In ¨Anthony and Cleopatra¨ the two eponymous heroes and lovers often argue each other in a battle of words, whims and wills. From such conflicts, the viewer apprehends the true nature of each of the two. From the beginning, Mark Anthony is portrayed as a ruler who lost his desire for domination, who lost his rigid loyalty to his empire, but found his beloved lover - Cleopatra. From the beginning, we have reasons to dislike this pusillanimous hero. But there would be no way that a masterpiece of the Bard , full of conflicts, loyalties and wars, would not captivate us - including its protagonist.
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Petey-106 August 2008Antony and Cleopatra (1974) follows the relationship of Marc Anthony and Cleopatra.It dates from the time of the Parthian war to Cleopatra's suicide with a snake.William Shakespeare is the author of the play this movie is based on.He is believed to have written that around 1606-1607.I read the play a little while before I borrowed the VHS from the library.It's not the finest works by the Bard but good anyway.This TV movie is something very average.It works mainly because of the fine performances the actors give.There's some strength in the performance by Richard Johnson who plays Marc Antony.Janet Suzman is wonderful as the Queen of Eqypt.Patrick Stewart is really good as Enobarbus.The way he turns and talks straight to camera is just magnificent.It's also a real treat to see the young Ben Kingsley as Thidias.The drama works from time to time.There's a lot of that in the end.So this was worth seeing.
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Good acting in this version; however, as befits a lower-budget television version, the sets are awful. This makes it harder for the actors to convince the viewers that they are indeed watching a story taking place in Rome or Egypt. Thankfully the actors are able to overcome this obstacle in most scenes. Patrick Stewart shines as Enobarbus. He really communicates the strong friendship between him and Antony, and how troubling it is to leave foolish Antony for Caesar's army. I had to blink twice after seeing the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air butler Geoffrey (Joseph Marcell) in a small role. Janet Suzman plays the role of Cleopatra well. Suzman isn't as beautiful as one might expect for an actress portraying Cleopatra, but she exhibits the powerful sensuality that surrounds the character.
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bongoz31 March 2000I was in high school when I saw this version of "Antony and Cleopatra" on the short-lived, occasional "ABC Theatre" on the US ABC television network. I had read Shakespeare in English Literature class, of course, and had even attended some local productions of Shakespeare plays, but seeing this production totally changed my view of the Bard, even theatre in general. This was the first time I ever watched a play and felt as if I was watching something real, viewing snippets of life in progress. The actors weren't mouthing lines and feigning emotions - they were real and they believed, and that made me believe as well.
Perhaps the intervening years have affected my memory, dimming the details, but I cannot forget the awe I felt watching Patrick Stewart's Enobarbus. When I had read the play in school, Enobarbus was a minor character, and his speeches weren't important. Stewart's performance changed that. Now the role was central, and his descent from cheer to madness was a mirror of his world. Cleopatra's knowing chuckle as she spoke of her "salad days" was a lament as well a whimsey.
At that age, I may have been ripe for a change in my world view, but I cannot deny that it was "Antony and Cleopatra" that provided it. Ever since I have compared my response to a performance to that I felt from this production. Patrick Stewart has certainly gone on to "bigger and better" things in the last quarter century, but for me he'll always be Enobarbus, the man who defined Shakespeare for me. -
Based on Trevor Nunn's acclaimed 1972 Royal Shakespeare Company production, this is an excellent adaptation of the Bard's tale of love, duty, war, honour and ambition. The play nicely explores the contrasting values of Ptolemaic Egypt and the Roman Republic, both of which were approaching their final days during the events portrayed for different but related reasons. As with most Shakespearean adaptations, there are some cuts here and there, the most significant being the omission of Sextus Pompey. While many of the references to him are retained as it would be difficult to move the plot along if he were not even mentioned, I felt that it was a mistake to excise Pompey's appearances entirely. He is very conspicuous by his absence, not least because it adversely effects the film's structure in one instance: Mark Antony and Octavius go from being reluctant allies to being at war with each other very suddenly and it is a little jarring. The production is very much a filmed stage play as the sets are minimalist to basically non- existent. However, the director Jon Scoffield handles the material very well and I was surprised to discover that this was the only time that he ever directed Shakespeare for the screen.
