences.  So in reviewing THAT version of this film, let's find out if Alexander DID in fact live up to his title. ;) 

Host & Editor: Geoff Gershon
Producer: Marlene Gershon

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Transcript

ALEXANDER – 2004

ALEXANDER REVISITED: THE FINAL CUT (Released to physical & digital media in 2007)

Directed by Oliver Stone

Starring Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer, Jared Leto, Jonathan Rhys Meyers,  Christopher Plummer, Rosario Dawson, Toby Kebbell, Jesse Kamm, John Kavanagh, Gary Stretch, Rory McCann, Joseph Morgan, Brian Blessed, Ian Beattie, and Anthony Hopkins

Genre: Ancient War Biopic (Audio clip)

I have called myself an avid fan of Ollie Stone for decades and I waited THIS long to watch this?? 🤔 

"Conquer your FEY-AR...and I promise you, you will con-quer DEATH!!!!"

Oh wait it came out just a few years after Any Given Sunday and starred Colin Farrell in the mid '00's....NOW I remember why. 

Stone had a RUN from '86 to '94 that's still just unassailable as far as I'm concerned - even including The Doors which I consider the low-point of that run, just SO many crazy-good moments and performances and shots and music cues and edits, it would be a hard act to follow for ANY filmmaker and it has been for him. I hadn't been particularly impressed or satisfied with any films he had directed since then....until now! 

What a crazy, watchable sensory bender of a movie....apparently I was wise to wait until seeing the "Ultimate" cut of this movie because I actually found all 210 minutes of it to be fairly well-paced AND cohesive. Stone crafted an epic that doesn't always nail the themes it's going for but boy does it entertain. ;) At the center of it all is a pretty fearless yet at times exhausting to watch performance by Farrell as the titular Alexander. 

Yeah at the time ('04) this came out, I remember Farrell seeming somewhat overexposed....Hollywood was REALLY trying to make him happen and it literally felt like a week didn't go by without the release of a new star vehicle featuring him, Jude Law, or Clive Owen. (Me personally, I never tired of Owen) So the idea of a big budget epic about Alexander the Great FINALLY happening after so many years of rumored attempts from Scorcese, Kubrick, etc....with the pretty boy with the Irish brogue playing him just didn't seem appealing at the time. 

So yeah for the first 15 minutes or so watching a very Irish-sounding King of Macedonia, it's at first jarring and takes some getting used to. And it also helps that he's surrounded by an impressive MOSTLY American cast all giving their all....yet none of them sound or even look remotely Greek or Macedonian either. (As if I would even know the authenticity of looks or accents from around 300 BC.) 

Jolie, Leto, Hopkins....you have three Oscar winners right there and they're all just devouring SO much pseudo-mythical dialogue with abandon, I was just hooked. What also had me hooked was seeing a younger, dare I say HANDSOME (?) noble-looking Rory McCann (The Hound from Game of Thrones) as the noble military leader Crateros who even gives a stirring speech towards the end. (Audio clip)

And he's not even the only notable GOT alum in this....I counted at least two others.
 There's also KILMER, Jonathan Rhys Myers, the late great Christopher Plummer, Brian Blessed, Nick Dunning, and of course Rosario Dawson as Alexander's wife from the East, Roxane stealing their share of scenes as well - Dawson of course has that now infamous animalistic sex scene with Farrell about halfway through and it's quite the sight indeed.

Farrell really does engage for the whole runtime - his appearance (those moppish blonde wigs for his teenage version don't work as well) and inflections are never subtle. But he does convincingly portray a very troubled wanna be conqueror/often tyrant whose mind has been just so garbled with mythical gobbledygook fed to him for years by both of his parents....that it's no wonder that's he seems more addicted with countering the latest otherworldly obstacle (snakes, mountains, monkeys) for his massive army than to actually find a real destination to settle and/or turn around at. 

