Julius Caesar (1953)

Nominated for 5 Academy Awards:

Best Picture

Best Actor: Marlon Brando

Best Cinematography, Black-and-White

Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture

Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White (WON)

 

Shakespeare on film is a necessary evil I need to visit once every few years. I don’t like it, because I don’t understand (most of) the language, the dialogue, I just don’t think it matches this medium, even though the storylines are often great. So, I felt that if I don’t go for one of Olivier’s various adaptations of plays, I should try to see what Brando does with this one. The best thing I can say about Julius Caesar, without having read the play, is that it surprised me in the way it chooses its focus, which isn’t exactly a good thing.

I was foolish to think Brando’s Marc Antony would be the lead, but dare I say he is almost supporting and gets almost no screentime for a solid hour. It’s true, once he really enters the stage (or the screen), he dominates it for about 20 minutes, with some very passionate speeches in which he is good, great, almost excellent. There’s this quality of his that my ignorant mind suddenly starts understanding more from what it’s being said compared to all the other mostly-British actors. Did they simplify Shakespeare for Brando? 😛 However, that’s just 20-30 minutes, and then it all gets super boring again, in the company of Mason and Gielgud. Had the production values been better, had the directing been better, I might’ve been more objective and appreciate it more, but the film does fail in more than one way. Anything involving extras is fairly disastrous.

 

I give it: 5.5/10

IMDB LINK