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Movies / On DVD / Cleopatra
Cleopatra

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Cleopatra (1963)

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Reviews Counted:20

Fresh:8

Rotten:12

Average Rating:5.3/10

Runtime: 4 hrs 8 mins

Genre: Dramas

Synopsis: This epic, spectacular love story of Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Marc Antony has dazzled audiences with its elaborate sets, daring costumes, and thrilling sea... This epic, spectacular love story of Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Marc Antony has dazzled audiences with its elaborate sets, daring costumes, and thrilling sea battle since its release, but these can't compare with Elizabeth Taylor as the mesmerizing Cleopatra, struggling to save her Egyptian empire. When this film was released, it was known as much for its opulent filmmaking as it was for its huge budget overruns--it took two years to film because of Taylor's various ailments and a major script rewrite by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, moving the shooting studio from England to Italy, and replacing the original director and the actors to play the Roman leaders--as well as the very public and tempestuous offscreen affair between costars Taylor and Richard Burton, who duplicated their romance on the silver screen as the doomed Cleopatra and her true love, Marc Antony. Despite all the hubbub surrounding the film, audiences realized that its spectacular story could not be denied, and it has remained a classic ever since. The triple-star power of Taylor, Burton, and Rex Harrison (playing Julius Caesar) radiates throughout this lengthy production, and Mankiewicz, a consummate magician at depicting the shadings of human emotion, directed this threesome in one of the most famous and gloriously powerful love triangles ever to be captured on film. [More]

Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall

Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Roddy McDowall, Pamela Brown, George Cole, Hume Cronyn, Cesare Danova, Kenneth Haigh, Andrew Keir, Martin Landau, Robert Stephens, Francesca Annis, Martin Benson, Herbert Berghof, Gregoire Aslan, Richard O'Sullivan

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Screenwriter: Joseph L. Mankiewicz, Ranald MacDougall, Sidney Buchman
Producer: Walter Wanger
Composer: Alex North

[See More Credits]

Reviews for Cleopatra

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1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
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Harrison, doing his waspish don act as Caesar, alone rises above mediocrity.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
02/09/06
Geoff Andrew
Geoff Andrew
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

For four hours this moody, glossy pantomime leadenly plods on, saying much more about the hubris and excess of old-time Hollywood thinking than the burnished glories of an ancient world.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
05/05/08
Ian Nathan
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A giant of a movie that is sometimes lumbering, but ever watchable thanks to its uninhibited ambition, size and glamour.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
05/05/08
Billy Mowbray
Billy Mowbray
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

This is not a film -- it's a deal, decorated with extensive publicity, but weighed down by listless direction and lots of nasal talk, talk, talk.

Full Review Source: TV Guide's Movie Guide | comment Comment
05/05/08
TV Guide's Movie Guide

It's asp-tastic.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
04/22/01
Christopher Null
Christopher Null
Filmcritic.com

A giant white elephant of a movie, a bloated monument to hubris and excess.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
05/16/01
Dan Jardine
Dan Jardine
Apollo Guide

[A] general muddle.

Full Review Source: Chicago Reader | comment Comment
05/05/08
Dave Kehr
Dave Kehr
Chicago Reader

Much maligned for various reasons, this Cleopatra may be the most expensive movie ever made, but certainly not the worst, just a verbose, muddled affair that is not even entertaining as a star vehicle for Taylor and Burton.

Full Review Source: EmanuelLevy.Com | comment Comment
03/19/09
Emanuel Levy
Emanuel Levy
EmanuelLevy.Com

opulent and empty, it dares you not to take a nap

comment Comment
07/29/02
James Sanford
James Sanford
Kalamazoo Gazette

amazing that 20th Century Fox survived this train wreck long enough to produce Star Wars some 14 years later

Full Review Source: Old School Reviews | comment Comment
04/26/01
John A. Nesbit
John A. Nesbit
Old School Reviews

...not required viewing by any means, nor is it the bomb it is sometimes made out to be...

Full Review Source: DVDTown.com | comment Comment
03/21/01
John J. Puccio
John J. Puccio
DVDTown.com

No review available.

comment Comment
06/29/04
Jules Brenner
Jules Brenner
Cinema Signals

The movie is also dotted with some battle sequences of nearly epic proportions, but they can’t make up for Cleopatra’s shortcomings in plot and acting.

Full Review Source: Apollo Guide | comment Comment
01/20/03
Mike DeWolfe
Mike DeWolfe
Apollo Guide

It is a surpassing entertainment, one of the great epic films of our day.

Full Review Source: New York Times | comment Comment
05/09/05
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
New York Times
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

A stunning achievement compared to its present day counterparts.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
11/26/01
Dragan Antulov
Dragan Antulov
rec.arts.movies.reviews

A moderately successful, generally entertaining, but overly ambitious movie.

Full Review Source: Q Network Film Desk | comment Comment
04/11/01
James Kendrick
James Kendrick
Q Network Film Desk

Taylor, Burton, and Harrison are sublime in this sweeping epic of love and nations.

Full Review Source: Austin Chronicle | comment Comment
03/10/03
Marjorie Baumgarten
Marjorie Baumgarten
Austin Chronicle

Better than I thought it would be.

comment Comment
08/09/02
Staci Layne Wilson
Staci Layne Wilson
Fantastica Daily

No review available.

comment Comment
10/25/02
Tony Toscano
Tony Toscano
Talking Pictures (U.S.)

Cleopatra is not only a supercolossal eye-filler (the unprecedented budget shows in the physical opulence throughout), but it is also a remarkably literate cinematic recreation of an historic epoch.

Full Review Source: Variety | comment Comment
09/05/07
Variety Staff
Variety Staff
Variety
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by rotten rating; UK critics are listed first)
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