Cleopatra (1963 film)
| Cleopatra | |
|---|---|
| File:Cleopatra 1963.jpg | |
| Directed by | Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Written by | Carlo Mario Franzero Sidney Buchman Ben Hecht Ranald MacDougall Joseph L. Mankiewicz |
| Produced by | Walter Wanger |
| Starring | Elizabeth Taylor Richard Burton Rex Harrison Jeremy Irons Roddy McDowall Martin Landau Hume Cronyn |
| Cinematography | Leon Shamroy Jack Hildyard |
| Edited by | Dorothy Spencer Elmo Williams |
| Music by | Alex North |
| Distributed by | 20th Century Fox |
Release dates | June 12, 1963 |
Running time | 192 min. |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $44 million |
Cleopatra is a film that premiered at the Rivoli Theatre in New York City on June 12, 1963. It was produced by Walter Wanger, it was written by Sidney Buchman, Ben Hecht, Ranald MacDougall, and Joseph L. Mankiewicz from a book by Carlo Mario Franzero and was directed by Mankiewicz. It starred Elizabeth Taylor as Cleopatra, Richard Burton as Marc Antony, and Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar (nominated for Academy Award for Best Actor). The supporting cast included Roddy McDowall as the villainous Octavian, Martin Landau as Antony's aide Rufio, and as Cleopatra's servant Sosigenes..
The film is infamous for almost bankrupting 20th Century Fox. It was made at a cost of $44 million -- an impossibly extravagant figure for that time; in 2005 dollars it can be priced at $286 million, the most expensive film ever produced (see List of most expensive films (inflation)), partly due to the fact that the film's elaborate, complicated sets, costumes and props had to be constructed twice, once during a botched shoot in London and once more when the production relocated to Rome.
Cleopatra was not a box-office flop by any means, in fact the film grossed more than $23 million and was the highest grossing film of the year, but it was less than just half the budget it took to produce the movie itself. With such astronomical cost and the current price of movie tickets, Cleopatra didn't have a chance of making a profit on its first run and it took several years to break even and the financial loss from the film forced the studio to undertake drastic retrenchments. Supposedly, the film is still listed as a negative cost for Fox today, which means that, technically, the movie still has not made back its initial investment. The suit of golden armor worn in the movie by Elizabeth Taylor was made from real gold, at a cost of about $1 million. It was so heavy that she could only wear it for short periods of time.
Plot
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Cleopatra is a story of the heroic, and ultimately doomed, struggle by the young Queen of Egypt to save her county from absorption into the expanding Roman Empire in the mid-first century BC. Part 1 takes place between 48 and 44 BC. Cleopatra pins her hopes on the ascending Roman general, Julius Caesar.
As the movie opens, Caesar has just defeated the army of his primary rival, Pompey, at Pharsalus in Greece. Pompey forces are in ruins and the dead are being cremated. Caesar addresses and pardons the captured officers.
Pompey himself has escaped the carnage and fled by ship to Egypt. (Pompey obviously hoped to recoup his losses with the help of young Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII and his sister Cleopatra VII. Pompey had been made their guardian on the death of their father, Ptolemy Auletes.)
Caesar pursues Pompey and arrives in Alexandria (October 2, 48 BC) on a busy market day. The docks are packed with merchants' stalls and customers. Ptolemey's advisors assume that the Romans will bull their way to the palace, upsetting the populace, but instead, Caesar shops his way through the crowd.
The Pharaoh is a boy and most of his advisors seem to slither. Egypt is in the midst of a Civil War between Cleopatra and Ptolemy and he holds the city. Caesar is presented with Pompey's ring and severed head. (Pompey did not reckon on the deviousness of the Egyptians. When he arrived by ship in Alexandria, his wife and children watched from the deck and Ptolemy watched from the dock as he stepped ashore and was immediately executed by the Egyptian soldiers.) As Caesar sets up in the Palace and is organizing the defenses, a 'rug merchant' arrives with a gift from Cleopatra. The officers are dismissed and Caesar cuts the bindings of the rug and spills the concealed Cleopatra out on the floor.
There ensues a verbal battle over who is the host and who is the guest which goes on for some time after this. In actuality, Caesar and Cleopatra became lovers that first night and Ptolemy was odd-man-out the very next day. (There obviously is no record of who seduced whom, that secret was locked in Caesar's bedroom. It can be said, however, that there is no record of Cleopatra having any other men in her life except Caesar and Mark Antony. Caesar, on the other hand, had a long and semi-public history of sensuality - leaving a trail of lovers all over Gaul and the rest of the Empire.)
