art

I can't believe that the once fearless Oliver Stone has cut out about 8 minutes from Alexander in the upcoming DVD release. The bits he has removed are the ones that relate to the gay relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion. This has apparently been done so as not to offend homophobic prudes all over America.

Jackskeleton

It's not censorship if you cut it out on your own free will. He had a choice. He decided to do what he did depending on the acceptance of the target audiance.

Premise

He needs to cut about 2 1/2 more hours,then it would be perfect.

PopcornTreeCt

Or it has been done to try and re-coup some sales. Homophobic prudes? Personally, I don't like seeing 2 men touch or kiss each other. Guys can do whatever they want to, but I won't pay to watch it. That doesn't make me a prude nor ignorant nor whatever insulting title you choose to give me. I like what I like and it's not about being progressive or more open-minded.

Lemdog

Just don't cut the part where Rosario Dawson is naked and I'll buy it.

DVD Polizei

Hahaha. Hah. Hah. Unrated Rainbow Edition coming later this year.

digitalfreaknyc

Whatever you need to tell yourself to make sure you sleep better at night.

How about two girls?

art

Of course it's censorship when the original is altered so as not to offend. And the demographics excuse is just a form of pandering. Oh well, looks like American prudes all over the land will get their wish when Oliver and Warner Bros make the chop.

Tyler_Durden

Someone really should tell Stone that the homosexuality in the film was the least of its problems. (Although, if anything, he should've been more open about it and not so cautiously suggestive.) Didn't he read the reviews?!

DVD Polizei

PopcornTreeCt,

Art and I are making out while reading your post.

Jackskeleton

Funny, I don't see any government office coming in and forcing the change. Hell, even WB isn't forcing the change. Oliver Stone is doing it himself so that he can appeal to a larger audiance in order to make money. This is not censorship. It's creative control.

I'm pretty sure that I can make a film with a monkey flinging poo at the screen for a good 20 minutes. Does that mean that I can call you animal phobes / Poop phobes when it doesn't attract a decent size audiance? No, it's my creative choice to edit that out since it clearly didn't work, and infact, distracted from the film and caused others to not feel the need to watch it.

art

There are cases when a director may chop out a mistake or add a scene that wasn't present in the original movie. But to chop out scenes that were integral to Alexander's personal life is like flicking turpentine onto the Mona Lisa. It's also surrendering to the Jerry Falwells of this world and the liberal hypocrites who pretend to be open-minded but actually aren't.

Maybe the director should henceforth be referred to as Oliver Phony.

SvenL

The Red-States-Edition:

All that "gay stuff" cut but with a few added scenes:

1. Alexander has sex with a goat.
2. Alexander marries his sister.
3. Alexander congratulates Bush on his "victory" in Iraq.

The last one is a bit anachronistic, but the intended audience won't realize that.

I wonder what they'll do with all that "gay stuff" in Spartacus in the next US release.

speedyray

As read this thread I knew it would go down hill and sure enough someone rights something stupid like this. I don't make comments about Germany, so why don't you keep your comments about "red states" to yourself. I have lived in "red states" my whole life and have met not one single person that approves of or practices incest or beastiality. Yes, we do prefer Bush to Kerry - the majority not all of us - but I will not talk politics. Oh, we are in general proud of our troops, and yes I think we did the right thing in going to Iraq. At least those people have a fighting chance now. If they choose to go back to authoritatrian rule, that is there problem.

NatrlBornThrllr

Kinda makes me wish I'd have seen the theatrical version, just for my own sake (I'd hate to think that, no matter how critically unexalted, I skipped an opportunity to see a film that will be forever altered. Kinda gives it that "one time only" effect). Of course, given the market, there's a damn good chance that it'll get an "uncut release" on DVD a few months after the initial release.

Ah well.

As for all of the politics in this thread...

1) It's silly to get into a left bashing the right (or vice versa) pissing contest. This isn't the politics forum, and don't flatter yourself by thinking that anybody here cares about your personal political stances. Joe Schmoe hates George Bush? John Doe likes him? Wonderful...glad those two fellas could get that out there on a DVD forum, but frankly, nobody here gives a fuck.

2) Technically, the new cut will be a "censored" version. The definition of "censor," per the folks at Merriam-Webster, is: "to examine in order to suppress or delete anything considered objectionable." The newest version has deleted material that was "considered objectionable." Who it is that made the decision to cut those things is irrelevant. The definition is quite clear, but in the end it's just a matter of semantics.

3) Personally, I think it's ludicrous to cut a film that's based on historical events. The object of the film was to tell a story based on the facts that we know. To cut (by all accounts) truthful bits of the character's life in an effort to please audiences...that represents everything I hate about big-budget Hollywood: sacrificing artistic merit (and the overall intent of the film, to tell the story of this period in the man's life) for audience approval. Whatever, though..

-JP

Mr. Cinema

Now I might watch this.

2 girls making out, yes. 2 guys making out, hell nooooooooooooooooo.

Nick Danger

That already has been done. It has to be done.

When the city-state of Thebes rebelled against Alexander, he killed every Theban man and boy, sold 30,000 women and children into slavery, and tore down the city so completely that only two buildings were left standing more than a foot high. Years after Alexander's death, one of his generals said he couldn't pass by his statue without a shiver of fear.

But these are the sort of truthful bits of the character's life that would not make a popular movie, so they were omitted.

art

Can you imagine if Stone released a DVD version of Nixon that rubbed out the Watergate affair? And that the reason given by Stone was that Republicans threatened to boycott the DVD? There'd be cries of censorship from California to the Carolinas, and rightly so. However, according to some posters on this thread, Stone would be justified on the basis that he would be trying to increase the "acceptance of the target audience". I make this point because it illustrates how utterly stupid is this notion that pandering is acceptable.

I want to have the truth, not be pandered to.

Nick Danger

Found it. It's from Plutarch.

marty888

More discussion on Oliver ("what-can-I-blame-my-lousy=movie-on") Stone and his re-editing:

http://www.dvdtalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=403794

Tarnower

Wasn't this film a flop worldwide, and not just in the United States? Maybe this new DVD version is being released only in the U.S., but as far as the financial success of "Alexander" during it's initial theatrical run goes, I believe it was avoided by audiences all over the world, not just in the U.S. I guess that makes the whole world a bunch of ignorant homophobes.

The movie sucked ass, btw!

art

Alexander made about 35 million in the USA and 135 million around the rest of the world. It recouped its production costs but probably not its marketing costs. As for why it failed in some countries, there's all sorts of reasons. The gay relationship probably scared away some of the lily-livered.

natevines

Sure it's removing historical detail, but the fact is that not many people want to see this stuff. Certainly few have a problem with implying a gay relationship, but love scenes are going too far; no one wants to see that.
Good decision, but still a poor film.

DirkUSA

Your comments couldn't be any more stupid. Maybe you are better off not to put your two cents in at all if you don't know what you are talking about!

Regards,
Dirk

digitalfreaknyc

Actually...i found them amusing and accurate.

And I found this quote ironic...but no less amusing.

Bottom line, stone is a ******* for making the changes. I had no interest in seeing the movie before but now I'd like to just to see why people were complaining so much . I have a feeling you'd see more gay content on Sesame Street between Bert and Ernie.