Julius Caesar (1953)

I like the storyline of this show,it attract me so much

the audience applauded

Sadly Over-hyped

Fanciful, disturbing, and wildly original, it announces the arrival of a fresh, bold voice in American cinema.

I don't know why Marlon Brando was cast in a Shakespearian tragedy, but if you can make it through his "Lend me your ears" speech without laughing, you'll be one-up on me. Despite him, this version of Julius Caesar is pretty good. Any time John Gielgud is in a period piece, you know you're in for a well-acted interpretation. Joseph Mankiewicz directed the film, and rather than weakening it with a Technicolor distraction, he filmed it in black-and-white, which was very smart. There were enough colorized period piece epics that came out of the 1950s; by keeping it simple, he let the acting shine through and made the bleak tone of the film more evident.With Louis Calhern as Caesar, James Mason as Brutus, Marlon Brando as Mark Antony, John Gielgud as Cassius, Deborah Kerr as Portia, and Greer Garson as Calpurnia, this is an all-star classic you don't want to miss! Unless, of course, you don't really like Shakespeare, or black-and-white movies bore you to tears, or you were forced to read the play in high school and can't really stomach any more of it. If that's the case, you can skip it. I won't tell anyone.

Julius Caesar triumphant return to Rome after his army's latest victory over Pompey is warned by a foolish looking blind sooth-slayer that trouble abounds and is to strike him the very next day on the Ides-or middle-of March. Thinking him being mad Caesar attends a Senate meeting the next day that with also despite his wife Portia in having a strange vision sensing something terrible is going to happen to him and warning him not to go. Caesar in the Senate chambers ends up being murdered by members of the Roman Senate body with his good friend Cassius-the one with that lean and hungry look-striking the first and his good friend and second in command Brutus the fatal blow! Feeling that Caesar was getting a bit too big for his own good and soon to become declared by the people of Rome King or Emperor, which he in fact doesn't want,it was decided by to do him in- JFK assessing style-and frame some poor pasty-who is to be named later-in doing the evil deed. That's before a live and power hungry Caesar liquidated the Roman Senate together with Brutus & co. along with it.At Caesar's funeral or grand end off Mark Antony who was aware of the treachery done to his friend Julius Caesar instead of praising his dead friend exposed those that murdered him Brutus Cassius and their fellow conspirators causing them to check out of town before they end up getting lynched by the outraged populace! With Mark Anthony taking command of the Roman legions and the late Caesar's adopted son Octavius-the original Mister October-as his #2 Man they defeat Brutus' rebel army by ambushing it at the battle of Titinius leaving it's leaders Brutus & Cassius in paying, for their crimes against the Roman Empire, with their lives. Which they in cowardly fashion instead of dying in battle or combat having their aides, instead of their enemies, run them through!The best film version of William Shakespeare's "Julius Caesar" with the late Marlon Brando's performance of Mark Anthony completely blowing away the entire Academy Award caliber cast. Brando's performance was so electrifying that his co-star in the film James Mason as Brutus asked the films director Joseph L. Mankiewicz to tone it down in the fear it would overshadow his own as well as everyone else in the cast! It was the first time that Brando unlike in his previous bringing down the roof performance in "Streetcar named Desire" showed he can speak perfect English and not mumble-as if he forgot his words or lines-his way through which he was known for back then in the 1950's as well as even now.