Best Needle drop (best song cue or score used throughout runtime of film): 

Oh yeah did I forget to mention that this film has a VERY rousing score?  And from none other than the late great composer Vangelis who came to us out of Volos, Greece and made quite the name for himself in the ‘80’s conducting some pretty ICONIC synth-based music for just a few select feature films including Blade Runner, Missing, AND the highly hummable theme which won him an Oscar back in ’82…you know you’ve heard this one even if you haven’t seen the movie: Chariots of Fire. (Audio clip) 

Like I said, he wasn’t that prolific when it came to score feature films but whenever he would do one, it would CERTAINLY be worth checking out….and this would be one of the last ones he would compose for a major feature film.  And this is definitely rousing music on a grand scale even if it wasn’t done with an orchestra for the most part….pretty much ALL him put together on keyboards, there are at least three or four distinct themes with one of them heard late in the movie as our titular character leads his army traversing across the rockier terrains of East Asia….against their better judgment of course.  This track is fittingly called, “Across the Mountains.” (Audio clip)   

But even more notable would be what would likely be considered THE main theme for this movie….one we hear at a couple of different points in the movie at seemingly triumphant moments for The Great King….and we get to hear this very bombastic choral theme in its full glory during the closing credits, thundering away over hieroglyphic images from this appearing in very blue water.  This track is called “TITANS.” (Audio clip) 

Wasted Talent (most under-utilized talent involved with film):

Alexander's pan-sexuality is strangely just teased in the first half...in several scenes of almost comical restraint between him and Jared Leto who plays his great love and lieutenant, Hephastion. There is just NO shortage of close-up glances between these two, it's just distracting at times as you find yourself thinking, "Ok just get on with it already!" and then I had to remind myself that this came out in 2004 and cost over $150 million...I'm sure the studio just wasn't having it unfortunately. But during the second half, the film starts to celebrate (well sorta) Alexander's sexuailty a bit more openly and it just helps make it an even more interesting performance.  That said, it still feels in retrospect that Jared Leto could have utilized better than mostly longing glances…

Trailer Moment (scene or moment that best describes this movie):

There's obviously a running theme of a larger-than-life figure being consumed by hubris which Stone is never particularly subtle about but that lack of subtlety truly pays dividends as far as I'm concerned with a bravura extended battle sequence towards the end set in the forests of India…..this would actually be the Battle of India. Alexander's Macedonia forces are tens of thousands strong with long-speared infantry and cavalry on horses just barreling through the forest in several divisions until they have met their match.....with an opposing force riding heavily armored elephants, keeping in mind that THIS is actually the first time these folks have even personally seen an elephant before. :o 

This sequence just builds and builds with so much unforgiving violence with blood coming at you from all different directions until it gets to a point where the color filter of everything we see just turns BLOOD RED. It feels self-indulgent at times but props to Stone for always knowing JUST when to go meta as it's increasingly obvious that the mere staging and continuation of this battle was pretty much an act of self-indulgence on Alexander's part....he just WANTED that rousing hero moment to take on mana-a-mano the opposing general on elephant riding his trusty horse Bucephalos! 🙄 It's exciting to watch no doubt but another none-too-subtle jab from Stone about the futility of war. 

MVP (person or people most responsible for the success of this film):

Including a punchy screenplay loaded with some juicy palace intrigue spread throughout which he co-wrote with Chris Kyle and Laeta Kalogridis, this was still Stone’s movie at the end of the day.  And the end result is a buffet of interesting scenes which never quite add up to a great, cohesive movie.  Honestly it’s not even close to being one of Stone's BEST films – it just doesn’t have the power, emotion, or depth of a Platoon, Born on the Fourth of July, or JFK.  However it DOES have his sense of grandeur which can’t be discounted.  For crafting what would likely be his last TRULY big film and certainly among his most purely entertaining, Oliver Stone is the MVP.

Final Rating: 3.5 stars out of 5

Happy Twentieth Anniversary to the kind of grand-scale historical epic which just isn’t really made any more….at least from any not named Ridley or Nolan.  And remember this is the FINAL director’s cut….which from what I hear is much better than the original theatrical cut, even though it’s 40 minutes longer.  Sometimes more IS more apparently. 

Now Available to Buy on All Major Online Platforms

And that ends another MACEDONIAN review!