LONDON - Director Oliver Stone said he was surprised by the critical reaction to his historical epic "Alexander" _ 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, 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."

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Adam Leavelle
Westminster OPC
Roaring Spring Pa.

http://www.myspace.com/aleavelle
"Speak wisdom to a fool and he'll think you have no sense at all"

Click to get: Board Rules -- Signature Requirements -- Suggestions?

Excuses, excuses. Is it possible he might have just made a lousy movie?

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Ivan Schoen, Pastor * Maranatha Baptist Church, Poplar Grove, IL * http://maranatha-sbc.org/

"I want to assist churches and to assist pastors in training pastors. But, after fourteen years of service in this capacity, I am absolutely certain that the finest theological seminary on earth is absolutely incompetent at replicating the actual life of a Gospel congregation. I want to train a generation of pastors who will train pastors, and I want to help them in that task." --- Dr. R. Albert Mohler, President of THE Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, Louisville, KY

So there was no basis in what is known of Alexcander to prove that he was gay.

Stone But then with the left coast to complain is just

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Soli Deo Gloria

John Schultz
Member, Riveroaks Reformed Presbyterian Church (PCA)
Germantown, TN

"The reason why we worship God in a slight way is because we do not see God in His glory"
Jeremiah Burroughs

Bummer and it was on my list...I love epics...but no way I believe that Alexandar was gay! ARGH!!! Why can't they just tell the story....why the garabage?!?!

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JC
URCNA
PA, but homesick for SC

"Who says you can't go back, been all around the world and as a matter of fact. There's only one place left I want to go, who says you can't go home" Bon Jovi

This is a good reason we need to not be close friends with others of the same sex.If they discover our bodies and writings we made 2,000 years from now.They will assume we were all homosexuals.

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Joe Burgess
Grace Bible Church - http://www.gracemessenger.com/
Olive Branch,MS

"Eighty and six years have I served Him, and He never did me any injury: how then can I blaspheme my King and my Saviour?" - St. Polycarp

Only if there is an extreme drop in the rate of population growth!