The Director's Cut of Alexander

[jan]

to anyone who is interested, I just saw the director's cut and must warn any who don't know that it is an adult only film, and should not be shown to young children...from my point of view, this film is not for innocents. I was in the dark, but a special disc on Colin Farrell being transformed into Alexander prompted me to buy it. Good thing that I did. The special edition is designed for those of us who do not want to see x-rated material.

[Nax]

I saw the directors cut and I don't get why you think its "adult only". I'd let a kid 10 and older see it, and then only cuz I'd worry that any younger than that might be bothered by the battle scenes.

[chris]

Hi JanI saw the Directors Cut version on Saturday and thought it pretty awful. I take your point, but kids today, in the UK at least, can see similar scenes on breakfast tv whilst eating their morning cornflakes. Chris

[jan]

Thanks, Chris, I appreciate knowing that. We, in America, are still pretty sheltered from such things. Naturally, I used my pause and slow feature to zoom in on details. That made a lot of difference.

[jan]

I can't be specific about which scene it is that I believe should be blocked, but I used my pause button to zero in on the scene and realized that it is a lot like the "birdie" scene in Lady Chatterly's Lover which is the only part I wanted to read when a teenager.

[Nax]

If you're talking about the scenes with some nudity, I hafta wonder when Americans will stop fetishing on nudity. You had to use yer pause, fer cryin' out loud!
LOL man, I thought you were worried about the violence- the men dying, horses screaming, elephants dripping bloody wounds. Isn't that just a LITTLE more worrying than some flashes of genitals or scenes with breasts?Weird priorities

[Kit]

Hi Jan,I watched the region 1 Director's Cut the other day and I didn't notice much difference between the nude scenes on that and those on the theatrical release? But it has been a while since I saw it at the cinema.Did you feel the theatrical version was more moderate in this regard? I thought that it was mainly the battle scenes that had been extended, together with some re-editing?Kit.

[amyntoros]

Naturally??? Sorry, Jan, but is it "natural" to pause, freeze-frame and zoom in on details and images that you find objectionable? If you find them so distasteful wouldn't it make more sense to turn off the TV?Anyway, I'm totally confused by the whole thread here. The Special Edition DVD is the theatrical cut - nothing has been changed from when it was shown in the theatres. The Director's Cut has around 18 minutes edited out and nine different minutes put back in, plus some rearrangement of scenes. And this is the cut where Oliver edited out some of the so-called "objectionable" scenes in order to make the movie more palatable for English-speaking audiences.It's all beginning to look like a storm in a teacup to me.Amyntoros

[jan]

Hi Chris and Linda, I will try to explain that in the special edition which has the French language available also, I noticed things during the French version that I had not noticed in the language version. Why? I don't know. So I began to compare those two versions, and as of yet, really have not analyzed the nude scene with Bagoas in that as much as I did in the director's cut where it stood out. I believe it is due to the formatting as I notice that it appears to be more magnified in size to me as when King Darius turns to his troops both hands are in the special edition but the right hand is cut off in the director's cut. Those are my copies.In the special edition, the nude scene merits little attention as it goes by very quickly, hustled fast, but in the director's cut,it is slowed down considerably, and one can get a good look at all of Colin Farrell's various body parts, including his male distinction. He must have kidding when he was teasing about his penis size, as he looks good to me.I am old enough to look at these kind of photos, and I don't mind taking my time in looking at Colin's buns, thank you, but I do not want children of a certain age to think that Alexander invited Bagoas to his bed. I do not believe it. But I would caution that that is Hollywood and not Alexander. It can be considered slander.

[marcus]

I think you'd find it hard to win a case of slander in a court of law, considering the source evidence about Bagoas. As to whether you would want children to think that Alexander invited Bagoas into his bed, considering the amount of political correctness that appears to pervade schools nowadays, I would have thought it was felt imperative that children believe he *did* invite Bagoas is - irrespective of whether he had a relationship with him or not in truth.Really, Jan, I don't know whether to be exasperated or merely to laugh at your prudishness. All the bestMarcus

[jan]

