Customer Reviews

Cleopatra

5 star:		(40)
4 star:		(25)
3 star:		(14)
2 star:		(11)
1 star:		(18)

 

 

This is an excellent, high budget made-for-TV project which ranks up there with "Odysseus," "Merlin," "Joan Of Arc" and "Jason And The Argonauts" in quality. In my mind, it is the most well-done film of them all.

The movie concentrates on Cleopatra's rise to power as well as her liasons with Julius Caesar and Mark Anthony. Timothy Dalton, in particular, gives a standout performance as the proud Julius. The sets are lavish and the film is very panoramic. Although not too much of the outside of ancient Rome is seen, the set designers did a superb (not to mention expensive) job of re-creating ancient Alexandria.

As with most films which try to cover as much ground as "Cleopatra," there is some fudging of history. For example, Octavion (later to be known as Caesar Augustus) was NOT in Rome prior to the assasination of his uncle. It was not until after the assasination that he stepped inside the walls of Rome (he was named by Julius as his chief heir). The most egregious fudging is a scene in which Octavion is let in on the conspiracy of Brutus & Cassius to assasinate Julius. I do not think this was necessary and most assuredly is not something Octavion would have allowed to happen, had he been aware of the plot. Also, in the struggle for power after the death of Julius, there was (for a short time) a triumverate: Octavion, Mark Anthony (Antonius) and Lepidus. Lepidus is not mentioned and the film leads one to believe the struggle was only between Octavion and Mark Anthony.

It may sound as though I'm being nit-picky and intentionally trying to find fault with this movie. I am not. In fact, I can see why they chose to gloss over most of the historical details I mentioned. First of all, if they had chosen to go for veracity as far as Octavion is concerned, they would have had to have gone one of two ways. Either they would have had to add another half hour or so to introduce his character, studying in Appollonia, or they would have had to have seemingly made his character appear "out of the blue" after Caesar's murder. I believe the way they did it was better, for the sake of pragmatism. After all, this movie is supposed to be about Cleopatra, not Octavion. Also, Lepidus was a very minor character & quickly dropped out of the triumverate. He was irrelevant to the "scheme of things" insofar as Octavion & Anthony were concerned. The only issue I take umbrage with is the scene where Octavion is told of the plot to slay Caesar, and does nothing about it. That not only did not happen, it could not have happened, given the closeness he shared with his uncle.

The movie does a wonderful job of making allusions to many historical nuances, such as the Lighthouse of Alexandria (one of the 7 Wonders of the World), the library of Alexandria and the Julian Calendar. The film contains a very ambitious staging of the Battle of Actium as well. There is also a wonderful scene in which Mark Anthony holds up the bloodied robes in of Julius at the Caesar's funeral. That is a historical fact & is what drove the masses into a rage (and also drove Brutus and Cassius out of Rome).

This is a very tasteful and well done movie. I would highly recommend it to all fans and historians of antiquity. This one is a can't miss. Also, for those who enjoy this project, I would advocate the BBC production of "I, Claudius" starring Derek Jacoby. It picks up about 20 years later and is a wonderful series to be seen in tandem with the present movie.

This happens to be one of my favorite times in history, and I have read alot about it. Now, I wasn't going into this movie expecting historical correctness, but neither was I expecting a whiney, bratty Cleopatra either. Timothy Dalton does a passable to good job on his portrayal of Julius Caesar. As does Billy Zane with Marc Antony (historical correctness aside). But I have to draw the line at the absolutely horrid job that was done by Leonor Varela as Cleopatra. I'm not sure if it was the acting, her direction, or the script, but her part in this movie really ruined it for me. Cleopatra was an intelligent, and politically adept woman. Her leadership of Egypt kept them from becoming just another Roman province in a time when the Republic was gobbling up land and peoples as fast as it could march their legions. Quite an amazing feat for a woman in ancient times. Not only did she capture the attention and favor of one powerful Roman general (Caesar), but two (Antony). Was this love? Or was it the maneuvering of a wise leader? Maybe it was both. I read the novel this movie was based on. It was excellent. This movie...was not.

As a lover of ancient history, I was excited to watch yet ANOTHER film on the life of Cleopatra. This film is extremely glamourous, and seems as if it follows the script of an ancient soap opera rather than the life of the last queen of ancient Egypt. The filmmakers obviously didn't create this to be a factual account of Cleo's life. The acting by Billy Zane (Antony) and Timothy Dalton (Caesar) was very good, and Lenor Varella (Cleopatra) provides a good show, if you like passion and overdone drama. If you want to see a fictionalized and modern televison view of Cleopatra's life, than this is your movie, but the Cleopatra movie starring Elizabeth Taylor is far superior.

...

Timothy Dalton did give an excellant portrayal of Julius Caesar and did his best with the script he had to work from. Billy Zane was better than adequate, but suspect strongly that the women viewers enjoyed his portrayal more than the male viewers did. That's okay, because I enjoyed watching Leonor more than I imagine most women did. LOL I do think she's blamed for a poor performance when the fault was quite likely more with the script than her acting. She's no Elizabeth Taylor or Claudette Colbert, but I thought she was adequate for a TV portrayal.

I give this three stars because it didn't strike me as a BAD movie. And for those really devoted to different versions of Cleopatra's life will want it. There's enough sex and violence to titilate those looking for that.

However, I believe that most viewers will find either the Elizabeth Taylor or Claudette Colbert versions more worthwhile.

I have to say this would have to be My favorite Hallmark classic with The Oddysey a close second...

Timothy Datlton plays in My oppinion the best Julius Ceaser ever on film. Tough, Hard, War like but diplomatic and fair stratigic witty and powerful, just like the Romans in history were who achieved greatness. Billy Zane plays a near perfect Mark Anthony who was truely loyal to Ceaser till the death, but was afriad to walk in His shoes of greatness knowing he was only just a man, not Ceaser Himself.

