Rainey Dawn I personally enjoy this version of Shakespeare's play in film form. It's beautifully filmed, directed, edited, acted out, written and the costuming and the sets are lavish. I feel as if I am taken back to ancient Rome and Egypt, I am also taken back to my childhood.I'm not sure why some have a disdain for it. Some seem to dislike Charlton Heston in this one. To me, he's just as good in this film as any of his other films. But each of us are entitled to have our on opinions about Heston and this film adaptation.I personally feel this film is a worthy entry in to the epic historical drama realm. It's almost up there with Ben-hur and The Ten Commandments.7.5/10

Dan1863Sickles Charlton Heston is my hero, and always will be. But this version of ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA does not belong in his highlights reel, even if he directed and saw it as the highpoint of his career.There are some bright touches. Jane Lapotaire as Charmian is absolutely irresistible -- with her energy, wit, and sense of fun, she steal the picture right out from under the vacant beauty posing as Cleopatra. It's no accident that Jane got to play Cleopatra herself a few years later, and she was sensational! (Colin Blakely was a better Antony, too, much more passionate and emotional than Chuck Heston.) Freddie Jones is funny and poignant as the broken down has-been, Pompey. Historically, Sextus Pompey's father was the supreme ruler in Rome, long before Caesar, Octavian, or Antony. But by now the last of the Pompey dynasty has been reduced to scavenging on the fringes of the empire, running a "navy" that is really a ragtag fleet of pirate ships. Decaying, drunken, and falling to pieces before your eyes, Pompey is the saddest character in the play. Freddie Jones gets that, but still makes the man funny and even noble when it really counts. Great job!Warren "Dim" Clarke will forever be remembered as Malcolm MacDowell's right hand droog in A CLOCKWORK ORANGE. It's a singular pleasure to see him shine in a brief appearance as Scarus, the bravest and most loyal of Antony's soldiers. Watch him emerge from the surf bawling curses at the cowardly Cleopatra, after her ill-timed flight has cost the forces of Antony everything. He projects all the energy, masculinity, and military valor that is missing from the rest of the film. Go Dim Go!Now I love Charlton Heston. When he plays cold, aloof, cynical authority figures, he's the best in the world. But Antony is so many things that Charlton Heston doesn't understand and can't project on the screen. You never see the drunken Antony, the good-time guy who loves getting down and dirty with the soldiers, with the slaves, with whoever is around. You never see the vast appetites of the man, for food or drink or sex or laughter or anything else. You just see this dignified guy who suddenly loses everything in a murky battle scene. And when says the lines, "you knew, Egypt, you knew too well my heart was tied to your rudder," you think, yeah, but we didn't know. You didn't show us that, Chuck. Antony is a brave soldier, but he's also warm, impulsive, sensual, and charming, and those are things you just don't do well on screen.Even the death scene suffers from Chuck's determination to stay in control. Shakespeare chose to show Antony bungle his suicide, so that in his final agony he could be helpless in Cleopatra's arms. But Chuck downgrades the agony to an absurd degree. Antony has been stabbed in the stomach but he just trots over to the monument to say hello! The death scene in THE OMEGA MAN was a lot closer to the mark.

ferdinand1932 This is Shakespeare lite in the sense that the play has been cut to fit a movie, not a play. It has been done quite well and the balance between movie and classic play is well proportioned.Where the movie excels is in the locations, the epic battles and the camera work. It is a very strong production in the Hollywood way. It serves as a fine introduction should anyone wish to experience the original text.The actors are all in good form and make the lines serve their character. The conditional here is Chuck Heston. He is of the Olivier 'ham' school of acting. Each line is painfully rendered, the jaw clenches, the syllables come as if Heston may then expire. There are some parts where he is just fine: the battles, especially but he seems ill at ease compared to the other actors.

Xander Seavy (RiffRaffMcKinley) Unlike some particularly grating Shakespeare adaptations of recent years, Charlton Heston's overlooked "Antony & Cleopatra" manages to work as cinema and as an adaptation of a work by the world's most famous playwright. The production values-- giant panoramas, expensive battle sequences, glorious period costumes-- are staggering, and Heston comports himself quite well in the triple role of screenwriter/director/actor. Not that I intend to use all my Shakespeare film reviews to bash Kenneth Branagh, but compared to Heston, he's awful, unpalatable in all three capacities. He is that anyway, but even Heston's just-decent acting is well balanced by his expert direction of others. The exception to that is Hildegard Neil, an awful Cleopatra. She has zero dignity in the role, and manages to bear a creepy resemblance to "Rock 'n' Roll High School"'s Principal Togar every now and then. John Castle's performance as Caesar is obviously the best in the film, but still doesn't touch Roddy McDowall's bold, furious, intense Octavian in the Liz Taylor mega-film. Comparisons with that other movie are inevitable, and the winner is hands-down the earlier epic. This version is not very well paced, and, let's face it, it wasn't exactly Will's best dialogue. And Hildegard Neil really drags the movie down a bit, although she's not as bad as everyone says. Visually it's majestic, and that John Scott/Augusto Algero score is certainly pleasing to the ears (though it can't rival Alex North's "Cleopatra"). It's okay, but I can't say I recommend it unless you're on a really serious Shakespeare kick and the only other movies available are Branagh's.