| Overall Grade: |
F |
|
| Story: |
D- |
|
|
| Acting: |
C |
|
|
| Direction: |
F |
|
|
| Visuals: |
B- |
|
|
"I can see nothing but you."
by Blanche Rose (movies profile)
Jun 26, 2009
2
of
2 people found this review helpful
You would think that a movie starring Richard Burton and Elizabeth Taylor at a time when they were they had just met, and were just falling in love, starring in an opulent tale of CLEOPATRA (considered by some to be second only to Romeo and Juliet in romantic scope) would've been outstanding.
That's what I was expecting when I rented it.
I remembered seeing a movie Cleopatra when I was eight years old that was just terrific, and thought this was the one.
I mean what other one could there be right?
The movie one five Oscars and is known to everyone to be one of the biggest productions in Hollywood history.
I was, therefore, horribly disappointed to find that this WASN'T the version I had seen as a child, but a completely different one which portrayed Cleopatra not as a classy seductress, but as a vane, spoiled, narcissistic wench with illusions of divine grandeur.
Let me just take a time out to say that the 1934 version directed by Cecil B. DeMille and starring Claudette Colbert is spectacular, and should never be forgotten.
I'd recommend that version any day of the week to those who to see a story about Cleopatra done right. (It was the version I saw originally).
This version, (whom I'm sure everyone thinks is the ultimate version) is the biggest mess, Hollywood ever got itself into.
The movie itself nearly bankrupted 20th Century Fox with its $44 million dollar production (the equivalent, I've read, of $297 million in today's dollars).
The producers first mistake was to fire the movie's original director Rouben Mamoulian, who had in mind an African American actress for the film's lead role, and had already shot $5 million dollars worth of film, all of which had to be thrown out when the film's new director (the -in my opinion- incompetent Joseph L. Mankiewicz) came on the scene.
Not to mention all the intracate costumes and sets that had to be RECONSTRUCTED twice (once in London, and once in Rome, where they re-located).
Shouldn't it be obvious London is not a suitable place to shoot a re-production of Ancient Egypt?!
More money down the drain.
Someone clearly had a crush on Elizabeth Taylor and this showed throughout the whole movie.
She wore a different costume in every scene, and the script was written specifically so could bask in her own glory, calling herself things like Isis and the Nile, and eclipsing everyone else who I don't think appreciated having their hard work turned in to Liz Taylor's fashion show.
Rex Harrison as Julius Ceasar is the only actor worth noting...In fact he's the only person who brought anything to this fiasco.
His character was well-scripted, funny and mature, (which I think he had something to do with).
His performance was the only reason I gave the acting a C instead of a D- which is what I was planning to do.
The acting,is not the worst I've ever seen, but the chemistry that you would expect Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton to have, simply isn't there.
They sleep-walk through the bad dialogue the script has provided with no real fire or passion to compensate, and -if you ask me- Richard Burton sort of looks disgusted (as does the rest of the cast)with Elizabeth Taylor's preening.
Elizabeth Taylor (who nearly died during the production of Cleopatra, and was awarded a record setting $1 million dollars in her contract...which later swelled to $7 million due to production delays) was, in my opinion, a very bad choice for the role of Cleopatra.
She does not look Egyptian, she does not have that exotic Egyptian prescence, nor is she regal as a Queen should be.
She is instead hopelessly enamoured with HERSELF, a fact which seeped through every pore of this production.
The movie is way too long, and I was appalled to learn that Mankiewicz WANTED the film to be restored to a director's cut (6 hours instead of only four), and for what?
There was no plot to begin with and the Roman's reason for going to war was just plain stupid.
They go to war because Antony wants to be buried in Alexandria? Give me a break!
It is equally implausable that Marc Antony, a high ranking official in the Roman government, would throw everything away for the likes of what the Egyptian Queen was in this movie
"I can see nothing but you." Marc says to his beloved.
Apparantely Cleopatra can see nothing but herself either. That's the whole problem. |
My Public Profile 
