Alexander--Stone editing the DVD!
 

If this is true, it's utter bullshit and I'm disgusted. From today's New York Post.

---------------
January 6, 2005 -- OLIVER Stone is disappointed in the response to his "Alexander the Great," and plans to alter the movie for its release on DVD. "There's a raging fundamentalism in morality in the U.S.," Stone fumed at the movie's London premiere this week. "From day one, audiences didn't show up. They didn't even read the reviews in the South because the media was using the words, 'Alex the gay.' " Earlier, Stone griped to the London Telegraph, "The gays lambasted me for not making Alexander openly homosexual, and, in the Bible Belt pastors were up in the pulpit saying that to watch this film was to be tempted by Satan." Stone said he'd change the offending scenes for the DVD: "The bond [between men] can be suggested in different ways."

geez

Don't care.

But hey, if it's the director's intent... or in the case spineless director's intent. It's interesting that he's allowing himself to be so easily swayed by public opinion. If he doesn't give that opinion much credence, why be moved by it?

:thumbsup: to Stone. I avoided the movie because of these scenes, but now I can check it out at home.

Groucho, you're joking, right?

Unfortunately, i don't think he's joking. He's from Utah. ;)

I really don't know where he seemed to be getting this backlash from. The stuff I read about was mostly that the film squandered the chance to learn about Alexander as he was growing up. Maybe Stone needs to stop reading the Christian fundies websites and stick with the movie websites.

Isn't this an FAQ?

[QUOTE=digitalfreaknyc]If this is true, it's utter bullshit and I'm disgusted. From today's New York Post.

---------------
January 6, 2005 -- OLIVER Stone is disappointed in the response to his "Alexander the Great," and plans to alter the movie for its release on DVD. "There's a raging fundamentalism in morality in the U.S.," Stone fumed at the movie's London premiere this week. "From day one, audiences didn't show up. QUOTE]

The real bullshit is coming from Stone himself.

I saw this on "day one" (actually, the 2nd day it was out) in a PACKED theater in Providence RI. This movie had the attention and interest of the public, but when you combine generally negative reviews with downbeat word of mouth, <i>that's</i> when audiences don't show up.

It's simply <i>not a good movie</i>, and what's truely disgusting is Stone trying to excuse his artistic shortcomings by blaming it on the political environment.

So what is he going to blame the poor DVD sales on when he's removed the "offending scenes"?

No insert.



;)

I'm an open minded guy......The gay scenes didn't disturb me.......The way the movie bored me did.

I didn't like this movie. I like most of Stone's films, but this one was..a disappointment.

Nice. 5/5 :)

At least include both versions Mr. Stone for the Alexander purists out there (if any). Anyone...Bueller?

I agree with marty888. The real bullshit is coming from Stone. The man is constantly butchering history. If he's such a good historical epic film maker, the least he could do is to MAINTAIN history. He's the revisionist. If the Greeks say that Alexander wasn't gay, and mind you that Greeks are presumably as secular as the rest of Europe, then I'd take the Greek's word over Oliver "I have a" Stone "up my ass".

Please don't misinterpret me - my comments have <i>nothing</i> to do with historical accuracy, simply with the fact that this is a dismal effort from one of our best directors, and rather than try to blame its failure on "fundamentalists" he should take his lumps and realize that this is not a successful movie on any conceivable level.

Thank goodness Stone is changing it. Now it's safe for me to watch the DVD without the possible risk of catching teh gay. :rolleyes:

For heaven's sake, an average episode of "Will and Grace" has more gay content than this movie does. If you are that offended by a couple of scenes of Collin Farrel and Jared Leto hugging you've got issues.

If you avoid the film, do so because it's a bore.

The Greeks would have a problem saying ANYONE Greek was gay. The amusing part of it all is that HISTORY shows homosexuality running rampant in their society. That's just fact. It's all stupidly amusing.

Oh, to be greek. :(

This will really suck if he doesn't include the regular theatrical version in the release, atleast as a collectors edition or something. I wanted to see this movie and only held out for the DVD release because of the bad word of mouth and the fact that I hate going to the theater (especially for a fairly long movie).

