Oliver Stone's Alexander August 2 (1 Viewer)

http://www.dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=57067

Warner Home Video have announced the Region 1 DVD release of Alexander for 2nd August 2005. Oliver Stone recreates the towering, true story of Alexander the Great (Colin Farrell), who in the 4th Century BC conquered Greece, Persia, Afghanistan and India- 90% of the known world.

Alexander will arrive in separate Theatrical and Director's Cut editions priced at $29.95 SRP each. Details follow...

Alexander: Theatrical (2-Disc Special Edition)
175-minute Theatrical Cut
2.40:1 Anamorphic Widescreen
English and French DD5.1 Surround
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Audio commentary by director Oliver Stone and historian Robin Lane Fox
Resurrecting Alexander documentary exploring the filming of Alexander
Perfect is the Enemy of God documentary - Provides an indepth look at the details that go into the filming of an epic
Vangelis scores Alexander soundtrack featurette

Alexander: Director's Cut (2-Disc Widescreen and Full Screen Editions)
167-minute Director's Cut
English DD5.1 Surround
English, French and Spanish subtitles
Documentaries

More details on the director's cut and included documentaries on the Director's Cut DVD will follow once Warner issue the final press release.


Interesting to note that the DC is shorter

Interesting. I was hoping his DC would be longer. I am torn on which one to get.

This is hard. I'm going to have to decide which version to get to rent at my video store... multiple versions will just be confusing. I wanna go director's cut just out of respect for Oliver Stone, but in this case, I'm worried that he's going to neuter his own film just to get the critics off his back.

If it turns out to be PG-13 in the new cut, I think that will decide the matter -- PG-13 battle scenes are absurd. Hate to sound ignorant, but there it is.

I would go with the Theatrical version. I am not some damn homophobe who can't handle two men kissing or whatever they do

The PG-13 cut rumor I believe came from Oliver Stone being sarcastic. All the rumored alterations to the film have nothing to do with censoring adult content, although I believe I came across something that said he’d tone down a bit of the homo-erotic textures of the film.

What a catastrophe this movie was!

Just FYI, the new cut is not a "friendly, mainstream" version, as far as I know. I mean, this is Oliver Stone! Has anybody seen his movies? He's never directed a PG-13 rated movie in his life! The new cut is a COMPLETELY different film, rebuilt from the ground up; he reorganized, removed AND added tons of footage for this new version. He recently gave a talk about it at Berkeley, but I unfortunately have no details on that. (read more about the new cut in the other alexander dvd thread, or check out Cineaste magazine's article "Oliver Stone defends Alexander")

Regards,
Nathan

Here are some more TENTATIVE details, courtesy of epicfilmtalk.com-

Alexander: Director's Cut (WS/2-disc)
Category: Action & Adventure

DVD Features:
Documentaries
Over 1 hour of behind the scenes bonus material
New and Extended Scenes
Audio Commentary: With Oliver Stone
Documentaries: Resurrecting Alexander, explores the filming of Alexander.
Perfect is the Enemy of God, provides an in depth look at the details that go into the filming of an epic.
Featurette: Soundtrack featurette: Vangelis Scores Alexander.

The Standard version of the Director's Cut doesn't look to have any extras (or any worth noting).

The Theatrical version had the audio commentary and documentaries that the Director's Cut has, but no bonus material.

Alexander: Theatrical (widescreen)

DVD Features:
Audio Commentary: Oliver Stone and historian Robin Lane Fox.
Documentaries: Resurrecting Alexander, explores the filming of Alexander.
Perfect is the Enemy of God, provides an in depth look at the details that go into the filming of an epic.
Featurette: Soundtrack featurette: Vangelis Scores Alexander.

I can confirm an R-rating for both versions.

Also, the theatrical cut won't be released on VHS, so I'm guessing their publicity will push the director's cut pretty hard. To tell the truth, I'm kindof surprised that they are releasing the theatrical version -- they clearly do not approve of it, anymore. They must be releasing it just to please those of us who aren't going to take crap from Stone and his spineless reversals.

Still on the fence about which version to order for the store. I guess I will have to wait until the last minute, when someone reviews the new cut in detail.

Yeah, all three people on this planet that fall into that category. They are probably releasing it just so both versions are available. If Stone was as 'spineless' as you suggest, there wouldn't be a theatrical cut on DVD at all.

So, even though the DC is 8 minutes shorter, sounds like there is more than a net change of 8 minutes in terms of total different footage. I wonder how much.

Anyway, I will probably buy them both. WTF.

Wish they did this with Any Given Sunday, I remember the theaterical release was so different than the Directors Cut. Seamless branching!!!!!!! Or do it like Dawn of the Dead set!!!

I had a browse through the lengthy Cineaste interview with Stone today. He refers to the DVD cut a few different times, mentions a subplot about 'the furies' that he feels wasn't present at all in the theatrical release, and also mentions the extension of some post-battle scenes later in the film that he feels have been worth salvaging. (I browsed the interview in a bookshop during my lunchbreak at work today and didn't get the chance to read it back to back). My first impression is that Stone was faced with situations in the editing room where certain scenes or sequences made others potentially redundant, or that forging down one particular path in the cutting made it less feasible to forge down another. Given the response to the theatrical version Stone is bravely trying to have another crack at the whole thing rather than running off to a corner and hiding. Stone himself acknowledged in the interview that most director's cuts were longer but this one wouldn't be - he also made a wry, funny comment to the effect that the material and his thoughts on the topic would hypothetically allow him to do a third version of the film 10 years from now if he wanted to. Anyway, it does indeed seem to be a REDUX version of the film where certain things have been approached or recut from scratch.

I'll proobably grap both, mainly to hear stones thought on the commentaries, they would have to be different if the cuts are so drastic.

What I'm gonna do is buy a clear standard-width triple keepcase, buy the two editions, throw out the second disc of the Theatrical edition, and have myself a nice 3-disc edition!

(Clear, if you're wondering, so I can preserve both covers: Theatrical outside, DC inside: http://dvdtimes.co.uk/content.php?contentid=57067)

I can't even begin to explain how choked I am bout the marketing they are using for the Directors cut there! Faster Paced, more action, this isn't XXX here.

Let’s pray that will be included on the shrink wrap only.

strongly recommend avoiding the region 3 (2 disc edition). very poorly authored. looks like non-progessive. worst i've seen. screen flickers and judders violently on pans. usually things just get either blurry or comb. watching on an HTPC (i've gone through all interlacing options), so may not be as prevalent on a tv.

disappointing since WB usually distribute their region 3 films (to the best of my limited experience). not in this case; never heard of the distributors. bunch of monkeys if you ask me :frowning: ....

It's not actually a Warner film. It was an Intermedia/IMF movie -- essentially a large-scale independent film that Warner released in North America and a few other territories, but that's the big extent of their involvement.