Julius Caesar (1953)

User Rating:

7.4/10   

Director:

Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Writer:

William Shakespeare (play)

Release Date:

4 June 1953 (USA)

Genre:

Drama | History

Plot:

The assassination of the would be ruler of Rome at the hands of Brutus and company has tragic consequences for the idealist and the republic.

Plot Keywords:

Murder | Roman | Assassination | Ghost | Soothsayer

Awards:

Won Oscar. Another 5 wins & 6 nominations

Cast

Marlon Brando	...	Mark Antony
James Mason	...	Brutus
John Gielgud	...	Cassius
Louis Calhern	...	Julius Caesar
Edmond O'Brien	...	Casca
Greer Garson	...	Calpurnia
Deborah Kerr	...	Portia
George Macready	...	Marullus
Michael Pate	...	Flavius
Richard Hale	...	Soothsayer
Alan Napier	...	Cicero
John Hoyt	...	Decius Brutus
Tom Powers	...	Metellus Cimber
William Cottrell	...	Cinna
Jack Raine	...	Trebonius

Also Known As:

William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar

Runtime:

120 min

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Black and White | Black and White (tinted) (1969 UK re-release)

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono (Western Electric Sound System) (original release)

Certification:

Australia:PG | Finland:K-8 | Spain:13 | Sweden:15 | USA:Approved (PCA #16281)

Filming Locations:

Bronson Caves, Bronson Canyon, Griffith Park - 4730 Crystal Springs Drive, Los Angeles, California, USA

Company:

Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM)

Trivia:

John Gielgud was cast after director Joseph L. Mankiewicz saw him play Cassius in a stage production at Stratford-on-Avon. Mankiewicz was in Stratford to see Paul Scofield, whom he was considering casting as Marc Antony, until Marlon Brando's screen test turned out so well.

Goofs:

Anachronisms: A well-known bust of the Emperor Hadrian is prominently seen during the early dialog between Cassius and Brutus and, later, at Brutus' villa (both Cassius and Portia actually touch them). Hadrian wasn't Emperor for more than 120 years after the time in which the film takes place.

Quotes:

Marc Antony: Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears; I come to bury Caesar, not to praise him. The evil that men do lives after them, The good is oft interred with their bones; So let it be with Caesar.

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Halálos halál (2004)

"Ah, how you weep"

50 years after the fact, the most interesting angle on Mankiewicz' 'Julius Caesar' is perhaps the blend of acting styles that characterizes it. With Mankiewicz dialogue is all, and it is a source of endless fascination to me how he manages to make this a uniformly brilliantly acted film.

Mankiewicz doesn't strive to open up the play and make it naturalistic, but he does allow his camera to roam freely, creating space around his characters. But it is in his directing of the actors that he excels, the way that he shows the fragile dynamics in the crowd of conspirators before and after their stabbing of Caesar even more than in the famous monologues. Will history frown upon them? Or applaud their act? "That we shall die, we know", all else is uncertain.

Of course the key scene of the film and Shakespeare's play, takes place right after Caesar's assassination. The rabble has gathered at the Capitol to hear Brutus explain himself, and James Mason, in a refreshingly un-actorish way, beautifully defends Brutus the well-intentioned butcher, laying bare the dilemma of the noble assassin. It was "not that I loved Caesar less, but that I loved Rome more", and he sways the crowd with his rhetoric.

Then Brando takes the floor, speaking up for his benefactor, the slain Caesar: "Friend, Romans and countrymen, lend me your ear", he says, having carried the bloodied corpse out in his arms. His speech gradually builds in momentum, and the sheer excitement of watching Brando's performance today is reason enough to watch the film. How elegantly, deftly he speaks treason against Brutus and the new would-be rulers. "They are honourable men", he says, and the discrete colouring of the adjective makes it obvious how Mark Anthony really feels about it. "If you have tears, prepare to shed them now" indeed. There are layers in Brando's performance that warrants more than one viewing, just the tolerant half-smile when he is playing the rabble for suckers. "Ah, how you weep". His unfathomable half-smile turns up again near the end, and it speaks volumes.

Of course, John Gielgud as Cassius is volatile and very rooted in the British thespian tradition which doesn't lend itself easily to film in my opinion. Film actor Edmond O'Brien is great as the ambitious and untrustworthy Casca, but unfortunately the women have little to do. Brutus' wife Portia is played by Deborah Kerr who never looked more stunning than here, and she delivers her few lines with conviction. Greer Garson is Caesar's wife, warning him against making an appearance at the Capitol on the fateful day, but she is hardly given any screen-time.

The film is not the last word in Shakespeare in any sense of the word, but it is entertaining and true to what it sets out to do. And the acting styles blend together wonderfully.