Alexander - The Ultimate Cut

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Alexias
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Alexander - The Ultimate Cut

Post by Alexias »

You're probably aware that there is a 4th version of the movie scheduled for release on June 3rd.

Oliver Stone's decision to make Prometheus a hero of Alexander's - 'always a friend to mankind' - seems to me misguided. Promethues is not a real hero but an intellectual idea, a rationalisation of history, not something Alexander as an action man would have found particularly inspiring IMO. He wasn't a hero in the same warrior mould as Heracles or Achilles, or a god of tangible inspiration such as Dionysus. To have Prometheus as a hero of Alexander's also tries to give Alexander's conquests a gloss of higher purpose, in that he wishes to be seen as a benefactor of mankind by conqueroring them for their own good and giving them Greek, ie western, civilisation. It isn't a message that is made clear in the film but just a reference to those who know of the idea that Alexander was the great uniter of east and west and, as with so much else in the film, is a confused message that just gets lost in translation.

I'm not sure what further purpose Oliver Stone can have in producing yet another version of the film as no amount of editing is going to disguise the poor script or the unacknowledged debt to Mary Renault in trying to explain Alexander's nature through his childhood.
hiphys
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Re: Alexander - The Ultimate Cut

Post by hiphys »

Effectively there was no need to refer to Prometheus as a benefactor of mankind: in this age Herakles had very good credentials to behave as a hero friend of men. At least from Pindarus on (not forgetting Isocrates in his Exhortation to Philip) many Greek orators and philosophers had tried to persuade a Greek leader to make war to Persia, offering Herakles as an example for them.
Alexias
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Re: Alexander - The Ultimate Cut

Post by Alexias »

The association of Alexander with Prometheus bothers me the more I think about it. Prometheus is often seen as a proto-Christ figure, the benefactor who suffers. Yet with Prometheus there is no self-sacrifice or redemption - he was a thief who was punished and has more in common with the Norse Loki than Christ. Oliver Stone would seem to be suggesting though that Alexander should also be seen as a proto-Christ whose benefit to mankind outweighs the suffering. Scary thought.
athenas owl
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Re: Alexander - The Ultimate Cut

Post by athenas owl »

A "proto-Christ" figure? Really? I did not see that at all from the film, in any of it's incarnations. In fact I didn't see even a Tarnesque uniter of East and West in the film in any deep way. Certainly there was the merging of east and west, and ATG's embrace of the east. But that was where he failed in the film as his men did not want that. It was a personal biography. Hare-brained at times in ways I find inexplicable (Antigonus being with him? Why not someone who was actually with him? Cassander as well.) It's been several years since I've seen it in any form, though, so I'm going on memory and impressions.



I'm curious to see a new cut. Enjoyed the film, and am interested to see how Stone tweaks it ten years on. I believe that Ridley Scott has something like seven versions of "Blade Runner"...I'm sure that "Alexander"' still haunts Stone. It's initial failure in Anglo markets (and then the DVD sales into the millions, seriously millions were bought)...the "Final Cut" is one of Warner Brothers biggest catalog items. So he keeps tinkering.

The new cut also comes with other goodies, a book and other things. My understanding is that it is a US release only.
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