Oliver Stone’s revised version of his recent box-office disappointment, “Alexander,” is only one of many movies to be made available in “director’s cuts” on DVD, but it may be the first to feel like a complete do-over.
For “Alexander Director’s Cut,” as the $29.95 revised version is inelegantly titled, Stone has removed 20 minutes of material from his biographical epic about the Macedonian conqueror, played with shaved legs and blond curls by Irish actor Colin Farrell, and added 12 minutes of new scenes, centered chiefly on Alexander’s domineering, snake-worshiping mother, Olympias (Angelina Jolie).
The cover copy describes “Alexander Director’s Cut” as “Newly inspired, faster paced, more action-packed!” But Stone has mostly concentrated his energies on cutting back his portrayal of Alexander’s bisexuality. In the meantime, Jolie’s Olympias has been inflated to the “Mommie Dearest” level as she browbeats her helpless son into challenging his father, Philip II, played by Val Kilmer.
Despite the vast battle sequences, the R-rated picture resolves itself into the strained psychodrama underlying much of Stone’s work: the uncertain son divided between a distant, authoritarian father and an eccentric, smothering mother.
For purists, the original 175-minute theatrical cut is also available as a separate disc.
Two with The Duke
John Wayne fans have long been frustrated by the unavailability of a few important entries in his filmography.
Now they are coming out through Paramount Home Entertainment, beginning with William Wellman’s 1954 film “The High and the Mighty.” Though the negative reportedly suffered severe water damage, you’d never know it from the restoration on the Paramount disc, which offers bright, fully saturated colors across a sharp Cinema-Scope image, along with a choice between the original three-channel stereo soundtrack and a five-channel remix.
Often cited as one of the first disaster films, in which a catastrophic event (the sinking of the luxury liner Poseidon, for example) serves to sort out the personal problems of a small group of troubled characters, “The High and the Mighty” remains superb entertainment.
Accompanying “The High and the Mighty” is another Wayne-Wellman collaboration, the black-and-white feature “Island in the Sky,” released in 1953. Wayne is the pilot of an Army transport plane that goes down in the uncharted territory of sub-Arctic Canada; his pilot friends, among them Lloyd Nolan, James Arness, Andy Devine and Harry Carey Jr., band together to conduct a search.
Both unrated films come with a wealth of extras – an entire extra disc’s worth in the case of “High,” which as a result lists for $19.95 as opposed to $14.95 for the single-disc “Island.”
NEW ON DVD
Downfall ** 1/2 In Oliver Hirschbiegel’s German film, the extravagances of “Triumph of the Will” have given way to the final days of Adolf Hitler, Eva Braun and company. Bruno Ganz’s Hitler is by turns an infuriated, paranoid and benevolent Führer. He froths about his generals and the Jews but is kind to the Goebbels’ children and his secretary Traudl Junge (Alexandra Maria Lara). Using the secondary story of an army medic, Bernd Eichinger’s script moves between disconnected bunker life and the suffering of Berlin’s citizens above. “Downfall” isn’t groundbreaking art. It does, however, give a compelling glimpse of a nation wrestling with its greatest demon. In German with subtitles. Not rated; 148 minutes (Lisa Kennedy)
The Thin Man Collection **** The most amazing thing about 1936’s “After the Thin Man” is not that it remains a sparkling, engaging entertainment almost 70 years after it was released, but that it is nearly as good as 1934’s “The Thin Man,” the first movie based on Dashiell Hammett’s husband-and-wife detective team Nick and Nora Charles. Directed by W.S. Van Dyke, and starring William Powell and Myrna Loy as Nick and Nora – perhaps the wittiest, most compatible married couple depicted onscreen – “The Thin Man” captures between-the-wars, Jazz Age sophistication, or at least the movie fantasy of it. “The Thin Man” and its five sequels are in “The Thin Man Collection”(Warner, $59.92), a candidate for boxed set of the year. The blending of screwball comedy with murder mystery; the wonderful performances of Loy and Powell; the colorful supporting characters – they’re Hollywood perfection. The other films include “Another Thin Man,” “Shadow of the Thin Man,” “The Thin Man Goes Home” and “Song of the Thin Man.” A seventh disc brings together two fine documentaries on Powell and Loy, while scattered through the other discs are all manner of “Thin Man” and period extras, including a Lux Radio Theater adaptation and an episode of the 1950s TV series. (Detroit Free Press)