Lambie Reviews Cleopatra

Year: 1963
Accolades: Nominated for Oscar for Best Picture; One of the Most Expensive Films Ever Made and Nearly Bankrupted 20th Century Fox
Review on Letterboxd: 'Cleopatra' review by Avalanche

This film is agonisingly long, and could very well have done with being about half as long as it is. The film feels like two films mashed together into one long story (and indeed some sources claim that the original intention was to release the story as two films). What's worse, it's arguable that the film's primary focus is even on Cleopatra. At many times she feels much like a secondary character to Caesar and Antony.

It's not too apparent in the first half of the film, dealing with her relationship with Caesar, and indeed it's the first half of the film that is interesting and entertaining. We see the two try to out-wit and out-smart each other to get the upper hand, and neither ever really succeeds. Once they realise they are equals both politically and romantically the story find a natural course to follow until history happens and Caesar is assassinated.

If the film knew what was good for it, it should have ended there.

After that, Antony enters the picture and the film quickly gets bogged down in messy politics, military strategies that are impossible to follow, and much more angry shouting at two people who supposedly love each other. Antony has very little screen-time until after Caesar's death, and when he finally does enter the picture, the character is developed into an arrogant idiot rather than I suppose the flawed man the film is trying to make him out as. Similarly, the wonderful intelligence and grace that Cleopatra develops throughout the first half of the film is thrown out the window and her actions and portrayal in the second half of the film become utterly unlikable.

Ultimately, while the film is quite deserving of the Academy Awards it did eventually win (cinematography, art direction, costume design, and special effects), it still feels like a long haul to get through, which is not what you want from a film. The more memorable sequences (such as the lavish parade entrance of Cleopatra to Rome) add nothing to the advancement of the plot, and the majority of scenes in the second half of the film feel unnecessary. Had the film ended with Caesar's death, it would have been a much more interesting, powerful film with just as much tragedy. Instead we just spend two more hours waiting for everyone else to die as well.