Cleopatra (1963)

Campy Cleopatra
"Cleopatra" was the overhyped spectacle of the early '60s that nearly brought 20th Century FOX to its knees. There was the offscreen love affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton (both married to other people) that overshadowed the movie. It's got cheesy dialogue, it indulges in camp spectacle... making it a classic. I used to watch "Cleopatra" all the time, and it's got staying power.

"Cleopatra" doesn't exactly aim for historical accuracy. It's about Liz Taylor and her numerous costume changes. She goes all out like a drag queen- she's the drama queen of ancient Egypt. Cleopatra is flirty with Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison,who looks ill at ease),who treats her like a daughter. She bears him a son---and gets a grand entrance that RuPaul would envy. She's Cleopatra, Queen of the Desert! The procession seems to go on forever. After Julius is offed on the Ides of March, she romances Mark Antony (Richard Burton), complete with dancing girls and milk baths. As an odd aside, the Vatican condemned "Cleopatra." But why? Bad taste? It's filled with campy lines such as Cleopatra praising her thighs and her bosom,for they "are known to bear children."

"Cleopatra" isn't meant to be take seriously. It's the Cleopatra Aux Folles. Like Priscilla, Cleopatra reigns as Queen of the Desert. She's fabulous!

Superb Superb Superb! Ancient Rome Brought to Life
For Roman history enthusiasts this is one of the best films to recreate the nearly-vanished glory and grandeur that was Rome.

It brings to life the story of Julius Caesar and fall of the Republic followed by the rise of Augustus. This is familiar to everyone so I'll not repeat it here.

For Roman history enthusiasts there are other films that bring Rome to life but none that do as grandly.

Spartacus comes closest. Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire gives a good look at the later Roman Empire during the time of Marcus Aurelius and Commodus. Gladiator had some high points, especially the opening battle scene. Quo Vadis is not bad but extant prints are of low quality.
The recent HBO/BBC miniseries Rome was very good but suffered from some unnecessary dull storylines (proto-Mafiosi in the Aventine,? what nonsense) added to pad the running time. The 1980's Last Days of Pompeii TV mini-series with Ned Beatty is unwatchably poor (unavailable except on TCM AFAIK). Ben Hur was a grand spectacle but the focus was less on Rome than on the Christian aspect of the story.

The grandeur of Cleopatra's entrance to Forum alone is worth the price of admission. The included making-of documentary explains that the set designer thought the real Rome forum (which still exists as a ruin in downtown Rome) was thought too small. The filmakers recreated it a Cinecitta larger-than-life.

Elizabeth Taylor acting has been criticized but the movie was conceived as a star vehicle for her. She was an enormous star at the time; the movie would not have been made without her. The documentary details an aborted early attempt at filming on soundstages in London. After spending huge sums on sets and months in pre-production, Taylor fell ill and nearly died. An emergency tracheostomy was needed to save her life. Filming stopped for months. When it resumed in Rome with a new director, all the previously shot footage was scrapped. New Director Mankiewicz shot so much new footage shot that he entertained thoughts of having two 3-4 hour films. The first would have been Caesar and Cleopatra and the second was to be , Antony and Cleopatra. This idea was scrapped when Twentieth Century Fox was nearly bankrupted by production cost over-runs. The extra footage has been lost (for now).

Richard Burton had become a middling star after a few moderately successful film role but it was his role as King Arthur in Camelot on Broadway that rocketed him to the top. Oddly enough, it was this Broadway musical that made Burton the biggest star in Hollywood.

The pairing of the two stars inevitably led to their relationship. Great pains were taken to keep the secret but was the romance was eventually revealed. There is a famous first photo of the two of them together lounging on a boat at a beach near Rome. There was great fear of a public backlash as both stars were married. Clergy in the US denounced the relationship and called for the film to be boycott.

I'm a fan of Burtons but I can see some of the shortcomings of his performance. If he intended it to be over-the-top, he succeeded.

Rex Harrison is superb as Caesar. Some of Caesar's lines are tinged with inappropriate humour. In this the filmakers got it wrong While Caesar was famous for rousing speeches intended to fire up the legions before battle, he was not a stand-up comedian.

Roddy McDowall is quite good as a young Ovtavian and actually does resemble the famous Augustus of Prima Porta found at Livia's villa near Rome. His role is harmed by editing that makes him inexplicably pop up at the end of film. Almost no context is given for his having been chosen Caesar's heir. In fact Octavian had endeared himself to Caesar for his (minor) actions as aide-de-camp during the Civil Wars. Octavian was also Caesar's great-nephew. After Caesar's assassination he is adopted as Caesar's son according to his will and begins to refer to Caesar as his father. Among the Romans, this adoption of one man by another via a will was unheard of. Octavian's referring to himself as the son of Caesar thereafter would have been considered wholly appropriate. Octavian's rivalry with Antony was poorly explained. Fourteen years passed beween the death of Caesar and the defeat of Antony and Cleopatra during which time the realtions between them varied from friendship to war. After the defeat of Cleopatra, her son (by Caesar)Caesarion was killed. The film does not dwell on this fact.

