A long time ago, I remember my high school English teacher telling us about this film, saying it was a very expensive bomb. Not having seen it at the time, I was under unable to understand why he said this; I just took his word for it. Now, finally, for the first time, I mustered the patience to watch this film from start to finish, and having seen it, I can fully appreciate what my teacher was talking about.
I gave it three stars because, on the positive side, is beautiful to look at. Specifically, the cinematography is very good. The sets are gorgeous (I especially liked the view of the Alexandria port), although there's so many spectacular sets that it becomes a distraction. The costumes are also beautiful, although again, there are too many of them (In one scene, Taylor and Burton change costumes three times. Isn't that overdoing it?).
Speaking of costumes, let me be blunt about something: Yes, Liz has got a great a chest. But is it necessary to show off her cleavage so many times in so many provocative outfits? That also becomes distracting, and helps to make this film into a parody. By the way, for those of us familiar with the legend of how Cleopatra died, and just where on her anatomy that deadly asp supposedly bit her, why aren't Liz's considerable assets shown off at that last critical moment? They are entirely ignored in that scene, and considering the "build up" we are treated to throughout the whole film, the climax comes as a let-down (puns intended).
My biggest gripe with this movie is that it is horribly acted, with performances that are much, much too over-the-top. The best performance is that of Harrison, who seems to restrain himself from displaying unnecessary emotions and presents us with a character that is at least SOMEWHAT convincing.
Not so with many of the other cast members. The two other principle actors (Taylor and Burton), and even some of the lesser characters (e.g., Martin Landau), engage in so much screaming and yelling in this film, and at least half of the time, I can't even decipher exactly what they are yelling about. The movie surely wants us to get caught up in the actors' emotions, but it's impossible to do so, as the story and the dialogue are not at all believable.
That brings me to another big problem with Cleopatra, which is the script. It's all over the damn place. Right from the very first scene, the dialogue is hard to follow. The writers (and I understand there were a lot of them) seem intent to cover every detail they can imagine connected with this story. But failing to separate what we need to know from what we can do without, we are forced to wade through a talkative mess in order to follow the story.
And that leads to a third big problem with Cleopatra: It's long, talky, and downright boring. If you have four plus hours to kill (and I will add that I had to spend considerably more time than that, as I kept falling asleep and had to back it up to the places where I would nod off) you might want to watch this. But if you have something much more important to do like scrubbing the floors or mowing the lawn, you're better off doing that. Sorry, Taylor and Burton fans, but that's how I see it.
I gave it three stars because, on the positive side, is beautiful to look at. Specifically, the cinematography is very good. The sets are gorgeous (I especially liked the view of the Alexandria port), although there's so many spectacular sets that it becomes a distraction. The costumes are also beautiful, although again, there are too many of them (In one scene, Taylor and Burton change costumes three times. Isn't that overdoing it?).
Speaking of costumes, let me be blunt about something: Yes, Liz has got a great a chest. But is it necessary to show off her cleavage so many times in so many provocative outfits? That also becomes distracting, and helps to make this film into a parody. By the way, for those of us familiar with the legend of how Cleopatra died, and just where on her anatomy that deadly asp supposedly bit her, why aren't Liz's considerable assets shown off at that last critical moment? They are entirely ignored in that scene, and considering the "build up" we are treated to throughout the whole film, the climax comes as a let-down (puns intended).
My biggest gripe with this movie is that it is horribly acted, with performances that are much, much too over-the-top. The best performance is that of Harrison, who seems to restrain himself from displaying unnecessary emotions and presents us with a character that is at least SOMEWHAT convincing.
Not so with many of the other cast members. The two other principle actors (Taylor and Burton), and even some of the lesser characters (e.g., Martin Landau), engage in so much screaming and yelling in this film, and at least half of the time, I can't even decipher exactly what they are yelling about. The movie surely wants us to get caught up in the actors' emotions, but it's impossible to do so, as the story and the dialogue are not at all believable.
That brings me to another big problem with Cleopatra, which is the script. It's all over the damn place. Right from the very first scene, the dialogue is hard to follow. The writers (and I understand there were a lot of them) seem intent to cover every detail they can imagine connected with this story. But failing to separate what we need to know from what we can do without, we are forced to wade through a talkative mess in order to follow the story.
And that leads to a third big problem with Cleopatra: It's long, talky, and downright boring. If you have four plus hours to kill (and I will add that I had to spend considerably more time than that, as I kept falling asleep and had to back it up to the places where I would nod off) you might want to watch this. But if you have something much more important to do like scrubbing the floors or mowing the lawn, you're better off doing that. Sorry, Taylor and Burton fans, but that's how I see it.
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