I do not know what the version of the director's cut in England is like, but I checked both the special edition version of the two scenes of Roxanne and Alexander and Bagoas and Alexander. In the director's cut that is mine, Alexander is seen literally consummating his marriage to Roxanne which is hard-core porn in the eys of the law. There is nothing left to the imagination, but in the special edition, this same scene is cut and omitted totally. It amused me, as I can see how much fun that Alexander is having (Colin) and little fun that Roxanne is having as she grits her teeth so much and is a great demonstration of Rosario Dawson's acting ability. The closeups in this scene are quite choice, and I am anything but prudish for myself, but I am considering the likes of youngsters who are not yet of age to understand this particular scene.The scene on Bagoas is purely imagination as Robin Lane Fox says about the cave scenes in his discussion. Bagoas is so far away from Alexander that the only real point of this scene is that this is the way Alexander escapes from his guilt of having Parmenio killed during this time. The point that Oliver Stone is making is that Alexander is all male in this scene, but looks as though later in India gets cleaved in a frontal pose as a weapon slashes at his thighs.The director's cut is more fun for the adult crowd who like to watch men straddle their legs so much as that is quite obvious in Bagoas's dance as well as at the Battle of Gaugemela. I enjoyed the slow button and pause button on my new dvd recorder so am having a great time learning how Oliver Stone's mind works.But for the sake of family life in America, I recommend only the special edition. For those who like hard core, the red, gold and black version of Colin Farrell alone is probably their cup of tea!

[marcus]

I don't know about the scene with Roxane - you were only talking previously about the scene with Bagoas.I have the Director's Cut, although I haven't yet had the chance to watch it all the way through, and have not seen the Roxane scene. However, I very much doubt that it is 'hard core', considering the film's rating ... but I would be happy to concede your point that young children shouldn't see it. As far as I remember, from the film's rating I would consider it a severe dereliction of parental duty if a parent were to allow a child to watch it, anyway.However, as I say, it was your comments about the Bagoas scene that I was referring to, as you had not mentioned the Roxane scene previously.All the bestMarcus

[Marilyn]

Hey Jan, in all fairness, there IS no "we". SOME Americans might be bothered by nudity on film, but a LOT of us aren't. Why would we be? It's just nudity. If you don't want to look at naked people, don't look. "Methinks thous dost protest too much"..
Funny how people who claim to be so bothered by nudity are the ones who seem to fetish over it the mostI gotta say (and this includes Christake's post outside this one and above) that there seems to be a LOT of people who are making WAY too much about the so-called homosexual scenes and the naked people. Okay Chris "Too much emphasis on homosexuality"? WHY? Cuz two men express love to each other? Like Nax said, I guess more blood, guts and gore is preferable, but that's not about "real" history- that's about YOU and what YOU see as historically important. Famous people are just people too, so we can pretty well assume they're usually gonna have sex according to the mores of their times and the fact is, the macedonians seem to've been WAY more mellow about it than a lot of Pothosians today!!!! Get over it, guys. The movie DIDN'T have "too much homosexuality" or too much nudity. It wasn't "hard core porn" at ALL. In fact, it was MILD compared to some movies, so the only reason I think its upsetting to some is because they didn't get the Alexander THEY wanted.. well, Stones Alexander might've been not quite what I wanted either, but I gotta say, it was closer than what I've read in some of your posts here on Pothos.

[ruthaki]

"We in America are sheltered from such things" ????
Are you kidding? I am often appalled by the amount of violence and sex shown on TV and at the movies here in NOrth America. You can hardly watch a show on TV (other than sit-coms) that isn't loaded with violence. And even the ads are constantly promoting with sexual innuendos. I think kids are pretty immune to a lot of that stuff. But certainly, if you've viewed it and deemed it unfit for children (yours or friends) then by all means warn them of that or don't show it. I mean, even the magazines displayed in super markets these days are loaded with it!PS now I'm curious as heck to see that director's cut and see what I've been missing! :*)

[jan]

Oh boy, what a can of worms this one is. In the director's cut that I have, the scene between Bagoas and Alexander only shows that Bagoas snuffs out the candle this time as Alexander had done it earlier in the scene between him and Roxanne. In the director's cut, Alexander is humping away and enjoying every minute of it while Roxanne looks as though she is in anguish. Some love scene! I have seen enough porn flicks in my dad, including Deep Throat, not to be considered prudish or anything but amused. But I noticed immediately when watching the director's cut that there was a vast difference between this take that makes it in this film than the take which is in the special edition. While Stone and Robin Lane Fox discuss this in the commentary, even then the humping scene is left out despite some good footage of the constant turning over each other in the bed. The cameraman has taken some great shots of Roxanne's body, and I am interested in his camera lens. He doesn't miss a trick. He is a pro and has seen it all before too, but the point is that children underage need guidance. Not a look at coupling hard core style. Sorry, but my version is hard core. My complaint in the Bagoas scene is that Alexander's penis is down, and not up, but I can catch an eyeful of his scrotum and penis, and I realized that he isn't the 2 inches that he had said he was. He is better than that. He will make a great Sonny. Need I say more?