The Battle of Actium was poorly realized but I can't hold that against the rest of the film.

Some of the supporting characters are a bit jarring. Archie Bunker as Casca and Rollin Hand as Rufio play their roles acceptably well but you can't help but associate them with their TV characters.

I give this my highest recommmedation; it is arguably the best film about ancient Rome ever made.

Cleopatra, Queen of Denial
This epic blockbuster was interesting and entertaining on many levels, though I wonder if when it was released it was considered either a box office or a critical success. It obviously had a huge budget, so I wonder if it was able to make enough at the box office to pay for itself. Lavish costumes and sets, battle scenes with hundreds of extras, not to mention the big stars: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowell, and Martin Landau. It was long--it took me three nights spread out over a few months to wade through it. I can imagine the theaters complaining, since they could have fewer showings per day, and the audiences must have also been complaining about the length, too. It was undoubtedly ballyhooed with massive hype, making it even harder to live up to the expectations.

There are two ways to look at it. First, as an epic telling of an historical tale of wars, conquest, the Roman Empire and the dynasty of Egypt and the pharaohs, not to mention Cleopatra. The lavish costumes, sets, and battles certainly contributed to the success of this way of looking at it. Richard Burton was very believable as Mark Antony, a warrior with two fatal weaknesses--women and wine. Perhaps that wasn't too much of a stretch for him. Though Burton came first, I was reminded of Russell Crowe's Oscar winning performance in Gladiator. Both actors were able to convince that they were warriors, yet there was something deeper than that in there as well. Elizabeth Taylor was great at the thrust and parry of seduction and court intrigue, but I couldn't picture her as Cleopatra, she was just too pale to be Egyptian. Besides, she is an Icon of Beauty in her own right, and I found it hard to suspend disbelief. No matter how well she acted, I was always aware that it was Elizabeth Taylor; no matter how much mascara she wore, Liz Taylor, baby. Rex Harrison, even more so. What was Henry Higgins doing pretending to be Julius Caesar? I half expected Dr. Doolittle to talk to the animals. Strangely though, Roddy McDowell was much more successful at portraying Octavian, but I will get to that later, as it pertains to the second way of looking at Cleopatra, the epic blockbuster.

The second way of looking at it was just to enjoy the spectacle, and as much as possible speculate on the drama backstage. Draw parallels with the way Cleopatra uses theatrical techniques to make the most of her power as queen of the Nile. She always seems to be bathing when conducting her diplomatic negotiations. There is one scene where she entertains Mark Antony with a Cleopatra look-alike, and another where she makes her entrance wrapped in a carpet. At other times she is presented as the Queen of the Nile, making another dramatic entrance on the royal barge, and the hype and ballyhoo very much comments ironically on the hype and ballyhoo surrounding Elizabeth Taylor: Big Fat Movie Star. At times I couldn't help imagining Britney Spears or J. Lo in the role, but I digress.

Backstage drama galore, as there was a budding romance between Taylor and Burton, which must have driven the tabloids wild. I think it might have contributed to the bad reviews as there was a lot of wagging of fingers and tsk-tsking over the fact that Liz was still married to Eddie Fisher. But that added a lot of spice to the mix, making the scenes between the two an intriguing guessing game, looking for clues to their infidelity, tracking the precise moment when they fell in love. You could follow this trail from The Sandpiper, all the way through Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolfe?

Finally, Roddy McDowell. His portrayal of Octavian was very well played, especially in the way he used the withering remark, stealth, guile, cunning, and even a well-placed hissy fit or two, while debating in the Roman Senate. Contrast him with Mark Anthony, who may have been a drunk and besmitten with Cleopatra, but he was a strong warrior who fought his battles bravely. McDowell's Octavian was the man you loved to hate, as he achieved his power not through battle, at least not personally, but by manipulating the emotions of the Senate and the masses. He was a perfect demagogue, working the crowd into a fever pitch, getting them to beg him to start a war with Egypt. He gave one of his best performances as the villain, making the fall of Anthony & Cleopatra all the more tragic.

So, I will give this a thumb up, just as Siskel and Ebert might have, or possibly a Roman Emperor would give to a gladiator who had fought bravely. It is entertaining on many levels, though some of the levels aren't the ones intended.

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