The film stars Richard Johnson in an excellent performance as Mark Antony, a member of the Second Triumvirate of the Roman Republic who spends most of his time in Alexandria with his beloved Cleopatra. In the wake of Julius Caesar's assassination, she has allied herself with Mark Antony against Caesar's great-nephew and adoptive son Octavius. While it began as a political arrangement, it has transformed into a passionate love affair by the beginning of the play. Antony is so bewitched by Cleopatra that he has come to neglect his onerous duties in Rome and seems almost disinterested in the fact that his wife Fulvia and brother Lucius are waging a revolt against his "official" ally Octavius. In a great moment of self- reflection early in the play, he fears that he is losing himself in dotage but seldom displays the same level of perception afterwards. Antony is not always a sympathetic character but he is always a compelling one and Johnson does a fantastic job at conveying his deeply felt inner conflict between his love for Cleopatra and his responsibilities to Rome. Throughout much of the play, Antony seems desperate to convince himself that he is a honourable man, especially when his often ill-advised actions suggest otherwise. He dies with some degree of contentment, secure in the knowledge that he is "a Roman by a Roman valiantly vanquished."
Janet Suzman is suitably theatrical as the Drama Queen of the Nile. Her performance is generally very good but she does have a tendency to go pretty far over the top whenever she has to shout, with Antony's death scene being the best / worst example of this. I imagine that this approach worked better on stage than it does on screen. Cleopatra is a fascinating and complex character. She is self-obsessed, childish, arrogant, quick to anger and likes to indulge in histrionics for the benefit of her audience. Conversely, she is a strong, powerful and fiercely intelligent woman who knows exactly what she wants and is not afraid to get it. At one point, she compares ensnaring Antony to catching a fish. However, she seems to view him not as a prize that she has won but as the love of her life, even if her actions occasionally indicate a lack of loyalty towards him. Her love for him is not quite as self-evidently all- consuming as is his love for her but there is nevertheless a sense that we are witnessing a great love affair for the ages reach its tragic and inevitable conclusion. In one of the play's most memorable moments, Enobarbus claims that "age cannot wither her nor custom stale her infinite variety," which is indicative of the fact that she is not afraid to use her beauty and sexuality to achieve her aims. This leads Octavius to describe her as a "whore" and fuels his desire to lead her through Rome as his prisoner.
In one of his first major television appearances, Patrick Stewart is wonderful as Enobarbus, Antony's oldest friend and brother-in-arms throughout many a campaign. In many respects, Enobarbus is the most insightful character in the play as, for instance, he is the first to realise that Antony will return to Cleopatra's side in spite of the fact that he has agreed to marry Octavius' sister Octavia in order to solidify their alliance against the rebellious Pompey. Over time, he loses his faith in Antony and with good reason as his obsession with Cleopatra has come to cloud his judgement, most notably at the crucial Battle of Actium when he makes the grave strategic error of following her when she and her sixty ships retreat. Enobarbus defects to Octavius' forces but he is soon overcome with guilt and regret and dies of a broken heart at having betrayed the man whom he loved like a brother. The always excellent Corin Redgrave is rather smarmy as the mostly unsympathetic antagonist Octavius. I say "mostly" as many of his criticisms of Antony's neglect of his duties in the early part of the play were perfectly justified. That said, he is a ruthless man full of vaulting ambition who proves to be a powerful enemy to the title characters. The film also featured strong performances in roles of varying size from Rosemary McHale as Charmian, Philip Locke as Agrippa, Raymond Westwell as Lepidus, Tim Pigott-Smith as Proculeius, Ben Kingsley as Thidius, Joseph Marcell as Eros, W. Morgan Sheppard as Scarus and Darien Angadi as Alexas, a role which he would reprise in the 1981 BBC version.
Overall, this is an extremely effective adaptation of Shakespeare's tragedy. -
tonstant viewer9 September 2008No, if you want spectacle, get the Taylor/Burton and forget about Shakespeare. This DVD wins on the Royal Shakespeare Company's deep bench and Trevor Nunn's meticulous direction. All do well with the verse, and there is none of the glaring miscasting that strangles the BBC version from 1981.
Richard Johnson was briefly married to Kim Novak. He also turned down the role of James Bond because he didn't want to be trapped in a long term contract. Here he hides his good looks behind a thick beard, and if he is not as grand as Antony might be, he's certainly got most of it right. Janet Suzman braves the considerable difficulties of Cleopatra without ever becoming unbearable, which you can't say of her competition. Octavius is played by Corin Redgrave, who once again projects his father's perpetual air of irritable grievance minus the family charm.
Patrick Stewart as Enobarbus pounds his competition to dust, and Ben Kingsley and Tim Pigott-Smith in minor roles are testimony to the strength of the company. Philip Locke and Derek Godfrey also make strong impressions.
This version is shot entirely in a TV studio, now a lost and unfamiliar art form. There are virtually no constructed sets. The actors are usually in limbo, with perhaps some waving gauzes, or diffusion on the lens. This may confuse some viewers who need literal settings, but it frees the rest of us to concentrate on the people, the plot and the poetry. Shakespeare is not about architecture; the movies do that better.
