Cleopatra

Cleopatra
by Darryl F. Zanuck, Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Rouben Mamoulian

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Movie Reviews of Cleopatra

Movie Review: Epic Literate Entertainment
Summary: 5 Stars

With this film Elizabeth Taylor transcended her then considerable stardom, and became to millions the worldover THE ELIZABETH TAYLOR of legend, a veritable modern Cleopatra of wealth, excess, and star-crossed romance. This transformation was fueled by Taylor & Burton's very public adultery inviting the censure of the Vatican concerning her fitness as a mother, and debate by the United States Senate about revoking Taylor's citizenship on the grounds she was a threat to public morals. Adding fire to the inferno was Taylor becoming the highest paid "million-dollar plus a piece of the boxoffice" performer in entertainment history. The vitriolic press lathered themselves up to bash her; but her films continued to earn millions. Scandal did not seem to taint her.

At its opening, the critical opinion to Cleopatra was decidedly mixed.- everything from raves to bombs....as would be expected when the director's 6 hour/2 film vision was whittled down to 1 film at 4+ hours, and then later for general release, cut again to 3+ hours. In reading some of the reviews at the time it becomes glaringly clear that many critics got insultingly personal and reviewed the highly paid sexual femme fatale rather than the actress' nuanced performance, finding it impossible to separate the two. And to blame Taylor for the astronomical costs is absurd. The remarkable DVD includes the documentary "Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood", which is a very thoughtful accurate attempt to correct this myth. From the start, the cast and director/writer were forced by a mismanaged 20th Century Fox to shoot from an incomplete script, practically in sequence - the most inefficient way to shoot since it meant many huge monumental sets stood idle for inordinate periods of time waiting to be used.

The film was a boxoffice hit - not the flat-out bomb the film's detractors wished for. It was number 1 on Variety's Weekly Boxoffice charts month after month. It was the number one grossing film of 1963. Cleopatra continued to perform well in 1964. And as the above documentary states, it was one of the 1960s top moneymakers. No film with bad word of mouth plays at theaters for 6 to 15 months at roadshow prices in city after city. It just doesn't happen. The fact is that audience reaction to the film was much more positive than the critical reception.

Having said all of that, let me articulate why so many people love this film.

* Cleopatra has a great literate script. A very complex story of empire, dynastic ambition and love is rendered understandable and compelling. And the story it tells is remarkably accurate - some liberties are taken but the general arc of how history unfolded is correct

* The relationship between the 3 leads is well thought out and the dynamics in their performances shift accordingly. Caesar and Cleopatra have a relationship of ambitious peers who respect each other and agree to mutually use each other - their dialog fairly crackles with wit and innuendo. Antony and Cleopatra from the beginning are doomed. In spite of herself, her political judgement is compromised by her love. And he is besotted with her, living in Caesar's shadow.

* Taylor's Cleopatra is a complex compelling woman of force and dignity, fired by a fierce ambition to protect Egypt's independence and rule the world. In her is embodied the woman, the ruler, the statesman, and the exoticness of the ancient East. To the movie-going public at the time, she was the only actress beautiful enough and talented enough to play this role. At this point in her career, she had already been Oscar nominated 4 times (and would be again), and won once (for the wrong performance - but THAT'S another story!!!). In several years she would win again for "Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?".

* The opulence of the production is staggering......Alex Norths music is stunning - remastered and rereleased by Varese Sarabande, it is one of the great original compositions for the screen. The costumes and headdresses are a sensational example of Hollywood craft and art. And a film on this physical scale would be impossible to produce today. I saw this film screened at MOMA in New York in the early 1990s as part of a 20th Century Fox retrospective. The reaction to the sets, the sheer size of the production, the attempt to recreate the exotic grandeur of ancient Egypt was an eye-opener for those in the audience seeing the film for the first time. From the entrance into Rome, to the barge at Tarsus, to the Battle of Actium and so forth there is one gorgeous set-piece after another. I enjoyed "Gladiator" a great deal, but as so many have expressed, it looks cheesy and false next to the Forum and Alexandria built for this film.

* The intersection of art and life is the final factor at play. Here is where began one of the most potent and public of film partnerships - lived on screen and in the tabloids for close to 15 years. Whether you approved or disapproved of Taylor & Burton, there are few if any stars nowadays that can project that glamorous larger than life aura as they did. And that, coupled with the spectacle of the film's production - the gossip, the flood of news, the outrage, the money being spent to bring the story to the screen, the crises, and so forth - would simply not occur nowadays.

Summary of Cleopatra