I re-watched the 1963 film recently with my children and was deeply delighted to be reminded of what a truly great movie it really is.
The 1963 film is:
- Beautifully acted, showing a real decline in Antony, the complexities of the Queen, and much about what made Julius such an important figure,
- Magnificently costumed and designed,
- Quite accurate, to my knowledge, in for instance then Battle of Actium,
- Best of all, a true spectacle of a film!
As an added great, NO CUSS WORDS and PLENTY sexy despite lack of nudity or anything that might make it inappropriate for children.
It is a triumph and worth a long watch with family and friends, FRiends!
golux
It was a spectacle and fascinating; but I find it really dated now and too very ‘Hollywood’ of its time.
After these 60 years, I’d like to see a new version, if it didn’t strive to be ‘woke’.
I saw the 1963 movie in the theater (in the spring of 1964), and I would like to see it again. My mother was absolutely gaga over the movie—she thought the love scenes featuring Liz and Richard Burton were for real—and they might have been. Being a teenage boy, I wasn’t so impressed, preferring scenes like the Battle of Actium.
My favorite Cleopatra film was the one starring Claudette Colbert, from 1934, which I also saw on the big screen when it was shown at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles in 1981.