I Watch Films: Cleopatra (1963)

 

Cleopatra (1963)

Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison) defeats his rival Pompeii at the battle of Pharsalus in 48 BC. Sending his deputy Mark Antony (Richard Burton) to Rome to take control of the state, he follows Pompeii to Egypt. There brother-and-sister monarchs Ptolemy and Cleopatra (Elizabeth Taylor) are in a state of war. Ptolemy executes Pompeii to avoid Roman involvement. However Roman involvement occurs anyway; the Roman state was a guarantor of the previous Pharoah’s will. Cleopatra convinces Caesar to support her and after some plotting and fighting he puts her on the throne.

Fascinated by each other they marry, with Caesar having thoughts of becoming King of Rome, with Cleopatra his queen. They have a son. Caesar returns to Rome where things look very different; the Romans are allergic to the idea of kings and suspicious of foreign queens. Caesar is appointed dictator-for-life and the marriage downplayed as a foreign ritual of alliance.

Cleopatra arrives in Rome with a spectacular display, and Mark Antony meets her, sharing Caesar’s fascination. Then Caesar’s enemies strike and he’s stabbed to death (Cleopatra gets to see this in a vision with her fortune teller) and they start a rebellion. Mark Antony rallies the loyalists with Octavian (Roddy McDowell), Caesar’s grand-nephew and heir. Upset that Caesarion is not recognised as Caesar’s heir Cleopatra returns to Egypt.

Mark Antony and Octavian are victorious and divide the Roman world between them (and the third member of the triumvirate, Lepidus, who does not appear in the film) with Antony getting the East. Needing money for a war with the Parthians Antony realises only Egypt can help. Neither Antony nor Cleopatra can afford to look subservient by waiting on the other; eventually Cleopatra breaks the deadlock by sailing her royal barge to Tarsus and inviting Antony aboard – declaring her ship Egyptian territory so both sides save face.

And not just face. The two fall in love, Cleopatra becoming his partner politically and romantically. When Lepidus falls Antony has to return to Rome; to seal the deal with Octavian he marries his sister Octavia. Cleopatra is furious and Antony divorces Octavia to marry Cleopatra. Octavian denounces Antony in Rome, reading his will which leaves his conquests to his children by Cleopatra, making him un-Roman. Octavian and Antony go to war, and Cleopatra’s meddling leads to defeat, and their tragic deaths.

Loosely based on history the film interestingly references two famous scenes from the Shakespeare play Julius Caesar (the assassination of Caesar and Antony’s funeral oration for him) without audible words; Octavian’s reaction to Antony’s death expands upon that in the play Antony And Cleopatra. Concentrating on Cleopatra’s two great romances with Roman generals and statesmen, it nods to the complex political situations though the references to Caesar’s dream of a united, peaceful world seem unfounded. Some amazing spectacles, indeed in some cases the rich sets and costumes detract from the performances of the actors, which are very strong in most cases.

Famously a difficult shoot, with plenty of behind the scenes drama*, what remains is an overlong, overwrought ahistorical drama that nevertheless is magnificent to watch and powerful in impact.

Watch This: Extraordinary historical epic
Don’t Watch This: Four hours of a foreign woman’s love destroying great men

* Not least, with delays this caused financial strain on 20^th Century Fox so they sold off their backlot in Los Angeles; now a neighbourhood called Century City “The City that Liz Taylor built.”