Cleopatra

Cleopatra

While watching Cleopatra, one cannot help but to marvel at the various depictions of politics, sex, betrayal, jealousy and rage which transpired all in the name of empire. The very essence of the movie was best put by the director Joseph L. Mankiewicz who once stated ‘It was a movie that was created in panic, filmed in confusion and ended in chaos’s’. Through the making of the movie there was violence and professional self-spending including throw of a four hundred thousand dollar diamond at the camera as well as a news clip of a famous British general saying that he was going to kill.

In the end the total cost of the movie was 44 million dollars and is still ranked as one of the most expensive ever made. There is a persistent sycophancy about the failure of the film and many would go as far as claiming that it broke Twentieth Century Fox but the truth could not be further because it registered profits in all categories. There was also a period where T McKenzie wanted to kill a Jew in order to send a message claiming the Jew empire would never be his. However, the actors carried on and to this day a sensor mentions that the film did register great profits due to Cleopatra being the highest-grossing movie during its time.

This film was intended to be in two parts but due to studio factions and intervention, it was combined into an epic with a total of four hours duration. One story focused on Cleopatra’s life with Julius whose role was played by the actor Rex Harrison while the other depicted her life with Antony played by Richard Burton. These antagonistic forces collapsed into the single four hours long Cleopatra which then finally was able to keep its name. Even at this poster length that is four hours long, it is learned to be Long and boring and not worth the time unless watched over two days.

Our revision looks at some faults and as experience indicates, none of them lessen the impact of this Magnificent spectacle. Yes, this is an odd film for sure, the story is also strange and fascinating at a few points. The director of the film was Joseph L. Mankiewicz and he was known for making classics, and Cleopatra continues the trend. It is not a story of the collapse of the Roman Empire, not a Cleopatra love story but a romance embodied in Ancient Rome, politicians, emperors, and theatric concepts.

The ‘Cleopatra’ movie has been edited in three different ways, the first being 246 minutes long, the second 192 minutes long, and the last somewhere in the middle. Fortunately, the restored version that is available on this Blu-ray release is the one that had its world premiere across New York and Los Angeles, and was later showcased in theaters across the country. Film collectors remain hopeful that certain sections of the original footage that add up to six hours, are still present but the chances of finding them at this stage are rather unfathomable. ‘Cleopatra’ focuses on passion with the lovers’ quarrels, and mellow arguments taking priority that would have typically been complemented by dramatic fight sequences, rather than the other way around.

Mankiewicz has such a misconception as screenwriting is all action-centric being the co-author here, there are also some more emotional tasks he had to manage simply consider ‘A Letter to Three Wives’ or ‘All About Eve’. One can definitely assert for those times, a more thoughtful coverage of ‘Cleopatra,’ as Mankiewicz did, was rather novel. The dialogue might be basic English but since this is a historic drama, the environment feels rather artificial and elaborate. The trademark Mankiewicz wit is unfortunately in short supply and much to one’s disappointment, there’s lots of absence of such traceable detail in his previous stitches.

More comic dialogue and quips would definitely ease the burdening weight of the epic and make it more digestible.

With Elizabeth Taylor’s fantastic mammary glands stealing the show, ‘Cleopatra’ is an account of seduction, betrayal, manipulation and depression with its fair share of political intrigue that never quite fails the script. Even if Mankiewicz tries to salvage history and make a sound script out of it, there are several factors vying for our attention, such as Taylor’s outrageous costumes, her thousands of prancing extras, instead of the deep-seated issues of politics and power which the plot is centered on. Alliances between Rome and Egypt, and Caesar’s blind zeal look rather small when matched with the all consuming craving of Antony and Cleopatra or their ‘Romeo and Juliet’ kind of last goodbyes.

Clearly, ‘Cleopatra’ will go down in history as the film that brought Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton together in an incendiary love affair that led to the collapse of their respective marriages, earned the Pope’s condemnation of ‘erotic vagrancy,’ and became ‘le scan dale’ in the eyes of a rampantly prying international press. Although it helped the film’s marketing strategy and certainly contributed to its returns, the relationship further obfuscates the better elements of ‘Cleopatra.’

Anyway, Burton does not seem more than a five minute wonder in the first half of the film which may be why it is more appealing to me than the muddied second part. Although the exploring and outwitting between Taylor’s Cleopatra and Harrison’s Caesar is quite credible and funny, the second half of the movie more or less becomes a Liz and Dick show by accident. There is an unmistakable sexual chemistry between the two which is delicious to behold, but all the other drama which was supposed to be off-screen is quite hard to ignore at times, making it harder to focus on the characters rather than the people who play them.

Taylor’s all-time favorites, however, still remain as her best two, that is, Maggie in ‘Cat on a Hot Tin Roof’ and Martha in ‘Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf?’, with integrated Best Actress award that followed her other similar win. Still, it is without doubt one role above all others that draws the most controversy and headlines when the name Liz Taylor is mentioned Cleopatra. Unfortunately, it is not even her most brilliant performance.

Where in such instances acting takes a backseat, in her case the magic of style, beauty and sensuality speak volumes and this in many ways makes up for her lackadaisical performance. This Cleopatra is actually what every man’s wish would be during the era when women were blessed with physically enticing structures and the likes of Taylor as Cleopatra’s character in the modern era is hard to find as the curves are hardly perceived as appealing nowadays.

Harrison sees the very image of Leopoldo who is not crowned King and upset that his accomplishment may elude him again, is also haughty enough, and Burton does not seem like a harsh Antony with Thomas hints of Welsh tempers. While Roddy McDowell plays Antony’s nemesis, Emperor Octavian, Martin Landau serves as Antony’s faithful accomplice Ruffio and Hume Cronyn takes the role of Cleopatra’s pedagogy Sosigenes most excellently.

I had a good laugh at the sight of Carroll O’Connor in a toga portraying other Ate Council. I wonder if he tried to take God’s Seat during the ‘Shining’ majority of women actually had great seats.

Today, ‘Cleopatra’ has high status among the great spectacles of Hollywood. It is hard to remain indifferent towards this four-hour long motion picture due to its sets, costumes, vastness, style, cinematography, and other details. And to cap it all, there’s fine acting and a literate screenplay to go with all those wonderful, technical aspects of the picture. However, there is a little problem about the way the movie was made that overshadows the efforts of its stars, Taylor and Burton, quite a lot.

‘Cleopatra’ is brought down from her pedestal by clumsy direction, slow rhythm and a certain amount of excess, but these, unlike an asp nibbling at her breast, do not manage to extinguish her completely. One can use the phrase, ‘Cleopatra lives on’, and for good reason since she is likely to enchant generations of movie ‘gaze, many of whom will have participated in the steadfast ‘Gaze’s’ enormously gratifying and fulfilling romantic dream’.

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