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No stranger to controversy, filmmaker Oliver Stone got some people all fired up with this opulent, stirring historical epic about the charismatic warrior king who had conquered 90 percent of the known world by the time he was 25. At first glance, Irish actor and offscreen bad boy Colin Farrell might seem an odd choice to play the fourth-century B.C. Macedonian conqueror, but he grows into the role before one’s eyes, even commanding attention during the large-scale battle sequences. The most controversial aspects of the film are Alexander’s relationships with his boyhood friend Hephaistian (Jared Leto) and his mother, Olympias (Angelina Jolie, a ravishing presence, yet curiously channeling the accent of Maria Ouspenskaya, the Gypsy woman of Universal’s old Wolf Man movies). Stone’s references to Alexander’s alleged bisexuality enraged some scholars -- just as his diminishing of those sequences in the Director’s Cut available on DVD enraged some gay activists. The Alexander-Hephaistian subplot aside, the film’s drama highlight is in the king’s marriage to tempestuous Roxane (Rosario Dawson), and the duo’s steamy sex scene ranks with the most erotically charged in Stone’s oeuvre. Undeniably ambitious and generally successful in conveying the true scope of its subject’s accomplishments, Alexander shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand for Stone’s supposed transgressions. It’s a fascinating movie -- lavishly mounted, brilliantly staged, and vividly photographed. Whether things happened as the writer-director claims is debatable, but his version of the facts makes for compelling viewing. Ed Hulse

All Movie Guide

The fourth film to chronicle the life of fourth-century B.C. ruler Alexander the Great, Oliver Stone's Alexander stars Colin Farrell as the titular Macedonian conqueror. The film follows the young king as he leads his forces on a bloody empirical conquest across the known world, taking large parts of Asia and the Middle East to amass a giant empire, all by the time he turned 25. Anthony Hopkins co-stars as Ptolemy I along with Rosario Dawson as Roxane, Angelina Jolie as Olympias, Jared Leto as Hephaistion, Val Kilmer as King Philip II, and Jonathan Rhys-Meyers as Cassander. Matthew Tobey

Product Details

• UPC: 085393893729
• Source: WARNER HOME VIDEO
• Region Code: 1
• Aspect Ratio: Pre-1954 Standard (1.33.1)
• Presentation: Pan & Scan
• Sound: Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround
• Language: English
• Subtitles: English, Français, Español
• Time: 2:47:00
• Sales Rank: 19,108

This DVD is also available as part of a box set:

• Colin Farrell: Superstar Collection
• Best of Blu-Ray: Action
• 300/Alexander

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