Until the Caedmon audio recording with Anthony Quayle and Pamela Brown resurfaces, this DVD is the best way to absorb a packaged version of Shakespeare's play. -
TheLittleSongbird10 September 2021Have enormous appreciation for Shakespeare and his plays ever since being introduced to 'A Midsummer Night's Dream' and 'Macbeth' in primary school, when reading the text aloud and analysing as a class which fascinated and benefitted me (not everybody liked doing it though). 'Antony and Cleopatra' is for me towards the top ranking his plays, beautiful text (though the script is one of his wordiest), one of his most passionate stories and with two of Shakespeare's most justifiably iconic characters.
This 1974 version is not one of the best seen of 'Antony and Cleopatra', of the productions available almost all of them are uneven. It is also not one of the worst. Its biggest attribute is the cast, where almost everybody is good and more. Dramatically, this version is pretty much textbook in a good way. For anybody who wants lavish production values, a grand atmosphere and more risk taking, it's better looking elsewhere as this is not the most attractive Shakespeare adaptation.
Am going to start with the aspects that didn't come off particularly well. Visually, it is pretty shabby and indicative of under-budget. Neither the costumes or sets are attractive and there is nothing lavish or grand about them, shabby is a better description. Despite being traditional in setting, it was actually fairly difficult to tell where the action was meant to be set.
Photography also feels drab and does nothing to open the action up. While almost all the cast are terrific, Corin Redgrave for me was rather bland as Octavius. Lacking the menacing adversary edge the role requires and overdoes the rigidness, Octavius is not a one-dimensional character as one understands his frustration and point of view which one doesn't feel with Redgrave. That is just personal view. While admiring that it was traditional and tasteful, the production does too often feel too small scale and safe with not enough of its own identity.
On the other hand, a lot is done right to brilliant effect. Do agree that the cast don't just say/recite their lines but they also feel and live them. The rest of the acting is terrific, especially Patrick Stewart's noble and moving Enobarbus that guides us through the action in a way that draws one right in. Although she may not be one's idea of Cleopatra visually, Janet Suzman's dramatic interpretation of the character is spot on. Especially in the very powerful final 20 minutes. Richard Johnson is a virile and authoritative Antony, creating a deeply flawed individual with also many fine qualities.
Johnson and Suzman are like fireworks when together, their passion and love being very believable. Despite being hindered by budget, the staging is very tasteful with no questionable touches and is not over-cooked or static. It could easily have been but the actors and their chemistry elevate. The final 20 minutes are particularly good and brought a lump to my throat and the relationship between the titular characters is textbook, not much new but the passion is far from forgotten. Shakespeare's dialogue is still wonderful.
In summary, uneven but well above average. 6/10. -
john-lauritsen6 August 2018First the good: this production is traditional: set in Ancient Rome, with appropriate costumes. Otherwise, it stank. Almost none of the actors could deliver a Shakespeare line. In Anthony and Cleopatra, some lines are rhymes, some are in blank pentameter, and some are in prose. Here it hardly mattered, since the director and actors had no respect for words. The two leads were the worst offenders. Cleopatra (Janet Suzman) was light-weight, shrill, cheap -- far from regal. She would howl out a word or two from a line, letting all the other words fall by the wayside. Always she was mugging for the camera, with limited facial expressions to mug with. She seemed spiteful, silly, and quite frankly unattractive. Anthony was almost as bad, in different ways. He tried to invest almost every line with gut-wrenching emotion -- bawling out line after line, that should simply have been spoken. With lines blurted out, it was hard to understand what was happening, except that the actors were terribly emotional about something or other. Whenever someone told a joke, and there is a lot of humor in A&P, the actors would laugh and laugh. Not funny. It's we, the audience, who ought to do the laughing. None of the poetry came through. The famous description of Cleopatra by Enobarbus ("Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale Her infinite variety....") got lost in the noise. There are no subtitles -- which might have helped. Than again, it might have been distracting to see the lines the actors were supposed to be speaking, in contract to what they were actually yelling out or whispering.
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The Royal Shakespeare Company's 1974 production of William Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, though a slightly truncated version, stands out among Shakespeare interpretations on film for the quality of the direction and the convincing nature of the performances that bring the main protagonists to life as three-dimensional human beings. Produced by Trevor Nunn and directed by Jon Scofield, the film stars Richard Johnson as the full-bearded Roman statesman/warrior Mark Antony and Janet Suzman as the voluptuous Egyptian Queen Cleopatra whose seductive allure may have changed world history. Though filmed entirely in a TV studio with extensive use of close-ups, the RSC interpretation is a riveting and involving experience, especially in contrast to the vastly inferior BBC performance of 1981 (I have not seen the Charlton Heston version recently reviewed here).
