Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Approaching a legendary film from a fresh perspective is difficult, if not impossible. In the case of Cleopatra, this is particularly true, because it is possibly, at once, the most famous and infamous film ever produced by Hollywood. Our previous, individual viewings of Cleopatra include full-screen, truncated televisions versions, with and without commercials. We greatly anticipated the opportunity to see the four-hour cut of this movie in widescreen, featuring the highly-touted digital sound and image transfers.

We were in no way disappointed by this release.

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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If one can separate from the myriad back stories of this film that include the Taylor-Burton affair, the bankruptcy of 20th Century Fox, the production problems, the expense, the editing controversy, and on and on… Cleopatra is a stunning film, featuring fabulous performances by credible stars, astounding sets and locations, a literate, engaging story and dizzying attention to detail. Cleopatra was nominated for nine Academy Awards® (should have been more) and won four for its technical achievements. So, the question is: Why is Cleopatra not on anyone's lists of the great films of all time?

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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After viewing the film in one sitting, watching the included documentary (Cleopatra: The Film that Changed Hollywood), listening to the full-length commentaries—we have concluded that the answer lies with the much bemoaned editing controversy. Originally conceived by director-writer Joseph L. Mankiewicz as two, three-hour movies, Cleopatra was cut first to four hours (and later to three hours in theaters). Much discussion has been made over what parts of the final film were lost in those deep, atrocious cuts, and if they still exist today.

Victims of the editing process were scenes of Rome and Egypt that would have taken the story further, beyond the scenes of conversations between the main characters. Another victim was the subtle shadings that the supporting characters provided. Martin Landau (Rufio) mentions in the commentary that Mankiewicz told him that he had enough cut footage to make a movie called "The Further Adventures of Octavian and Rufio." Both Landau and Roddy McDowall, who played Octavian, were considered as potential Best Supporting Actor candidates. But as the edit diminished their parts, this potential "dried up." Other actors lost major screen time and many scenes were reduced to what are referred to as "a series of entrances and exits."

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Another important victim of the editing was the character of Marc Antony, portrayed by Richard Burton. Robbed of the supporting foils of Rufio as his conscience and Octavian as his adversary, the weaknesses of Antony's character have been transferred by critic after critic into the weaknesses of Burton the actor—and wrongly so. Burton's performance is multi-layered and terribly revealing, as the man who would be Caesar, but lost an empire to Octavian, a man he found contemptible.

This points to the ultimate victim of the chop-shop editing enforced by Fox executive Darryl Zanuck: the vision of director Mankiewicz. He wrote and filmed a powerful depiction of a magnificent leader, Julius Caesar, in the first half of the film, followed by the battle for his legacy between Octavian and Antony. This battle—with its compelling drama of an East of Eden in which the sons compete for the legacy of the father—is the story of the second half of Cleopatra. Instead, we are left with two disparate halves that seem what they are: truncated and spliced. The character of Caesar overwhelms the character of Antony in parallel, and the conflict with Octavian is a subplot to the love story of Antony and Cleopatra, when it should be the other way around.

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Hopefully, this DVD release and the resulting re-examination of Cleopatra will spark a renewed interest in the films of Joseph Mankiewicz, who helmed some great films including All About Eve, Guys and Dolls, Julius Caesar, The Barefoot Contessa, The Quiet American, Suddenly Last Summer and Sleuth.

So, what do we have left in these four hours of a six-hour extravaganza?

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Cleopatra tells the story of the great Egyptian queen, the last descendant of the young Greek hero-king, Alexander the Great. Ambitious as she is beguiling, the young Cleopatra wrests the throne from her brother with the aid of the Roman Dictator, Julius Caesar and in return gives him the one thing he lacked: a son and heir. Caesar, however, has a Roman wife, and the Senate is not happy when he puts her aside to welcome his non-Roman queen and illegitimate son, in an extravagant ceremony, to Rome. With Caesar demanding to be named "Emperor" of Rome, the Senators' displeasure turns into treachery: Caesar is assassinated, and Cleopatra must flee Rome to save herself and her young son, Caesarian.

