Well, the Ides of March has come to General Julius Caesar (Louis Calhern) in Joseph Mankiewicz's 1953 film version of William Shakespeare's play based on the real life Roman figure. The movie is the story of how Julius Caesar met his fate with the Senators whom fears the worst can come to Rome as his dictatorship come into play. Brutus (James Mason) is a man stuck in the middle between his beliefs of being loyal to Caesar and the peer pressures of the Senators lead by Cassius (John Gielgud) whom wants to get rid of Caesar. Brutus emerges as the most complex character in the film and is also the play's tragic hero. In his soliloquies, the audience gains insight into the complexities of his motives. He is a powerful public figure, but he appears also as a husband, a master to his servants, a dignified military leader, and a loving friend. Brutus's rigid idealism is both his greatest virtue and his biggest flaw. Public Self versus Private Self term plays in Brutus's mindset. Much of the play's tragedy stems from the characters' neglect of private feelings and loyalties in favor of what they believe to be the public good. Similarly, characters confuse their private selves with their public selves, hardening and dehumanizing themselves or transforming themselves into ruthless political machines. He wants to do what is good for the people, but questions himself if it means getting rid of the man that help him on the way to power. John Gielgud is magnificent as Cassius, and James Mason is a fine Brutus. But Marlon Brando, more than anyone or anything else, compels attention. Brando's casting was met with some skepticism when it was announced, as he had acquired the nickname of "The Mumbler" following his performance in A Streetcar Named Desire (1951), but he prove them wrong with his role as Mark Antony. Just watch his two speeches. One is the 'Cry Havoc! Let slip the dogs of War' and the other is the speech to the public. Brando had little or no experience with verse, and there are points in this speech where more such experience would have served him well. But his fierce passion transcends all that. Brando's passion surpasses any rules he misses with this piece, this is the type of acting that can excuse the rules of Shakespeare. He is so alive and real you know he created some great circumstances to get through those lines! Antony's rhetoric and delivery is over 9000. Now I see why Marlon Brando was legendary. He is a powerful speaker. There are certain things that the film does do right. Julius Caesar gives detailed consideration to the relationship between rhetoric and power. The ability to make things happen by words alone is the most powerful type of authority. Words also serve to move hearts and minds, as Act III proofs. The movie is powerful, but it's does have faults. One of the biggest things I wish the movie had was color rather than black and white. It's not like they couldn't do it at the time, as many movies were in color. Don't get me wrong, I like Black and white movies, but this movie has an epic Roman Era theme that could have work better than Director Henry Koster's Biblical sword-and-sandal epic The Robe that also came out that year. The Roman Empire in this film seem lost in black and white with its bland look. Technicolor could have the sets, props and costumes and production values would have been shown off to much greater advantage in color, like its predecessor, Quo Vadis (1951). The movie also suffers from a lot of misinterpretations and misreadings that confused the audience with its text. It's really hard to understand what they are saying if one does not read a lot of Shakespeare. Shakespeare did this on purpose, so that confused the characters in the story speaking to each other, but also cause a lot of people to shake their heads wondering what does he mean with that? At less in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, it manage to avoid any cheap good or evil scheme like in Richard III but does justice to all the characters and their motives. I would give it a watch for any Shakespeare fan, but it's not for everybody. Movies like this are acquired taste. No way was it better than Orson Welles's Macbeth, but it's still a great watch.
Review of Julius Caesar