Cleopatra spies on Caesar through a peep hole (the Palace is replete with secret passages). Among other things, she discovers that he is epileptic. That disease also afflicted other great men in history we find out later, Hannibal and Alexander among them. Cleopatra in her bath. Cleopatra and Caesar continue the dueling, including an encounter in her bath. She warns that her brother's forces are surrounding the Palace and they vastly outnumber the Romans. Caesar later orders the Egyptian fleet burned (to give him control of the harbor).
That night, the Egyptian ships are ablaze as ordered. The fire unfortunately spreads to the adjacent buildings in the city, including the famous Library of Alexandria. Cleopatra confronts Caesar about the fire, but there is little that can be done about it. He's busy directing the Roman forces in repelling the Egyptian attack on the Palace gate. The Romans sortie to destroy the Egyptian balista (catapults) emplacements using the 'Turtle' - a moving block of men completely covered with their shields on all sides and top.
An attempted poisoning is foiled when Cleopatra's handmaiden notices the taster wipe the rim of the cup after tasting the wine. (Interesting punishment) The next day, Caesar pronounces the decision of Rome on the warring participants. The bottom line is that Ptolemy is out (with his advisors) and Cleopatra is in. At this point in the movie, they become lovers. Cleopatra is crowned Queen by Caesar and everyone kneels and bows properly - even the Romans. That night they talk of politics and the world and then of them together. She promises him sons.
"I am the Nile. I will bear many sons. Isis has told me. My breasts are filled with love and life. My hips are round and well apart. Such women, they say, have sons."
Some time later they continue the discussion at the Tomb of Alexander. She dreams of a united Rome and Egypt ruling a unified world. On the personal side, she tells him she is pregnant. Sure enough, when the time finally comes Caesar has a son which he immediately embraces in public as his. (50-year-old men who have babies invariably behave like idiots.) Back in Rome, it's the talk of the city, and the Senate.
Caesar at last departs to return to Rome to a Triumph - a huge parade-like event where the conquering hero is honored. Cleopatra, meanwhile, festers in Egypt for two years. Caesar is made 'dictator-for-life' and at last calls for Cleopatra to come to Rome. The arrival day is filled with expectation. Caesar heads the Roman Delegation on the steps of the Senate. Cleopatra does not disappoint the Roman crowd. Her entrance is spectacular. She and Caesarion, dressed in gold, ride atop an Egyptian Sphinx pulled by a multitude of burly servants. It's all a grand and glorious hoopla.
Caesar sets them up in Rome and spends a great deal of time there. Talk about fanning the rumor flames! Gossip shot all around town at the speed of light. From Senators to peasants, the city was buzzing with talk of the Egyptian Queen. On the darker side, the Senate is also alive with complaints that Caesar was taking too much power and that he wanted to be King. (Rome had a long standing tradition against kings.)
The Ides of March (the 15th) arrives. The Senate is to vote that day on new powers for Caesar. He's confident of victory and shrugs aside warning from Calpurnia (his wife) and Cleopatra for caution. Sure enough, as he approaches the Senate, he is attacked by a group of Senators and stabbed to death with their daggers. Caesar, dying at the foot of Pompey's statue.
Cleopatra and Mark Antony discuss the situation after Caesar's funeral pyre is completed. Octavian (Caesar's grand-nephew) and not Mark Antony has been named Caesar's heir. There is no future for her in Rome. She sails back to Alexandria.
Cleopatra the Queen of Egypt, continues the struggle to save her county. Julius Caesar's assassins have been hunted down and killed. Cleopatra, now back in Egypt, sets her sights on one of Caesar's successors, the Roman general Mark Antony. The opening scene is after the Battle of Philippi - Cassius and Brutus are dead and Antony is hailed by the Army. Octavian is there too, but missed the battle since he was sick in his tent. The pair have established a second triumvirate, this time with Lepidus (a powerful politician whom we never meet). They agree to spit the empire - Lepidus will get Africa, Octavian, Spain and Gaul and Antony, the East. It's apparent that Antony and Octavian are already rivals. (Octavian, by the way, comes off rather badly throughout this entire movie. His courage is never mentioned and his governmental genius that lasted for centuries is slighted. But this is a film from Cleopatra's point of view, so.....) Antony sets up his headquarters in Tarsus (in modern day Turkey) and is planning a campaign against Parthia on the eastern frontier. However, he needs money, food and supplies from Egypt and Cleopatra won't see him. He has summoned her and sent envoys but they have all been rebuffed. She will only meet him on Egyptian soil. At last, her barge arrives in Tarsus.
