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Will ‘Alexander’ be greater on DVD?

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Times Staff Writer

Director Oliver Stone’s swords-and-sandals epic “Alexander” landed with a thud last year. Aside from the scathing reviews, it cost a reported $160 million to make and took in a mere $34 million on the domestic front.

Now Stone’s got a chance at redemption.

“Alexander: Director’s Cut,” is due out Aug. 2 on DVD, along with a DVD of the theatrical version. The filmmaker spent months poring over the film -- reediting, re-cutting and reinstating footage, in short, reexamining his sprawling take on the story of Alexander the Great, starring Colin Farrell, Angelina Jolie, Val Kilmer and Anthony Hopkins.

“I’m not running away from the original, which I loved, but the derision was really devastating,” the three-time Oscar winner said as he sipped water in his Santa Monica office. “Fortunately, films are now like paintings, permitting for several drafts.”

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Preparing the DVD was a time of soul-searching for the director, who was forced to reflect on what went wrong the first time around. Shot on three continents in 94 days, the narrative was confusing at times and the pacing problematic, Stone said. It was a weak third act that required the most rejiggering. The fixes may not add clarity, he added, but are emotionally more satisfying.

“Directors don’t get paid for working on DVDs -- for us, it’s a matter of pride,” he said.

Although Warner Bros. is trumpeting the director’s cut as a “bold, new film,” Stone isn’t expecting miracles. The studio is striking a 35-millimeter print for a screening and a Q&A; with the director the night of the DVD release as part of the “Hollywood’s Master Storytellers” series at the ArcLight Cinemas in Hollywood. The event is open to the public.

Plans for a limited theatrical release were scrapped, Stone said. “Why go through that again?”

While it’s too soon to say what the public reception will be for “Alexander,” today’s DVD market often offers filmmakers one last shot. Take David Fincher’s “Fight Club,” which was deemed excessively violent in the wake of the Columbine shootings. On DVD, it became Entertainment Weekly’s pick of the year. And Sergio Leone’s epic “Once Upon a Time in America,” which had 90 minutes slashed for its 1984 U.S. theatrical run, was brought back to life when released on DVD.

“A director’s cut can take a picture that was almost unwatchable in theaters and turn it into a masterpiece,” said Ted Sarandos, chief content officer for Netflix.

For all its shortcomings, “Alexander” was far from a disaster, Stone said. It took in four times as much internationally as it did in the U.S. Stone said that he might have been mistaken to assume that Alexander the Great would have mass appeal to Americans who seem to have little tolerance for history. Perhaps the project would have been more successful as a small, independent venture, he added.

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“One critic described ‘Alexander’ as ‘David Lean in hell’ because it defies all the conventions of the genre,” said Stone, whose next film deals with police officers trapped underground after the 9/11 attacks.

“While films such as ‘A Beautiful Mind’ and ‘Schindler’s List’ made their subjects ‘better,’ we presented an antihero full of flaws -- too many, some said. This certainly wasn’t ‘Braveheart.’ And, given a choice between reality and fiction, the latter always wins.”

There were several other sensitive issues to deal with as well, including the portrayal of Alexander as bisexual. (In the director’s cut, Stone deleted one of the scenes between Alexander and his male lover -- not undercutting the premise, he said, but emphasizing it less.) Americans, particularly teenage boys, were made uncomfortable by it, preferring their leads to be cast in the macho mold of Russell Crowe in “Gladiator” and Brad Pitt in “Troy,” he said.

“The South had a particularly tough time with the approach,” Stone said. “Even on the first weekend, nobody came. And the political climate didn’t help. The left viewed Alexander as a proto-fascist conqueror. The right drew mistaken parallels with Bush -- despite the fact that I’d started the film before the war in Iraq.”

In all, Stone deleted 18 minutes from the movie and reinstated nine minutes. The current incarnation still runs more than 2 1/2 hours. It’s the fifth director’s cut for Stone, who reworked “Nixon,” “JFK,” “Natural Born Killers” and “Any Given Sunday” for DVD.

Consumers can choose a single disc ($27.95) in both the theatrical version and director’s cut, containing only the movie and the commentary. For $2 more, a two-disc set with the film’s bonus features includes three 30-minute featurettes shot by Stone’s 20-year-old son, Sean, making his documentary debut. Tracking the making of the epic, they include candid footage of the movie’s cast and crew.

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Best of all? The DVD format eliminates the variable of mass psychology in evaluating a film, Stone said.

“Energy in the theater is sometimes off-kilter -- as it was with ‘Alexander,’ ” he said. “Ever go to a comedy at which nobody laughed? DVDs are like a book in a library, creating a one-on-one relationship between the viewer and the film. As someone with his share of bad reviews, I’m glad people can sidestep critics and judge a movie for themselves.”

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