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Oliver Stone on "Alexander Revisited"
Dear Viewer,
Why a third version of Alexander? The best answer I can manage is, I couldn’t get it out of my system. It’s a film that’s been haunting me since the theatrical version first appeared in November 2004 in the U.S., followed by a Director’s Cut on DVD in July 2005.
But neither version was complete. It wasn’t an issue of right or wrong, or good or bad, but, like an experiment, one of trial and error. I believe this version now (3 ½ hours) is my clearest interpretation of Alexander’s incredible life.
For those who didn’t appreciate the original, rest assured this is my last pass, as there is no more footage to be found. And for those of you who did like it, please share with me my passion for “Alexanderâ€, every sublime and awkward pixel of it.
I welcome your feedback and comments below. And I still believe -- “Fortune favors the boldâ€.
Sincerely Yours,
Oliver Stone
Thank you for visiting our MySpace page. Below are the answers to your questions, feel free to ask more as they are all being read and answered by Oliver Stone himself.â€
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Oliver Stone Responds to Your Questions
New MySpace answers – 5/1/07
How old were you when you first read/heard about the history of Alexander The Great? When you heard about the history of Alexander, were you already involved in the film industry? Did you always had in mind to make this film one day?
I first discovered the nuances of Alexander’s life, in the novels of Mary Renault in the 1960s and ‘70s. He always fascinated me, and certainly was a model for an ambitious life. I found his ideas of glory and honor to be very much in keeping with the historical view of the Greeks. In many ways he is the epitome of the Greek man. Ironically of course, the Greeks couldn’t stand him, and yet he ended up carrying their ideas farther, and deeper than most Greek ever did -- in my opinion, anyway. When I was at in NYU in the early ‘70s, of course it was a fantasy of mine to one day make a film on Alexander. I was hoping for a documentary, where I could go back in time and actually film the army moving through the passes of the Hindu Kush, but that didn’t quite pan out. I started thinking seriously about doing a film in 1989 and various false starts were made throughout the ‘90s. We finally got it together in 2002 and 2003 through the magnificent efforts of European producers Moritz Borman, Paul Rassam, Thomas Schuhly, and Patrick Wachsberger. Getting this film physically made, finishing in Thailand, was perhaps one of the greatest days of my life. What a dream come true! Of course the fate of the film was something typically Greek in its most ironic and tragic sense.
What is the funniest thing that happened on the set?
The funniest thing that happened on the set? Well frankly, something funny generally happened every day. There’d always be some kind of disaster, or overcoming of the odds, or last-minute adjustments to be made. The film was done in generally high spirits. People were happy to make it, and we moved around a lot. We were on three continents, and were all over Morocco. I would say England was the hardest, insofar as it was a dark winter and it rained a lot, and we were always indoors. As it was cold and miserable outside, inside was another world -- gloomy London transforming into colorful Babylon! Certainly a funny day would have been Rosario and Colin coming together on there wedding night. I thought it was going to be a long difficult day, and kind of arduous to shoot a sex scene like that, but the two participants ripped off their clothes and came at each other like two wild panthers, and it was a raging battle up the stairs and across the bedroom in one violent take! It was magnificent… Then I did three or four more takes. They were just as good on the fourth as on the first. In other words, they had a certain zest for each other!
There was a lot of symbolism along with mythology weaved all through the film. The myths were explained in some detail in various scenes. But, I was wondering if you could you explain some of the symbolism that you used in the film? For example, symbolism such as, the bear and the panther, the eagle and the snake (or just the eagle, itself), the face in the mountains of the Hindu Kush, the ring at the beginning and end of the film (falling at the beginning of the film and shattering at the end), Alexander reaching up with the ring before he dies and any other symbolism that was not as obvious or you thought was important to the story. These are only a few examples. Personally, I did understand much of the symbolism that was presented in the film, but I wanted to know why you used these particular ones to tell Alexander's story? How do you feel that they relate to the history of Alexander's life as well as with the myths that were presented in the film?
As usual, very penetrating, difficult questions. How’d you get so smart? The symbolism of the film is a long answer, which I think I deal with more thoroughly in the Afterwards of the upcoming Cambridge University Press collection of essays on Alexander and the movie by a group of leading international academics (to be published in 2008). The eagle is manifest in the new cover art, and comes out from Alexander’s eyes. The eagle is the same creature, working for Zeus, who eats out Prometheus’ intestines each night, punishing Prometheus for his great achievement of giving fire to man. Alexander, in our version of history, models himself on Achilles, Heracles, and others… But subconsciously I believe his greatest influence was Prometheus. There is no historical evidence of this; it is only a dramatist’s insight. The ring to me always stood for the love between men. It is a symbol of that love, as Hephaistion says when he gives it to Alexander, “I’ll always think of you as the sun, Alexander… And I pray your dream will shine on all menâ€. When it shatters in the end, on one level it emblemizes the end of his empire, but on a deeper level, it is the end of the great love Alexander carried in his heart for mankind. Ironically Ptolemy, the odd man out, carries the ring at the end of the movie, but it is clouded and shattered at this point.
Can you elaborate on the story behind Philip's murderer? It's all kind of ambiguous. How I understand it, it looks like Philip lets him get raped at the party, and then later, the guy kills him as revenge. But then it's alluded to that Olympias may have had something to do with it... Can you go into any more detail?
Yes your perception is correct and historically this more or less what happened. Philip had insulted Pausanius earlier in time, and Pausanius took his revenge. There were co-conspirators seen riding away, and there was always the reoccurring belief that he had been in the pay of 1) either Olympias and her party, 2) the Greeks in the South, who hated Phillip, and/or 3) King Darius of Persia, who had strong motive to be rid of Phillip before he invaded Persia as he had announced. The intent of the film is to bring issue of Olympias to the forefront, because this ties most directly to Alexander, and would implicate him in the assassination, even if he were a passive figure. As the first son, he benefits from Phillip’s assassination the most. How he deals with his Mother at this key moment in his life is a very dramatic question. There is not much written about it, and I urge you to think for yourself. But I would venture, knowing Alexander and his sense of shame at her/his involvement, that he would have gone through some kind of rigorous self-examination on this issue -- if not then, at least later in his life. This is the basis of the drama that unfolds on the screen.
When Alexander says "A man searches for a woman at earths top, the myth becomes real" what myth is he talking about.?
I hope the quote helps, and if so, you got to tell me the woman that would understand it. I didn’t think those types still exist. It’s a beautiful quote, and I believe I found it in one of Alexander’s histories. At least, I think he used the words, “Earth’s Top,†to mean the northern parts of Persia, Bactria, Sogdia, Scythia, where he traveled looking for the Eastern sea. So, on that basis he is acting out, making the myth real. He finds the Amazon queen, who comes historically from Earth’s Top in Roxanne, conquers her like Heracles and Theseus in myth. She becomes his queen, giving birth to his child. In acting out the myths he believed as a child, part of Alexander’s infatuation with Roxanne is more the perception than the reality. In the end, I think this is very much the theme of “Alexander,†the myth versus the reality. Ptolemy reverences it in his last monologue.
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