Cleopatra

1999 "Passion. Power. Betrayal."

Cleopatra

6.4 | 2h57m | NR | en | Drama

Cleopatra, the famed Egyptian Queen born in 69 B.C., is shown to have been brought by Roman ruler Julius Caesar at age 18. Caesar becomes sexually obsessed by the 18 year old queen, beds her, and eventually has a son by her. However, his Roman followers and his wife are not pleased by the union. In fact, as Caesar has only a daughter by his wife, he had picked Octavian as his successor. The out-of-wedlock son of Cleopatra is seen to be a threat to his future leadership. Thus Brutus and other Roman legislators plot the assassination of Caesar. Caesar's loyal general, Marc Antony, and Octavian then divide up the Roman empire. Antony takes Egypt and soon takes up the affair with Cleopatra. However, Octavian soon launches an attack on Antony and ultimately defeats and mortally wounds him. Rather than permitting herself to be humiliated by Octavian, Cleopatra sends her son away to India and she commits suicide by permitting the deadly asp to bite her.

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6.4 | 2h57m | NR | en | Drama , History , Romance | More Info

Released: May. 23,1999 | Released Producted By: , Country: United States of America Budget: 0 Revenue: 0 Official Website:

Synopsis

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Cast

David Schofield , Billy Zane , James Cosmo

Director

Franc Roddam

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Trailers & Images

Cast

David Schofield

as Casca

Six Minutes to Midnight Press Darkest Hour Undercover Mindhorn The Great Fire All Things To All Men Lord of Tears Last Passenger

Billy Zane

as Marc Antony

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James Cosmo

as Agrippa

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Reviews

heather pansegrouw If this book remained faithful to the book then we can only assume that the author was ignorant of history. Mark Anthony never died of injuries obtained in battle as depicted. He died a coward's death by committing suicide and even then, he asked his slave to do it for him. The slave chose to kill himself instead. In the real story Mark Anthony was ashamed by the slave's great valor and decided to copy him. But even in death Mark Anthony was a drunken failure and failed at his own suicide attempt. He cried out for Cleopatra and was taken to her, bleeding. She hauled his litter up on ropes and Mark Anthony died a while later. If you want history don't watch this movie. If you want romantic drivel then you will probably enjoy it!

MoneyMagnet This Halmi extravaganza actually has a very promising start with a terrific entrance by Timothy Dalton as Caesar, followed up by a memorable first meeting between him and lovely Leonor Varela as Cleo. Unfortunately it soon goes downhill from there and by the time Cleopatra has consolidated her hold on Egypt we're getting dialogue likeCaesar: "I'm sorry about your library." Cleo, (sighing like she's just scratched off a losing $1 lottery ticket): "Half of it is gone... half the world's knowledge."However if you enjoy cheesy movies with beautiful people declaiming and narrowing their eyes at each other, you could do a lot worse than Billy Zane and Timothy Dalton, who are very much "into it" and who both look breathtakingly manly draped in togas and other bedsheets. (Dalton in particular looks amazingly fit and sexy for a 53-year-old, and it's hard to imagine another actor working today who could be a more commanding Caesar.) Unfortunately Varela's acting is just terrible and, well, the script is just hopeless. It gets slightly better when the plot goes from Egypt to Rome, where everyone speaks in English accents. But none of the acting in this is exactly Oscar caliber, shall we say. Take it for what it is and dig for the guilty pleasures.

kitsilanoca-1 Based on the novel The Memoirs of Cleopatra by Margaret George, this mini-series is an okay adaption of a truly fascinating piece of literature. I think that it gives a fairer portrayal of Cleopatra is important, though Leonor Varela isn't that good an actress. I found her acting so amateurish next to that of Timothy Dalton and Billy Zane; at least she was better than Kassandra Voyagis was as Arsinoe. Also she made Cleopatra seem very childish and whiny at times, which was annoying.Otherwise I liked this story, Timothy Dalton as Julius Caesar was fine in the role, though too dark and good looking (someone tell Daniel Craig please play Caesar sometime in his career!) and Billy Zane did a good job as Marc Antony. The sets lived up to what Alexandria probably looked like, except there was little sign of the Greek influence on the city. The costumes were lovely and the supporting cast were some of the best (though I could have changed some of their lines for them), and I was able to overlook historical inaccuracies, such as Arsinoe being murdered in the dungeons of the palace of Alexandria under Cleopatra's orders. Arsinoe appeared as a prisoner in Caesar's Triumph, and since the public showed sympathy for her, Caesar allowed her to be released. They also didn't explain at the end that Caesarion was executed under Octavian's orders, but I guess they wanted to leave the audience with a bit of hope. Fine to watch on a wet or snowy afternoon.

solbro1-1 This movie was pretty good, but it did get somewhat boring towards the end. I almost fell asleep.The writing was uninspired and in places really bad. But I am so familiar with the two Shakespeare plays based on the same historical events, I may be biased. During Marc Antony's speech to the crowd at Julius Caesar's death I couldn't help but compare it to the mesmerizing speech made in the movie "Julius Caesar" staring Marlon Brando. I also had a problem with the way the movie portrayed Octavian and I don't think the problem was Rupert Graves. It was the script. In a couple scenes they show Octavian to be a coward. Which, considering he became Rome's greatest Emperor, Augustus Caesar, I believe that Octavian was probably a lot of things but coward was definitely not one of them. I almost think they decided to make him cowardly so Marc Antony wouldn't look so whipped.Anyway, this was a nice romance style movie and I liked the pretty colorful sets.