Julius Caesar Rating: Sorry, this product is not currently available. Cast: Louis Calhern James Mason Marlon Brando

Julius Caesar Reviews

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A PRODUCTION WORTHY OF AN EMPEROR
Restrained, stately, dramatic, intelligent and powerful--all these adjectives and more apply to "William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar," a genuine triumph not only on the part of director Joseph Mankiewicz (whose command of tone and atmosphere is nearly flawless here) but for the entire cast and crew. Marlon Brando is justifiably most often singled out for his herculean performance as Mark Antony, and his impassioned speech to the people of Rome, in which he alternately succumbs to grief for Caesar and thirst for power, is Oscar material all on its own. But the other actors shine too: Louis Calhern is an arrogant but affable Caesar blind to his encroaching doom as great leaders so often are; James Mason captures the ultimate pathos that Brutus should embody; Deborah Kerr wins my heart if not Brutus's as Portia; and John Gielgud is the oily, corrupt serpent in the midst of the false Eden that was Rome, and almost implodes before our very eyes with envy and frustration. All in evocative sets that are grand enough to please the eye without distracting from the real drama of brilliant actors portraying a brilliant script. A must for Shakespeare fans.

Brando shines as Antony
Julius Caesar (1953) directed by Joseph Mankiewicz

Forget The Manchurian Candidate, this movie should be required viewing during every campaign season. Watching the mob swayed from one direction to the other first by Brutus' (James Mason) speech and then by Marc Antony's (Marlon Brando) is the best warning there is on the perils of democracy. The same unshaven louts who castigate Caesar during Brutus' speech, lionize him during Antony's. In the end the crowd is whipped into a frenzy of revenge when they hear Caesar left them money and land in his will. In our day this sort of mob control has been replaced with entitlement programs.

Mankiewicz, one of Hollywood's ablest craftsmen, creates a faithful adaptation of this play. One of Shakespeare's most mature and sophisticated tragedies, Julius Caesar is peopled with such complex and subtle characters, we don't know whom to root for. There is no Iago or Richard III to step forward and tell us boldly, "I am a villain." Each of the characters acts for both high and low motivations alike.

Brutus, the noblest and most sympathetic of the characters, battles futilely to save the republic from the inevitable emerging dictatorship. But in spite of his greatness, he is an easy tool for the Machiavellian Cassius (John Gielgud). In a wonderfully nuanced role, Cassius preys on the ambition and vanity Brutus does not even recognize in himself. Cassius, though a callow manipulative bribe-taking scoundrel, can yet be so noble and brave. Shortly before killing himself, he tells his slave he has a final order for him, "Live free." We see beneath his self interest lies a magnanimous heart. In spite of its title, this is not the story of Julius Caesar; his corpse is just the island on which all the other characters fight. Nevertheless, it is an important role. Louis Calhern is too avuncular and fatuous to play the wily Caesar, a puzzling hole in an otherwise fine cast. As an authority figure, Calhern would be perfect to play a dim CEO from a 60's sitcom: Larry Tate of MacMahon and Tate, but not the colossus who bestrides the world. When Caesar tells Antony (Marlon Brando) he trusts only fat, well-fed-looking men, it should seem like a shrewd campaigner passing on a useful observation to a promising up-and-comer, instead it comes off like the loose-lipped worries of a dotard.

A generation of movie viewers familiar with Marlon Brando only as the Godfather or the fat guy who gets it at the end of Apocalypse Now might be puzzled this man was ever considered a sex symbol. "Smouldering sensuality?" What are you talking about? In this movie, though, in which Brando won his third Oscar, we can see what made so many women melt. Before being covered by so much lard, the man had quite a physique and on screen was by turns sensitive and attractively arrogant.

As Mark Antony, his tenderness at the death of his friend, Julius Caesar, is too deep for tears. During his funeral oration, he turns from the crowd to recover himself, overcome with emotion. But Brando is no sissy wimp. Even at that moment of grief, we can see him listening to the crowd's reaction, gauging their response and calculating his next move.

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