With Alexander, Oliver Stone took the life of a great ancient conqueror and reduced it to "a tawdry sword 'n' sandals puppet show". In the title role Colin Farrell played second fiddle to a shocking blonde mullet that only added to the overriding sense of confusion and embarrassment. After a whipping by the critics and slaughter at the worldwide box office, the director made a public apology, admitting, "Alexander deserved better than I gave him."

Making History

To redress some of the structural problems, Stone is issuing a Director's Cut DVD, but frankly we don't have the stomach to watch it. Instead we look at this two-disc Special Edition release, which offers a morbidly fascinating behind-the-scenes look at the making of this epic turkey. Split into three half-hour parts, it follows Stone on location backed up by an entire army of cast and crew. Early on he admits that the story may be "too big", but steps forth undaunted in his floppy hat to "illuminate" the masses with his revisionist take on ancient history.

In Resurrecting Alexander, Stone lavishes Colin Farrell with unnerving praise. "I knew I was going to be comfortable with Colin. He's a very handsome man," he says, "He's got a lot of male." It's a peculiar statement not least because footage from his first screen test sees a bewigged Farrell strike an uncanny resemblance to Shirley Temple. Even so, the star swaggers about smoking and cussing and throwing out roughly-hewn gems of wisdom like, "It's such a f***ing noble, noble, noble story! It really is!" However, in a rare moment of humility, he confesses, "With a role like this you have to lift yourself to match the script."

Stone does most of the cussing in Perfect Is The Enemy Of God, following his painstaking efforts to recreate the ancient world and to co-ordinate those grandiose battle sequences. Also throwing his weight about is an unruly elephant - featured in the climactic battle scene - who takes to punching the actors with his trunk. (Everyone's a critic, eh?) Finally, The Death Of Alexander sees the director handling crises that include losing footage to a "foggy gamma test" and Farrell being rushed to hospital with "a dodgy leg". Meanwhile Val Kilmer lives up to his reputation by refusing to learn his lines, insisting that he needs to "orchestrate confusion" as an essential part of his technique. By the end of the shoot Jared Leto resolves, "Only romantic comedies from now on..."

A Gay Old Time

Sadly the feature commentary is limp in comparison to the documentary. Historian and technical advisor Robin Lane Fox gives a predictably dry academic assessment of the film although he starts by saying, "It was never conceived or presented as a historical document." Of course Stone contradicts this in a separately recorded voiceover where he defends his choice to hype up the relationship between Alexander and Hephaistion. "In reality," he boldly states, "Alexander was an active bisexual, transsexual, pansexual..." No doubt Stone shows arrogance in his presumptions, but at least he tempers this with a sense of humour. He says of his critics, "They say I exposed myself with this." Well, we don't want to start rumours but he did give Farrell a lot of loving close-ups...

If you're a fan of Stone's previous work but decided to give Alexander a miss, this DVD is worth a look. Alongside the documentary, it paints an intriguing portrait of a man who reached too far and wound up face down in the dirt. On this basis, we reckon that Stone should consider his own life as the subject of his next biopic.

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