Whatever else might be said of Oliver Stone, he's no quitter. His 2004 epic, Alexander, was a valiant attempt to detail the life of Alexander the Great, but the theatrical release was ultimately a sprawling mess of a film. Part of the problem was that it attempted to pack every detail of Alexander's life into a palatable running time, but the result was almost incoherent in its storytelling. Even at almost three hours running time, the film seemed garbled, with little sense of continuity.

The 2005 DVD "Director's Cut" version didn't fare much better. Running at about 167 minutes, it still struggled with ponderous pacing and uncertain editing. Even Stone's commentary couldn't clarify exactly what story the film was attempting to explore. Was it historical epic? Psychological profile? Cross-cultural study? Whatever Stone was attempting to say was largely lost in an attempt to reach the widest possible audience.

With the DVD release of Alexander Revisited: The Final Cut, Stone makes what he pledges will be his last attempt to get the story of Alexander right. This version is three and a half hours long, and reportedly uses all available footage shot for the original film. It's been completely recut, so that this unrated version is more cohesive as a whole. According to Stone, this is the version he always envisioned, and here, he's unencumbered by box office expectations or social implications. If this is the movie he originally wanted to make, he's come very close to succeeding.

I say "very close" because Alexander Revisited is still fraught with problems, many of which lie in the casting. Angeline Jolie and Val Kilmer, as Alexander's parents, are woefully miscast — she, as a Medussa-like sorceress with a Bond Girl Russian accent, and he, as a sodden buffoon living under delusions of grandeur. Then there's the problem of Colin Farrell in the title role. He lacks the depth to deal with the ambiguities of the monarch's psyche, and resorts to melodrama to underscore the significance of his performance. Taken by themselves, these three performances might be overcome, but they serve more to drag the dialogue, leaving us with the notion that ancient Macedonians spoke with thick Irish brogues. Who knew?

Despite the wooden performances of the principals — which no amount of recutting could have salvaged -- Alexander Revisited is the most fully realized version of what has become Stone's obsession. Now told in rapidfire flashback-flashforward style and laced with Anthony Hopkins' mostly tedious narration, the film can be magnificent at some points, and confounding at others.