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Everybody knows what the definition of insanity is, and Oliver Stone seemed determined to put it to the test after repeatedly going out of his way in an attempt to cobble together a version of Alexander that wasn’t a crushing disappointment.
Heralded as the Academy Award-winning filmmaker’s magnum opus, the Platoon director had been developing the project for decades, and it looked to be in with a decent chance of success after a 2004 release date placed it right in the midst of the historical epic’s resurgence.
Unfortunately, his 175-minute theatrical cut was quite frankly terrible. A 16 percent Rotten Tomatoes score, 35 percent audience approval rating, and six Razzie nominations rubbed salt into a wound that was already wide open and stinging after the $155 million production tanked at the box office and lost upwards of $70 million.
Undeterred, Stone went back into the editing room to release not just a shorter Director’s Cut, and not just the 214-minute Alexander Revisited: The Final Unrated Cut either, but also the 206-minute Alexander: The Ultimate Cut. None of the three could rehabilitate his passion project’s eyes as one of the most notable cinematic misfires of the 21st Century, though, and it’s ironic that the plain old vanilla edition is the one lighting up Netflix.
Per FlixPatrol, Stone’s least-preferred take on the film has been waging war on the streaming service’s most-watched charts, almost cruel when there’s another three editions that are all better but still not great. Colin Farrell actively apologized for his role in it, which says all you need to know.