Unbelievable: Stone Surprised by Poor Response to Epic Thursday, January 06, 2005 LONDON — Director Oliver Stone (search) said he was surprised by the critical reaction to his historical epic "Alexander" (search) — and put the blame on the fundamentalist morality in some parts of the United States. Critics lambasted the film, which stars Irish actor Colin Farrell (search), and some conservative groups condemned Stone's depiction of the Macedonian conqueror's sexuality. "I was quite taken aback by the controversy and fierceness of the reviews about a character we don't really know too much about," Stone told reporters in London Wednesday before the film's British premiere. "I operate on my passion and sometimes I'm naive, I don't think about the consequences," he said. Stone said the commercial failure of "Alexander" in the United States could be linked to "a raging fundamentalism in morality." "From day one audiences didn't show up," he said. "They didn't even read the reviews in the South because the media was using the words, 'Alex the gay.' As a result you can bet that they thought, 'We're not going to see a film about a military leader that has got something wrong with him.'" Stone, director of "Platoon," "JFK" and "Natural Born Killers," said "Alexander" was "the epic of my life." "I'm very happy with the result and I think Colin's work is extraordinary," he said. "He's had some tough reviews but he'll ride it out." Said Farrell: "If Oliver ever wanted to work with me again I would do it in a heartbeat." What an absolute moron. Has he thought that maybe it's not a good movie? I haven't seen it, but know people who have and they ALL say that it wasn't too great. Funny thing is that Stone said this IN LONDON and not the US. God I can't stand people like this.
I saw platoon and loved it I also like the doors movie, then I saw JFK and that was the last of his films I ever watched. I did see some of Natural Born Killers on cable and it only confirmed my thoughts about him. It's a shame, he's has the facilities and vision to be a great director but he gets in the way of telling HIS story and resorting to cheap stunts to create a buzz about the movie instead of allowing them to stand on their own merits. I think he does it as a defense mechanism to allow him to have someone to blame when he makes crappy movies. "The movie is great, it's the close minded people that ruined it." Let's just hope he's true to his word..
Im quite tempted to see it just to see what he's on about, but i just thought Colin Farrel and Big boobs big lips woman (edit: angelina jolie) are crap actors and it just looked crap. Not only the US gave it bad reviews. Wanna see a good movie this month? Go see Ray.
Tis incredible. Jamie Foxx = king **** of actors atm. Saw first ever preview showing in the world () mid-december at local filmworks (UCI), and everyone i went to see it with gave it 9.5/10. If anything it ends a bit abruptly and its a touch too long but the music and story is worth it.