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Mankiewicz's screenplay for Cleopatra is marvelous invention. Writing about these historical, gargantuan characters is never easy; it is so difficult to portray them in situations that are mundane. In this case he also takes on the daunting task of tackling a subject that has been covered extensively through history by such venerated authors as Plutarch, Shakespeare and George Bernard Shaw. There are so many finely-crafted touches included in this story: Caesar nervously snapping at Rufio's joke as he awaits word of Cleopatra in childbirth; the mute body servant to Caesar, Flavius, has some marvelous scenes without saying a word, including a poignant moment at the end of the first act when he cries on the scaffold as the body of Caesar is burned in a funeral pyre. Another parallel is Octavian lying face down on his cot with sea-sickness during the Battle of Actium, compared with Antony's swilling wine as he charged futilely into battle on his own ship. The jewels of great storytelling are too numerous to count.

When Antony needs Cleopatra's wealth to help him in his struggle for control of the empire, he is forced to complete a treaty with Egypt that cedes parts of Rome's conquered territory to Egypt and thus provokes war with Octavian, Caesar's heir under Roman law. Even though the relationship between Antony and Cleopatra is complicated with memories of Caesar, physical attraction and world politics, they hopelessly fall in love. Together, they try to realize Caesar's dream of uniting the world as one, but this throws them directly in the path of Octavian's ambition to be Emperor and Rome's domination of the known world.

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The film features three remarkable performances in the lead roles. Elizabeth Taylor is at the height of her powers in this long, exhaustive role. She never fails to be fascinating in her portrayal and, in some scenes, is breathtakingly beautiful. She manages to raise the character above melodrama and evoke the legendary woman of intelligence, beauty and sexuality that history tells us Cleopatra was. It is impossible to put her performance into a two-line capsule as so many critics have when reviewing this film. Taylor is engaging with naïveté as the youthful Cleopatra seducing the most powerful man in the world, Julius Caesar. And she is just as beguiling as the more experienced and knowledgeable queen, attempting to capture the Roman world with Antony. Her love of both the older, philosophical Caesar and the virile warrior Antony is palpably real and shaded with astounding complexity, despite the glare cast by the cut scenes of story development, character and transition. Taylor was not nominated for Best Actress in 1964 when the statuette went to Patricia Neal for Hud. The other nominees that year were Shirley MacLaine (Irma la Douce), Leslie Caron (The L-Shaped Room), Natalie Wood (Love with the Proper Stranger) and Rachel Roberts (This Sporting Life). All fine actresses in fine roles, but still….

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Burton's Antony is a flawed man of great charm and charisma. He is out of his depth in the battle for the empire and he knows it. But still, despite his misgivings, he straps on his armor and does battle with Octavian for domination of the known world. He cleaves to Cleopatra with a love beyond what mere mortals can know: their love literally shakes the world. There is no doubt that Burton maintains fidelity with director Mankiewicz's vision, even when he must have known that his performance would not sit well with audiences, who generally prefer their heroes with a little less humanity and dimension. Antony's development from the brash, dynamic general under Caesar to the self-pitying, self-destructive Pro-Consul of Rome is terrifying to watch. Burton's history with Oscar is not a pretty one, and this is another sad chapter-no nomination for him, either.

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Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar did garner one of Cleopatra's nominations as Best Actor (ultimately losing to Sidney Poitier's performance in Lilies of the Field) and the recognition is well-deserved. The intelligence of his Caesar, the wit, the bravery are all so right on that it would be difficult to imagine any one else in the role. It is rare for an actor to bring such humanity to the portrayal of such a monumental, historical figure from the lively, braggadocio of Caesar to his paternal pride in his young son and new wife, to his final days, striving vainly to be acknowledged as the king of Rome.

