The Final Conquest of Alexander

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Whatever else might be said of Oliver Stone, he's no quitter. His 2004 epic, Alexander, was a valiant attempt to detail the life of Alexander the Great, but the theatrical release was ultimately a sprawling mess of a film. Part of the problem was that it attempted to pack every detail of Alexander's life into a palatable running time, but the result was almost incoherent in its storytelling. Even at almost three hours running time, the film seemed garbled, with little sense of continuity.

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The 2005 DVD "Director's Cut" version didn't fare much better. Running at about 167 minutes, it still struggled with ponderous pacing and uncertain editing. Even Stone's commentary couldn't clarify exactly what story the film was attempting to explore. Was it historical epic? Psychological profile? Cross-cultural study? Whatever Stone was attempting to say was largely lost in an attempt to reach the widest possible audience.

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With the DVD release of Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut, Stone makes what he pledges will be his last attempt to get the story of Alexander right. This version is 3 1/2 hours long, and reportedly uses all available footage shot for the original film. It's been completely recut, so that this unrated version is more cohesive as a whole. According to Stone, this is the version he always envisioned, and here, he's unencumbered by box office expectations or social implications. If this is the movie he originally wanted to make, he's come very close to succeeding.

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I say "very close" because Alexander Revisited is still fraught with problems, many of which lie in the casting. Angeline Jolie and Val Kilmer, as Alexander's parents, are woefully miscast--she, as a Medussa-like sorceress with a Bond Girl Russian accent, and he, as a sodden buffoon living under delusions of grandeur. Then there's the problem of Collin Farrell in the title role. He lacks the depth to deal with the ambiguities of the monarch's psyche, and resorts to melodrama to undrescore the significance of his performance. Taken by themselves, these three performances might be overcome, but they serve more to drag the dialogue, leaving us with the notion that ancient Macedonians spoke with thick Irish brogues. Who knew?

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Despite the wooden performances of the principals--which no amount of recutting could have salvaged--Alexander Revisited is the most fully realized version of what has become Stone's obsession. Now told in rapidfire flashback-flashforward style and laced with Anthony Hopkins' mostly tedious narration, the film can be magnificent at some points, and confounding at others.

Too much is packed in to the movie, with little in the way of exposition to make the viewer sympathize with the characters. Hopkins' droning performance as Ptolemy, Alexander's biographer, serves as nothing more than a framing device that detracts from the epic scale of the picture.

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Visually, though, Alexander Revisited is a magnificent achievement, and it's here that the storytelling is most potent. Whether it's longshots of sweeping, foreign vistas or wordless closeups illustrating Alexander's sexual ambiguity or frenetic, claustrophobic, brutal battle scenes, the imagery carries the story to heights the often awkward script never fully realizes. Stone has always been a better director than writer, and his visual sense speaks volumes more than his scripting.

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It's unlikely this "final cut" is going to change anybody's mind, pro or con, about Alexander. It's almost equally unlikely that this will be the film's final DVD release. Blue Ray and HD versions are planned for later this year, and will almost assuredly offer all the "extras" that this release omits. Beyond a plaintive introduction by Stone, in which he almost begs us to give the film one last chance, there are no extras on this set. It's handsomely packaged, though with new slipcover art and attention to technical details. It's presented in a dual layer format, on two discs, complete with an "intermission." (That's what they called them back in the day, before "pause" buttons were invented.) Dolby 5.1 is the only sound option offered, but it's recorded in a way that richly fills all five channels. And it's presented in its original aspect ratio, a necessity given the scope of the film.

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Alexander Revisited is by no means a release that will fully rectify the flaws of the first two versions. The story of Alexander the Great, who conquered the known world before his mysterious death just two months short of his 33rd birthday, is perhaps too complex to be told in a single film, even one 3 1/2 hours long. That being said, this final cut is a valiant effort to recount his life. It won't be remembered as a classic, but it will be remembered.

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