There is no commonly accepted date of publication for Antony and Cleopatra, although most orthodox historians favor the date of 1607 since it was first entered with the Stationers' Register in 1608. There is, however, no compelling evidence to support that date. The play was not performed until at least 1607, perhaps because Cleopatra, the ruler of Egypt, bore striking resemblance to Queen Elizabeth I who died in 1603. Cleopatra, according to Dr. Ren Draya of Blackburn College calls Cleopatra "larger than life", a woman who cannot be explained but can only be felt. "She is a woman who stands for power but at the end gains lyricism and achieves nobility." Indeed, according to one reviewer, "Antony and Cleopatra is an unusual tragedy in that its protagonists start out flawed and gradually grow to heroic stature over the course of the play." According to Professor Michael Delahoyde of Washington State University, Cleopatra is suggestive of Queen Elizabeth 1, a "drama queen" who used her feminine wiles to gain political advantage. Perhaps that is the reason why the play was not performed until after the Queen's death, if indeed it had been written prior to that event. Shakespeare is mostly faithful to his source material, Plutarch's Lives, though he concentrates on the relationship between Anthony and Cleopatra and ignores some of the historical events reported by Plutarch. Antony alone is a tragic hero in the Plutarch chronicles but, in Shakespeare, Cleopatra is invested with an equally tragic character and soul-searching introspection, delivering eloquent soliloquies that can be compared to those of the most powerful Shakespearean male protagonists.
Shakespeare makes no moral judgment at all on either of the main characters and allows the audience the freedom to become emotionally invested in the drama without being spoon fed the prevalent Puritan morality as in the high moral tone of Mary Sidney Herbert's free translation of Garnier's Antoine, published in 1590. The story revolves around Antony's decision to provide free rein to his impulses by courting the Queen of Egypt rather than carrying out his soldierly duties in Rome and the consequences of such. Antony, who was one of the ruling triumvirates of Rome along with Octavius known as Augustus Ceasar (Corin Redgrave) and Lepidus (Raymond Westwell), is summoned back to Rome where he makes a deal with Ceasar to marry his widowed sister Octavia (Mary Rutherford) and return to fight Rome's battles against the aggressive Pompey.
Not willing to give up his Egyptian connection, however, Antony unleashes a civil war against Ceasar but is defeated at Actium after many of his trusted men including his close friend Enobarbus (Patrick Stewart) desert him and his reputation begins to decline sharply. Meanwhile, Cleopatra is torn between saving her life and protecting her children by supporting Caesar or remaining loyal to the defeated Antony. Both unfortunately meet a tragic end that can only be called "Shakespearean" in its noble grandeur. -
bkoganbing4 April 2008Though the acting from the Royal Shakespeare company is first rate, this version of Antony and Cleopatra is little more than a photographed stage play. And a bit long for the cinema at that.
The title roles are played well by Richard Johnson and Janet Suzman. The story has been told three times in contemporary verse in the cinema by Theda Bara, Claudette Colbert, and Elizabeth Taylor as the seductive Queen of Egypt who tried to bend one too many conquerors to her will by use of her legendary charms.
William Shakespeare's Mark Antony was a principal character in two of his plays, Julius Caesar where he skillfully picked up the leadership of his late patriarch Caesar and routed the conspirators who assassinated the legendary conqueror.
To give legitimacy to his enterprise, Antony was forced into partnership with Octavian Caesar, Julius's grandnephew and a legion commander Lepidus made the triumvir of three. This play is a story of the dissolution of that partnership caused in no small part by Cleopatra.
Sex may have more a part in Antony and Cleopatra than in any other work of Shakespeare. Historians might very well argue that Mark Antony was using Cleopatra as his entrée to gaining alliances with various Roman dependencies in a power play against Octavian. But Shakespeare was no doubt titillating his 16th century audience with the tales of Cleopatra's erotic technique. Ahenobarbus, Antony's good friend played here by Patrick Stewart, says that while Octavia's sister's a pretty thing, when you get entangled with Cleopatra, she's so good that men are never satisfied, they keep hungering for more.
So that's the reason why Antony instead of tending to business and keeping an eye on Octavian gradually loses support in Rome where it really counts. The guy who was so shrewd in Julius Caesar in Antony and Cleopatra is just a love struck fool. It's the basis for his tragedy.