Plus, both got to have make out scenes with Leonor Varela which makes them Both pretty lucky in their own right >:)~

Leonor Varela Plays a supurb Cleopatra who is cunning, coniving, and plotting, and also very very crafty with many resources which she uses on film with good talent.

The Hallmark version does an excellent job with entertaining but also teaching a story behind it all, not to mention one of the best old Roman Battle scences with Timothy Dalton defending Egypt. The first time I watched that I had to reverse My dvd a few times just to watch it over again, the battles were awsome =)

I just only wish Hallmark Classic would have a movie/story/documentry as such all dedicated exclusivly about Constantinople but who knows? Hallmark is definatly on a roll!

Enjoy!

This is such a prime example of how history reduces the greatest female rulers to spoiled helpless children, nagging wives, or brazen whores. In this movie, she is portrayed as all of the above.

For those of you unaware, Cleopatra was a wise and regal ruler, a brilliant economist, an astute strategist, a clever risk-taker, a highly educated author, and the ultimate self-marketer. Nearly every book and movie skips over the eight languages she spoke, the social programs she enacted. They assume that her only achievement was to be born a great beauty and a base courtesan. In reality any sex appeal she had was not to be found in the face fate bestowed on her -- the rare images of her depict her as having a huge beaked nose, a sharp chin, and a thick neck. It was her personality, her wit, her brilliance in seduction, her skill with makeup, and her ability to create an aura around herself that made her such a lethal enchantress. Despite her gender, she used what few weapons society would allow her to save her country.

The Cleopatra in this movie was a stomping, petulant child, foolish and brash. Instead of a shrewd woman who used her brain to save her nation by driving a great conquerer to sensual submission, in this movie her brash folly is barely contained by Ceasar, who acts as her mentor.

We can say with a degree of legitimacy that Cleopatra was a parasite, that she was a sociopath, that she was a murderer.

But nobody who knows anything about Cleopatra would ever consent to portray her as an empty-headed bimbo unless they were blatantly, deliberately ignoring the facts in favor of a version that would be more palatable to a sex-obsessed patriarchal culture.

Even today, we just cannot abide a powerful woman (let alone an ugly one) and must belittle her achievements this way.

This production of Cleopatra, intended originally as a miniseries on television, is a reasonably good production with significant differences from the block-buster Hollywood version starring Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton and Rex Harrison. Cleopatra here is depicted as someone striving to maintain her own position, not necessarily someone with an eye toward world-wide conquest. Cleopatra is portrayed as an inexperienced person (both sexually and politically) until tutored by the more experienced Romans. She comes to understand her fate is inextricably intertwined with Caesar, then Antony, but her love for Antony keeps her from making the politically expedient move of giving in to Octavian. Apparently two Roman rulers are enough for one lifetime.

Like the earlier film production, this one plays fast and loose with the actual history, albeit in different ways. The figure of Octavian/Augustus is far more present earlier here than he was in history; for a production that goes on the greater part of three hours, remarkably little detail about the history is brought forward, and I found that distracting. The last hour could have easily been recut into a half-hour, and some judicious editing throughout the rest of the film could make it into a much better paced two-hour film.

The acting was tolerable but generally unconvincing. Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar, Billy Zane (who got top billing) as Marc Antony, and Rupert Graves as Octavian were not up to their usual acting standards in this production. Dalton was not very expressive, and Zane and Graves were overly so (Graves plays an almost flippant character, not at all in keeping with the historical Augustus). Ironically, the title character Cleopatra was played by relative newcomer Leonor Varela, who was probably the best actor in the piece.

The sets are great, as are the costumes (if not always appropriate - Cleopatra rarely wore Egyptian garb, preferring her more native Greek), and the music is worthwhile. The battle scenes are pretty typical television fare (with occasional glitches that make these seem more minor skirmishes than great battles). Unfortunately, the sea-going scenes of ships looked far too obviously fake to suspend disbelief.

This is a pleasant diversion, but in the end not a truly memorable production save for bits and pieces here and there. But it is a good thing that such productions are still being undertaken.

I orginally saw this movie on tv but I missed a lot of it. I was really interested in seeing the entire movie so I bought the DVD. Trust me it was worth it. I love the costumes that they used in the movie and Leonor Varela isa great actress. She was perfect for the role as Cleopatra. I recommend this movie to everyone.

The story of Cleopatra is one full of adventure, romance and killing, unfortunately this video shows those things too well. We got this video in hopes it would be educational and entertaining but the results we found were slightly different. The movie contains graphic killing, brief nudity and unappropriate situations. The movie however, is one that was very well made. I just wish they could have rated it and not left it to the viewer's discretion. In my rating system this movie would be between PG-13 and R. This movie is excellent, but just has a few flaws. So if kids are going to watch this make sure they have extreme parental guidance.

Cleopatra, sheds light one of the most well known historical figures of all time.
It is a rather long movie, approximately 3 hours, but that is to be expected considering who the movie is about.

Overall, the acting is above average, with the highlights being Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane portraying Julius Caesar and the Roman General (and later Consul) Marc Anthony respectively.

On the negative side the lead actress, though attractive and revealing (well done!) was not really the best choice for Cleopatra since her acting abilities are not that great. In addition, the child playing her brother, Ptolemy, was a terrible choice; overweight with a blank/moronic look on his face.
Furthermore, the movie lacks that special something that Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton had in the 1963 film "Cleopatra" to push it over the top.

In a nutshell, though not a masterpiece, Cleopatra will surely provide for an evening's entertainment. It is a movie definitely worth watching, especially for those with a soft spot for History and all things Roman.