Oliver Stone Blames Warner Bros. for Making Him Cut Gay Scenes From "Alexander"

Oliver Stone's 2004 would-be-epic Alexander turned out to be pretty much an embarrassment, with the director glossing over Alexander's(Colin Farrell) same-sex relationships and focused instead on Angelina Jolie's Vampira-esque performance, Jared Leto's eye-shadow, and an unintentionally hilarious, animalistic sex scene between Colin and Rosario Dawson.

After the film flopped and went to DVD, Stone eventually released a director's cut, and in 2007 put out Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut. It's this version that is now on iTunes and recently played at the Museum of the Moving Image in New York (a Los Angeles big-screen presentation is in the works).

Filmmaker's Diary talked with Stone about the changes that he made to the film, specifically about the inclusion of Alexander's gay relationships.

Bagoas (Francisco Bosch)

On the relationships between Alexander and Bagoas and Hephaestion , he says studio pressure led to cuts:

"Alexander definitely had 'a thing' with Bagoas (a eunuch, played by Francisco Bosch). We know this from history because of what he willed to Bagoas. We’re less sure of what Alexander’s relationship was with Hephaestion (Jared Leto), but we know they were close. 'Soul mates,' I call them. You never see them together in bed, whereas you see Alexander in bed with Bagoas and with several women. I would say Alexander was tri-sexual. Bagoas was transformed into another gender altogether; a third gender -- a man/woman -- which was done in those days to make great lovers. Their relationship makes me think of Alexander as being close to the 'god state.' Because he was willing to travel to where Prometheus went and, at the same time, he treated Bagoas well. In Mary Renault’s fictionalized account, The Persian Boy, you see that relationship.

But the Bagoas sub-plot was completely bowdlerized in the original version. When I showed a cut of the film with those scenes to Warners executives they were aghast. They couldn’t stand that part of the movie. So I wound up showing Bagoas only minimally in the 2004 release, which undercut the whole concept of Alexander’s love for mankind."

Colin Farrell and Jared Leto

He discusses the re-insertion of crucial scenes between Bagoas and Alexander, and editing Hephaestion's death scene to make it less ... snickerworthy

"The kissing scene was great. So was the scene at the end -- which really moved me -- where Bagoas tends to his dying lover, propping him up, holding his hand. Alexander says, 'You have given me all, Bagoas.' Bagoas responds that Alexander has given him his happiest times. The great warrior reflects on how fleeting those moments have been and Bagoas says, 'Still, you have given me much happiness, Alexander.' I’m a sucker for this stuff because I love the old 'road show' movies. I love Hephaestion’s death and Alexander’s, too. And I hacked away at both of them in the original version because I thought I was overdoing them -- because of the running time element. But you have to allow these kinds of scenes to unfold and to breath... to oxygenate themselves.

In the final version, Hephaestion’s death is cut differently. It’s an interesting editing exercise. In the theatrical release, I cut to Alexander at the wrong time, and I showed Hephaestion in the background dying too overtly. Also, the music was too sentimental. Each change was subtle, but all together, they made a huge difference. Audiences watching the earlier cut would snicker, but there was no snickering the other night (at the Museum of the Moving Image).

Hmm ... so what do you think? Have you seen Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut on DVD? If so, do you think the changes make it more watchable, or is still a chore to get through? And based on these changes, would you see it on the big screen?