Buy Alexander on DVD It's Less Gay! While I believe every film, no matter how bad it may be, should be preserved and released in its original theatrical exhibition, I don't entirely disagree with Stone on his decision. While the movie was torn apart critically I'm sure if Alexander was portrayed straight the movie would not have bombed as much as it did. Stone is trying to save his career by this move and if it pleases the studio execs that he at least tried to make his movie work, he'll be able to make more movies. And I'll be happy to see what subject Stone will tackle on his next project.

Wow, lots of run-on sentences there. I need to get back to school.

Is this a Universal DVD? Are they going to call it "Alexander: The Totally Heterosexual Edition?"

I can't believe how much of a poser Stone's become! Ten years ago this Stone would of told us to get over and deal with it. If anything he would've put in more gay stuff.

I don't see the big deal, it happened. It's real. He was bi.

Why are you so sure? Did the reviews say that "the movie was good except for all the gay stuff?"

This is terrible news. I, like most people, avoided the theatrical release of it but am looking forward to the DVD simply so I can see the flick (I know a few people who saw it and liked it, as did some critics who I usually agree with like Richard Roeper). However, editing this is really terrible on the behalf of Stone. HE is one of the best director's, and everyone has a few misfires here and there but he should not edit out these sequences to try and sugarcoat the issue to the public. If anything, I'm surprised he's not adding more to the film. One of the main problems I've heard about the movie was how disorganized it was, and maybe by adding more to the film it would have made it more understandable. Apparently, the original Stone cut of the film was over four hours.

Damn $tone not giving us the original movie.

Actually I think im one of the fundamentalists that $tone was talking about but I didnt go to see it in the theater because it looked boring and im sort of tired of Colin. $tone can edit it all he wants and I wont be buying it.

Stone has sold out, this is a day I thought I'd never see.

What a douchebag.

Sure the movies a piece of s</>hit, but that doesn't mean you need to change it because some uptight churchgoers didn't like your movie.

Stone should make it more like Caligula. :D

Sorry Josh, but I don't think blaming the failure of this turd has anything to do with chruch-goers.

I'd say, if anything, it has been Stone's latest venture into politically driven films that run contrare to most Americans' beliefs. For example, wtf was Stone thinking when he made that thing on Castro? I bet that film was a big hit with the Cuban-American crowd. Another example of this is his JFK movie. A movie I used to like, BTW, but will not waste my time with now that I know it's total bullshit. This is also why I won't spend a dime on any Michael Moore BS-umentary.

I own only one Stone film and that's Platoon. Only because its totally fiction and because he wasn't trying to make a political statement with it.

Looks like I'm taking this movie off my "to buy" list

The willfully ignorant, anti-minority, religously insane crazies from the right win again. Oh well, at least he knows the truth about the JFK assassination.

I really hope this is just bad internet reporting, or if it isn't, that Stone comes to his senses. I actually loved Alexander, and it was one of my favorites this year. And yes, I know I'm way in the minority on this one - I can actually understand the complaints of boring, but I was captivated. So my respect for Oliver Stone would plummet if he went through with this - it would hurt the film, it's a concession to homophobia, and it lacks the kind of integrity that any serious artist should posess.

Love how the vocal minority always thinks it's cool to insult the vast majority. 80+% of Americans believe in Jesus Christ and God. About 2% of the US population is gay. You do the math. If anybody is ignorant, it is you. Hate and intolerance for the majority is the only weapon of the minority.

Apparently he didn't read the reviews either.

Yes it does. If you read the thread in movie talk that has more of stone's comments, he blamed it on fundamentalists.

Religious fundamentalists (as well as probably most christians in general)would have problems with the movie since they view homosexual acts immoral behavior.

Huh? The vast majority is using "hate and intolerance." Not the the other way around. But that will change eventually. Maybe once the bible-thumpers die off and people stop being homophobic will we get the original cut of Alexander.

Um, it's the other way around. If the religoius majority wouldn't hate and wouldn't be intolerant, the minority wouldn't have anything to bitch about, and movies like this wouldn't be controversial in the first place.

Bad math, bad logic, - is there any special source for your "statistics" ?

(One of the best sigs I've seen here at DVDTalk says something like "<i>27.8% of all statistics are made up"</i>.)