Cleopatra Blu-ray Review

• 22nd Feb 2012

Its films like this that Blu-ray was made for; not just science-fiction blockbusters but also classics like Cleopatra. The HD imagery makes everything stand out and allows the viewer to see where some of that notorious big budget was spent. The Roman armour and especially the lengthy and expensive scene of Cleopatra entering Rome to greet Julius Caesar stand out. But of course this film is not just a classic but an infamous one which aided the studios of Hollywood to go bust and helped change cinema forever. However, this is not the only thing that Cleopatra is famous for, but also for the steamy and high profile relationship between the films two leads Taylor and Burton.

Released on Blu-ray for the first time it comes packaged as a two disc set as it has before and is ladled with some fascinating and insightful documentaries. This is clearly a film of two halves split right down the middle with approximately two hours of the feature on each disc. The beginning, the middle and the end of the film includes the films opening, closing and intermission music in an aim to make this a full experience of the film. The first half sees the Roman conquest of Egypt taking advantage of the rift between Cleopatra and her brother Ptolemy. Surprisingly Caesar (Rex Harrison) is horrified at the Egyptians barbarity. Over the next couple of hours a relationship develops between Caesar and Cleopatra (after she is rolled out in a carpet to him) and the first disc ends with Cleopatra baring Caesar’s son and Caesar’s death at the hands of the Roman counsel. In many ways the second part feels like a very different film with Caesar’s son now a boy and the relationship that develops between Cleopatra and Mark Anthony (played of course by Richard Burton) leading to a rift in Rome between Mark Anthony and the new and rather campy Emperor Ocatavian (played by Roddy MacDowall) to whom, as Hollywood history tells us here that he is responsible for both their deaths. The dialogue between both two halves is also very different. Burton’s acting has been criticised for being over the top and hammy compared to Harrison’s more restrained performance. However the script, led by director Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ronald MacDougall, Sidney Buchmann and about 20 others is a little too Hollywoody in the first half and more Shakespearean in tone in the second half. Hardly surprising given the acting talents of Harrison, MacDowall and Burton. Needless to say the final suicide of Cleopatra at the hands of an asp snake is stylishly and monumentally handled, all beautifully staged and lit.

More revealing, however, are the accompanying documentaries. One is about the real Cleopatra and her mythologizing through art, cinema and literature and how much the film is based off true accounts and those that were done for cinematic spectacle or taken from the mythology that permeated through Victorian art and literature. Also included on the opposite disc is a feature length documentary covering the films trials, its over bloated budget waste, the affair between Taylor and Burton and the invaluable publicity it garnered and the near death experience Taylor endured when contracting pneumonia. This in itself, like the documentary, Heart of Darkness which accompanies Francis Ford Coppola’s Apocalypse Now is as interesting as the film itself. The films origins were intended to save the ailing 20th Century Fox’s troubles and instead sent into even greater trouble beginning with the changes in cast – the original cast was supposed to be Joan Collins as Cleopatra but the studio wanted to really go for it and go with Elizabeth Taylor as they felt it was starting to look like a second-rate picture and began filming in England with a drunk Peter Finch as Caesar. Meanwhile the outdoor sets were constantly being destroyed by the British weather, Taylor suffered near death pneumonia and all this on and off filming meant the studio only had 10 minutes of useable footage which had cost the studio $5 million. In the midst of all this Taylor was calling the shots with her diva behaviour before it was decided to move the production to Cinecitta Studios in Rome. In the end the film cost $45 million to make but did, contrary to popular belief come out in credit with all the publicity it garnered including ironically the amount it made from TV sales that eventually put the film into profit. Yet this was not Mankiewicz’s vision as he had wanted two films at three hours each: ‘Caesar and Cleopatra’ (this first half was to be a remake of the 1945 film with Vivien Leigh in the lead) and ‘Anthony and Cleopatra’ (hence the Shakesperian tone of the second half) of three hours each. But after a board room meeting of Fox executives studio head Darryl F. Zanuck wanted just one film which led to an angry tirade by Mankiewicz and the director becoming ill. Maybe out there somewhere is unseen footage in the Fox vaults to create Mankiewicz’s vision.

I have to admit it is some years since I had seen Cleopatra and I wondered why it had taken me so long to get round to viewing it again and I really think it is not only its inordinate length but also how many long and dull patches it has. This is not true of many other epics such as (the first two) Godfather films, Ben Hur, the David Lean epics or Gone with the Wind and they are films I have seen on many occasions. But as epics go it is certainly one that deserves a viewing at least once even for the spectacle, the costumes (especially Taylor’s) and the final death sequence. A flawed classic it might be, but a classic and one of the major films in the history of cinema and Hollywood and is a well presented package.

Chris Hick