In contrast to the last two Shakespearean films that I watched, namely the 1968 versions of "Romeo and Juliet" and "A Midsummer Night's Dream", this is an adaptation of a play with which I was already familiar, though not to the same extent as some of his other works. A brilliant psychological drama which is very well adapted for the silver screen, the play explores the themes of honour, loyalty and patriotic necessity and the conflict between them through the characters of Brutus and Mark Antony. Caesar himself is only a supporting character but the entire play pivots around him. The direction of Joseph L. Mankiewicz is superb. Incidentally, he later directed "Cleopatra", in which Caesar and Mark Antony are likewise important characters.Brutus is one of the most complex characters that I have come across in a Shakespearean play. He is played wonderfully by James Mason, who reprised the role from a 1940s production at the Abbey Theatre in Dublin. Brutus is a tragic hero who reluctantly agrees to participate in the plot to assassinate Caesar. This leads Mark Antony to describe him as "the noblest Roman of them all" as he genuinely believed that he was doing the right thing while his co-conspirators "did that they did in envy of great Caesar." He is a patriot who tells the plebeians that he loved Caesar but loves Rome more. However, Brutus is too noble for his own good as his idealism causes him to insist that the conspirators spare Antony's life. In allowing Antony to deliver the funeral oration after the murder, he gives his rival the opportunity to turn the plebeians to his side, damning himself in the process. I think that Brutus is an essentially good but misguided man who is so idealistic that it blinds him to Antony's machinations until it is too late. Mason plays the role with a great sense of quiet dignity. We also see the warmer sides of the character. He is a loving husband to his wife Portia, played extremely well in her one scene by Deborah Kerr, and a kind master to his young slave Lucius. I think that Mason deserved a Best Actor nomination for the role.Without a doubt, however, the best performance of the film comes from Marlon Brando as Mark Antony in his only on screen Shakespearean role. I have to admit that I have never been a huge fan of Brando and, like some people at the time, I was a little apprehensive before watching the film as his mumbling style of acting certainly would not fit into the world of Shakespeare. However, I need not have worried as not only does he enunciate his lines as clearly as possible but he is never less than absolutely engrossing and compelling. He truly excels in the extremely long funeral oration scene. I have never seen him give a better performance, to be honest. In spite of the fact that he has only about 30 to 35 minutes screen time, he was nominated for Best Actor for the third of four consecutive times. As strong as his performance was, he should probably have been nominated for Best Supporting Actor. Mark Antony is a fascinating character: willful, impulsive, fiercely intelligent, shrewd and ruthless. Unswervingly loyal to Caesar both before and after his assassination, he is nevertheless not as honourable as Brutus as he manages to persuade the conspirators that he is on their side. With the exception of Brando and Mason, the strongest performer is the great Sir John Gielgud - who later played Caesar himself in the 1970 version - as Cassius, another extremely compelling character. Like Mason, Gielgud was reprising his role from a stage production. Cassius' motives for plotting against Caesar are far less idealistic than those of Brutus as he is extremely envious of the fact that the Roman people are treating the dictator as if he were a god. Deceitful, ambitious and totally lacking in integrity, he is the consummate politician. Louis Calhern is very strong as Caesar, who is just as ambitious as the conspirators claimed that he was. His extreme arrogance and his refusal to heed the supernatural omens surrounding the Ides of March prove to his undoing. Greer Garson - no longer the box office draw that she once was by 1953 - is good as Caesar's wife Calpurnia but she's nowhere near as natural as in some of her earlier films, particularly "Goodbye, Mr. Chips". The film has a very strong cast overall, though some of them only have small roles: Edmond O'Brien as Casca, Alan Napier (later the Alfred to Adam West's Batman) as Cicero, George Macready as Marullus, John Hoyt as Decius Brutus, Richard Hale as the Soothsayer, Ian Wolfe as Ligarius and a young Michael Ansara - with that fantastic voice of his - as Pindarus. Funnily enough, many of those actors turned up in the original "Star Trek" years later. The only real weak link is William Cottrell as Cinna but his role is small too.Overall, this is an excellent adaptation of one of Shakespeare's best tragedies.

What sustains for years in power the most heinous political, it is your choice at any cost to get rid of whoever, and however, arising as an obstacle in its path, is its ability to make alliances with anyone who decides to favor them, although then be paid more than favors or betray with creeping attitude, and is, among other things, his capacity to lie higher than the maximum power and its decision to keep the deception even touch them on the most sacred oath. It is well known that, the most heinous acts committed against humanity have gestated in government halls and men who will have earned monuments. And all the outrages that have perpetuated the poverty of people screaming, without being silenced, in the walls of the houses of government. How little faith had, the great playwright William Shakespeare, in the statesmen! "The abuse of greatness, he said, occurs when separating the clemency of power." And historians tell who was drinking from the source of Plutarch that came the idea of talking about the Romans. ¡And what a nested area in which corruption and lies, and how good an example for the rest of the story! The result is a book that dazzles with its magnificent language with its presentation of vivid characters and contradictory, that impact and shake, as Marcus Brutus, Mark Anthony and Cassius. The first and last, with a desire that transcends personal affection for the common benefit. And the second, ready to cozy up to anyone and promise the impossible, to preserve power. Joseph L. Mankiewicz achieves a very tight film adaptation that preserves the full taste of Shakespearean language and displacement, and achieving more than satisfactory characterizations, especially in the roles of Marlon Brando (Mark Anthony) and John Gielgud (Cassius). A sober atmosphere, use a tight black and white, and a dramatic atmosphere of calculated intensity, which leads us to feel with great force throughout the English writer's pessimism against everything that involves the name of state policy.