Plutarch says " She came sailing up the river Cydnus, in a barge with gilded stern and outspread sails of purple, while oars of silver beat time to the music of flutes and fifes and harps. She herself lay all along under a canopy of cloth of gold, dressed as Venus in a picture, and beautiful young boys, like painted Cupids, stood on each side to fan her. Her maids were dressed like sea nymphs and graces, some steering at the rudder, some working at the ropes. The perfumes diffused themselves from the vessel to the shore, which was covered with multitudes, part following the galley up the river on either bank, part running out of the city to see the sight. The market-place was quite emptied, and Antony at last was left alone sitting upon the tribunal; while the word went through all the multitude, that Venus was come to feast with Bacchus, for the common good of Asia."
And feast they did. Her banquet aboard the barge was spectacular. Antony is at first rejected and then seduced. He abandoned all thoughts of government and basked in being with her. Back in Rome, Octavian begins a smear campaign against the pair. Reluctantly, Antony returns to Rome to patch things up with Octavian. He succeeded, getting much needed reinforcements. But while he's there, things go a little further than a reconciliation - he marries Octavia, Octavian's sister, to cement the deal. When Cleopatra hears of it, she throws a fit.
Once again, Antony's envoys are rejected by Cleopatra. She won't deal with anyone but Antony in person. When he does go to her, she humbles him, making him kneel to her in public. She also demands that a third of the Empire be ceded to Egypt as the price of her alliance. (Some say that he made this concession gladly, trading the Empire for her bed. But, who's to say what went on in those Alexandria evenings.....) In any event, he caves in. Antony divorces Octavia and marries Cleopatra. War! Octavian has a field day, leading a public outcry against Antony and "his Egyptian whore". The public demands and the Senate votes for war against Cleopatra. On the steps of the Senate, Octavian skewers the poor old Egyptian ambassador with the golden spear of war.
The issue is decided at the naval battle at Actium off the coast of Greece. Agrippa leads Octavian's fleet and sucks Antony into a trap. Antony chases a ship he thinks is Octavian's command post, but it's not. The trap is sprung and Antony's ship is ablaze and sinking. Cleopatra thinks all is lost and so she leaves the scene to return to Egypt. Antony is not dead, however. He sees her leaving and abandons his fleet to chase after her. The pair make it back to Alexandria, but all is lost. Octavian approaches with an Army that outnumbers Antony ten to one. Antony gives it one last gasp, but his legions are dispirited and abandon him during the night. He tries to fight Octavian in single combat, but there are no fools there. Antony follows Cleopatra.
At last, thinking that Cleopatra is dead, Antony falls on his sword. Mortally wounded, he's taken to her tomb where he dies in her arms. Octavian arrives and takes the city - Cleopatra is his prisoner. He intends to return her to Rome to parade in a Triumph. The two meet in the tomb, where she swears on Caesarion's life that she will not harm herself. But, seeing Octavian wearing her son's ring, she knows he is probably already dead so the promise is not valid.
(They say that she attempted to seduce him too, as she had seduced Julius Caesar and Mark Antony before him. He, however, was not having any of it. Perhaps he was too politically astute for her. Or, perhaps she had lost some of her renowned charm. She was, after all, nineteen when she began with Caesar and now, at nearly forty she could hardly play the seductress that she once was.)
She makes the final preparations and her hand maidens bring her a basket of figs. As she places her hand in the basket a concealed asp bites her. When she is gone, her servants dress her in her finest and follow after her.
Octavian went on to become Caesar Augustus, one of the greatest rulers in all of history. He founded a government that lasted for five centuries and began a two hundred year long period of peace and prosperity known as Pax Romana.
Awards
The 1963 film won Academy Awards for [[Academy Award for Best Cinematography|best cinematography, best art direction, Academy Award for Best Costumes|best costumes]], and special effects. It was also nominated in the best picture, [best actor, film editing, best music, score - substantially original and best sound category.
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