Alexander - Director's Cut (Two-Disc Special Edition)
Oliver Stone's director's cut ofAlexanderis unusual in that it's actually shorter than the theatrical version (167 minutes to 175).  That's apparent early, as 15 minutes of footage--largely political manipulations and such--have been removed from the first hour of the movie, and it's an improvement to get to the action more quickly.  Two of the major scenes aren't gone, however, but moved to later in the movie as flashbacks.  The other notable change is a reduction of the homosexuality subtext.  Those changes are often subtle--in the balcony scene, Alexander still tells Hephaistion that he loves him, but no longer that he needs him, and he no longer asks him to spend the night.  In his commentary track, Stone answers his critics by saying that he toned down the sexuality because the hype around it was detracting from Alexander's basic story.  And in the original cut, he didn't include overt homosexuality because "there's no evidence of that."  He also criticizes moviegoing audiences for (1) having short attention spans (which is why he shortened the original cut), (2) not liking "teaching movies" (so he trimmed the first Aristotle scene), and (3) not being able to understand that in B.C. the numbers go down as the years go by (so he removed the time references from the theatrical cut).  He doesn't discuss all the other additions and deletions, but has plenty to say about the historical Alexander.  All in all, the director's cut does seem like a better-paced version of the movie, but it's still not a must-see.On the second disc are three documentaries (80 minutes total) collecting behind-the-scenes footage, interviews (mostly with the crew), and some effects notes.  They're rather indistinguishable from each other and might have been edited into a shorter, tighter single unit. There's also a four-minute featurette of composer Vangelis at his keyboard and discussing his craft.--David Horiuchi