Widely misunderstood upon its release in 2004, Oliver Stone’s Alexander was an inspired attempt to make sense of contemporary politics (the U.S. invasion of Iraq) in terms of Western history. Stone took on the story of Alexander the Great to investigate the West’s imperialist urge and to examine history as part of his own (our own) cultural legacy.
Critics trounced the movie for its ambition, and now Stone—ambition unbowed—returns with a three and one-half hour reedited version titled Alexander Revisted. Longer isn’t necessarily better, but this reassertion gives the film another rightful claim on our imagination. Look at it now as a prequel to the comic-book epic 300 and Stone’s vision and seriousness stands as monumental.
In a new introduction, Stone praises DVD technology for allowing this “remake” to exist, but he confuses this opportunity with his original desire to produce a mammoth film on the order of the old Roadshow, reserved-seat presentations that, in the Lawrence of Arabia era, included an intermission break that gave audiences the chance to digest complex material. This was never Alexander’s problem. Stone can’t admit that film culture has changed more tragically, become resistant to the grandeur he envisioned. Alexander Revisted still has its modern-day political parallels but its references to Greek drama and rare contemporary historical epics demand a more thoughtful than thrill-seeking audience. Stone’s converse effort is to de-mythologize history, yet he also has a popular film artist’s instinct. Few movies approach the scope and visual beauty now apparent in Alexander Revisited; he never stints on cinematic pleasure. Now restructured, action begins with a nearly half-hour battle scene that comes within hailing distance of David Lean’s gift for meaningful action.
This revision (backed with JFK and Any Given Sunday) makes a case for Stone as one of contemporary cinema’s greatest visionaries. It’s vivid in a style that is both dreamlike and real—serious, unlike 300’s which has the distracting visual style of erotic cartoons. 300 also has cartoon logic, bouncing from horror of violence to racism to imperialism—it’s a post-Iraq confusion of morality and patriotism like Clint Eastwood’s recent war movies. Alexander Revisited reacquaints movielovers with the issues and aesthetics of war then and now.