As for Cleopatra, three times wasn't the charm. Julius Caesar and Mark Antony may have succumbed although there is debate about who was using who. But in Octavian as played here by Corin Redgrave is all about business.
I was interested in the difference between Ahenobarbus in Cecil B. DeMille's Cleopatra which starred Claudette Colbert and the way Shakespeare writes him and Stewart plays him. In the DeMille film, Ahenobarbus is played by C. Aubrey Smith as a stout old soldier who finds it a matter of conscience to leave Antony and support his beloved Roman Empire which he sees embodied now in Octavian. Patrick Stewart's Ahenobarbus is far more of an opportunist who makes a calculated move at the right time.
The money here was spent on talent with the people mentioned and the others in the cast from the Royal Shakespeare Company. Down the cast list you'll find Ben Kingsley in a minor role. Look also for a very touching performance by Rosemary McHale as Charmian, Cleopatra's faithful handmaiden who makes the last journey with her.
This version of Antony and Cleopatra is not a movie per se, it lacks the production values of one. The Elizabeth Taylor Cleopatra had the spectacle to go with the acting. This one succeeds on talent alone. -
manchurian_candidate35 October 2005This movie altogether made me lose faith in humanity. Most movies are set to stun you with good acting,or at least some acting. This movie, however, was set to painfully vaporize the viewer! It wasn't fast, like a good phaser, but slowly tortures anyone hit by it into nonexistence. This movie would be best described as a steaming pile of horse excrement laced with ebola-zaire. Cleopatra terrified me in this film. Not only was Octavia, the one who was supposed to be plain, more attractive than her, but is also a better actor for the simple reason that I didn't have to listen to her for very long. I have just seriously fallen from my chair thinking about having to watch more of this movie! If I was able to give a negative star rating to this movie, all the stars in the cosmos would not express my hatred for this movie.
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NoDakTatum30 November 2023The Royal Shakespeare Company brings this classic play to the small screen, an experience helped immensely by many familiar faces. Summarizing Shakespeare, of course, is an exercise in futility, but here is the basic plot of the play: Marc Antony (Richard Johnson) is in Egypt, cavorting with the queen Cleopatra (Janet Suzman). He and his men are having way too much fun to follow the orders of the Emperor Octavius Caesar (Corin Redgrave) from Rome. Antony is ordered back, where a deal is struck that he marry Caesar's sister Octavia (Mary Rutherford) and carry the Roman banner into many needed battles. Of course, his travels always take him back to Egypt, and the arms of Cleopatra. After this affront to the emperor, Caesar decides to war against Antony, whose armies are now hollow shells of themselves. Antony and Cleopatra's love cannot seem to hold up in the face of the impending doom, and Cleopatra strikes a behind-the-scenes bargain with Caesar.
Because of assorted theatrical forays and reading, I am familiar with Shakespearean language, and can get the general meaning of his scenes. "Antony and Cleopatra" is not a work I was familiar with, aside from the title, but I found many similarities to both "Romeo and Juliet," and even the latter story about the mutiny on the HMS Bounty. The film itself is actually shot on video on an interior set. Scoffield's camera often hides this fact, but he does resort to too many close-ups from time to time. The running time is well over two and a half hours, so I imagine the play is filmed as it was written. The stage sets are impressive and expansive, giving the actors plenty of room to move about. It is sad that Richard Johnson is probably best known for his appearance in Lucio Fulci's "Zombie," he was very good in a supporting role in "Khartoum," and he is excellent here. While Suzman plays Cleopatra a little over-the-top on occasion, I liked her physical portrayal. She is not Elizabeth Taylor, but a more harsh and older queen, finding love in what would be the end of her life. Corin Redgrave is perfect as Octavius Caesar, I liked watching him even in scenes where he had very few lines. His regal reaction to the drunken celebration of his sister's marriage to Antony is priceless, but his character contains more than enough menace to render Caesar a force to be feared. In the supporting cast, Patrick Stewart is very good as Enobarbus, addressing the camera here and there. "The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air"'s Joe Marcell is admirable as Antony's servant Eros. It is interesting to spot him as just another extra in the first half of the play, and watching his character develop to the point where a despondent Antony orders Eros to murder him after hearing of Cleopatra's supposed death. Future Oscar winner Ben Kingsley is in a couple of scenes as one of Caesar's messengers, Thidias. Stewart and Kingsley both sport full heads of hair, which is disarming at first. I never read the play, but this version of "Antony and Cleopatra" manages to move and entertain the viewer. This is good filmed Shakespeare, not up to the dizzying experience of Roman Polanski's "Macbeth," but it does stand on its own. I do recommend it, forsooth.