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In notable supporting roles are experienced actors that add shades of meaning to the complex, intelligent script by Mankiewicz, who literally wrote the screenplay as the movie was being filmed. McDowall's Octavian is the evil opposite of Antony with his sneering superiority, simpering cowardice and blatant scheming. His performance is the single greatest acting casualty of the editing cuts. In proper perspective, his role should have been worthy of Oscar consideration. Landau's Rufio is reduced to often standing just behind Caesar or staring at Anthony, and he tragically loses the crucial development of his character as loyal General to Caesar, who then transfers his loyalty to Anthony. There is an important accent to the story with the characters of Agrippa (Andrew Keir) who, also a loyal General to Caesar, joins Octavian's side and another loyal aide of Caesar's, Germanicus, who opposes Octavian on the floor of the Senate. Hume Cronyn as Sosigenes, Herbert Berghoff as Theodotus, Cesaré Danova as Appolodorus, Kenneth Haigh as Brutus, and Michael Hordern as Cicero all turn in fine (if truncated) performances, hinting at what could have been.

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Other character notes: 16-year-old Francesca Annis, later to become a highly-respected English actress, appears as one of Cleopatra's handmaidens. Another respected English actress, Jean Marsh, appears uncredited in one scene as Octavia, the sister of Octavian; Desmond Llewelyn, who later became famous as "Q" in the James Bond series, plays a Roman Senator, also uncredited.

At 1964's Academy Awards, Cleopatra did take home four awards: Best Art Direction - Set Decoration, Color; Best Cinematography, Color; Best Costume Design, Color; Best Effects, Special Visual Effects. Ironically, Cleopatra was accorded a Best Film Editing nomination in the name of Dorothy Spencer. Other nominations included: Best Sound, Best Music, Score - Substantially Original and Best Picture (the winner would be Tom Jones). The technical achievements of Cleopatra are well-archived in the supplemental documentary and featurette on the third disc of the set. This release marvelously displays those achievements and more. A film like this will never be made again, because instead of building the elaborately ornate, full-scale sets, these wondrous feats of Hollywood talent (and extravagance) will be computer-generated.

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Hollywood epics are an acquired taste, especially the genre known as "sword and sandals." Often resulting in wooden acting and bad costumes, these films have lurked in the B-Movie sections of video stores for years. There has been a revival of the genre by the success of the Academy Award-winning 2000 release, Gladiator. Cleopatra is certainly the greatest of this genre both in its quality and scope. In some ways, it competes as one of the greatest Hollywood films ever made because of its unique history, and its exemplification of "Hollywood Magic."

This DVD is a cinematic document of a time long past when studios ruled and movies were made a certain way. The structure of the movie lends itself well to the two-disc format, unlike Ben-Hur, where most of the movie is on one disc and the chariot race sequence is on the other. We both agree there is a large audience out there who has never seen this picture in any condition approaching its original conception. Watching Cleopatra in this form is an enjoyable experience and we look forward to the release of the full-version…if it still exists.

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Cleopatra may not be one of the top 25 films of all time, but this DVD release is certainly one of the best yet in this young medium. The marvelous digital transfer and the fascinating, informative extras combine to make this a must for any DVD collection. Bring in the friends and family, pop in disc one, cue up Cleopatra's grand procession into Rome and remind them this is not CGI!

digitallyOBSESSED!com

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Cleopatra (1963) [3-Disc Special Edition]

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Special Features:
DISC ONE:
- The Film (part 1, 01:59:27)
- Commentary By: Chris Mankiewicz, Tom Mankiewicz, Martin Landau and Jack Brodsky
- THX Certified

DISC TWO:
- The Film (part 2, 02:09:13)
- Commentary By: Chris Mankiewicz, Tom Mankiewicz, Martin Landau and Jack Brodsky
- THX Certified

DISC THREE:
- Behind-the-Scenes Documentary: "Cleopatra: The Film That Changed Hollywood" (01:58:59)
- 1963 Featurette: "The Fourth Star Of Cleopatra" (09:19)
- Archival Footage from New York and Hollywood Premiere
- Extensive Still Gallery with Behind-the-Scenes Photos
- Costume Sketches
- Concept Art and More
- Trailers