Antony and Cleopatra

Rating:
Summary: Sanity
Review: Hey Jerry, lighten up. Just because someone doesn't type well doesn't mean they don't have a thought. If your such a spelling guru, check out how you spelled appropriately...I believe there are 3 p's in the word.

This is mediocre video of a mediocre production of a fine play. Save your money and see it live sometime.

Rating:
Summary: Sanity
Review: I rarely respond to other viewers/readers comments. It's pointless. They have their tastes, I have mine. But when someone is so utterly ignorant, so completely tasteless, so imminently vile as to criticize a work she has no knowledge of. . .

Well, someone has to take up the guantlet.

First of all, my dear Ms. Appel <approriately enough, from the 'big apple'>, 'Shakespear' has an "e" on the end of his name. Ergo, it should be spelled "Shakespseare."

Secondly, I must thank you for your new addition to the English language for the combination of a personal pronoun and an indirect verbial, "thatI". As in, "Since this is one of the plays thatI {sic} rarely get a chance to see performed. . ."

Webster is, I am sure, spinning in his grave for his omission of that lovely contraction.

Shakespeare, and yes, that's S-H-A-K-E-S-P-E-E-A-R-E, is likely not so happy. You might have been better served to listen to the poetry as spoken by the actors. You might have learned more, had you bothered to let go your suspension of disbelief.

But as to, in your own words, "that stately strong woman Liz Taylor projected", by which I assume you mean her performance in "Cleopatra" as filmed by 20th Century Fox in 1963. In honesty, after reading your review, I went back and reviewed "Cleopatra", and found out that it is still:

a. four hours long.

b. Nothing happens BEFORE her entrance into Rome, and damn little happens afterward.

c. Cleopatra, as portrayed by Ms. Taylor, makes one wonder what two rulers of the known world saw in such a strumpet <an acheivement acheived only by Julie Christie in "Dr. Zhavigo"; what did HE see in HER to inspire all that poetry; and I'm talking about the MOVIE, not the book>.

d. You say "an actors' performance is more than the movement of his eyballs." Well, one can hardly disagree with THAT statement, except that 90% of the actors' art is LISTENING. And, Ms. Appel, if you haven't discovered that, you no doubt think Homer Simpson's exisential cry for a doughnut <"DOH!">, is the epitomal cry of a doomed humanity.

Liz Taylor as a "strong stately woman" <sic> (by the way, there should have been a comma between strong and stately)?

And as a purist, I must remind you again that "Shakespear" has an "e" at the end of his name.

I'm afraid that I must reobtain this video and see it again immediately. Your review has convinced me it must be UTTERLY brilliant.

Thank you for reminding me.

Rating:
Summary: Great performances!
Review: I'm not sure what the above reviewers were looking for, but I have had an English bootleg of this production for years, and have never seen a better one. Suzman and Johnson wowed all of the English critics when this RSC production was onstage. And Stewart won every supporting actor award that season. I'm glad to get a new copy of this production.

Rating:
Summary: Great performances!
Review: I've seen this play on film and on stage, but this British television version is by far the best version I've seen. Richard Johnson seems to be EXACTLY the embodiment of Marc Antony that Shakespeare must have envisioned - pure poetry and agony. And Janet Suzman channels Cleopatra in a way that is almost spooky (Cleo lives!). I also personally love the set design, which is solely used to create the mood of the characters and plot. This is like a stage play, in that it allows the viewer to focus on the characters, not on locations (I'll leave that to the deeply inferior movie version that plays the story out like an over-produced historical document). Trevor Nunn proves that one doesn't need lavish productions in order to recreate great Shakespeare. Just get some great actors on an open set and let the magic happen!

Rating:
Summary: A fine production, but flawed
Review: Shakespeare's plays are essentially theatrical, and difficult to bring off on screen. This production succeeds admirably in many respects. It doesn't go for visual spectacle: quite apart from anything else, it couldn't hope to compare on that score with the Hollywood Burton/Taylor extravaganza. Instead, with a minimum of props or sets, it focuses on the actors' faces, and on the verse. And when Patrick Stewart, as Enobarbus, describes Cleopatra's first meeting with Antony ("the barge she sat in, like a burnished throne..")the viewer's mind may conjure up for itself spectacles far more impressive than anything Hollywood has to offer.

Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra are both middle-aged, looking back on past glories and haunted with the awareness of failing powers. They are among Shakespeare's greatest creations, and Johnson and Suzman capture superbly their complexities. Corin Redgrave's Octavius, however, is more controversial. Certainly, Octavius is a calculating politician: but should he really be so ice cold, and devoid of emotion? This presentation seriously unbalances the play. The wonderful scene where he expresses grief on hearing of Antony's death here passes for nothing, for we simply cannot believe that Octavius - as presented here - is capable of feeling anything at all.

The other problem with this production is the text: most Shakespeare plays can stand a bit of judicious cutting, but the cuts here are so extensive, that the text is effectively mangled. Would another forty minutes or so really have over-taxed the viewer's attention span?

Rating:
Summary: I'm ready for my close-up, & my close-up, & my close-up!
Review: Since this is one of the plays thatI rarely get a chance to see performed, I was rather looking forward to watching it. The performances were wonderful, even though I thought Marc Anthony appeared a bit of a wimp and Cleopatra a frustrated lady (forget that stately strong woman Liz Taylor projected). But, I guess Shakespear saw them as two desperate people.

Whoever directed the camera angles should have his union card revoked. The whole production is shot in close-ups, so you never get a chance to step back and take in the scope of the whole play. It might be a stage play shot on video, but an actors' performance is more than the movement of his eyeballs.

Well, at least I got to see this play performed. Minus two stars for hiring an amateur cameraman.

Rating:
Summary: I'm ready for my close-up, & my close-up, & my close-up!
Review: Since this is one of the plays thatI rarely get a chance to see performed, I was rather looking forward to watching it. The performances were wonderful, even though I thought Marc Anthony appeared a bit of a wimp and Cleopatra a frustrated lady (forget that stately strong woman Liz Taylor projected). But, I guess Shakespear saw them as two desperate people.

Whoever directed the camera angles should have his union card revoked. The whole production is shot in close-ups, so you never get a chance to step back and take in the scope of the whole play. It might be a stage play shot on video, but an actors' performance is more than the movement of his eyeballs.

Well, at least I got to see this play performed. Minus two stars for hiring an amateur cameraman.

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant Performance!
Review: This is a brilliant performance of Antony and Cleopatra..... and I say this as a reader/viewer who normally likes to read but not watch Shakespeare. Janet Suzman as Cleopatra is at least as fine a Cleopatra as Liz Taylor (and infinitely superior to Leonor Varela's embarrassingly adolescent portrayal), but Richard Johnson as Antony is so marvelous that you can only think of Richard Burton as an unappealing weakling after watching Johnson. What a marvelous Antony - FINALLY you can begin to understand why Cleopatra loved him! And don't miss a younger Patrick Stewart as a very dramatically effective and engaging Enobarbus. This is a film that bears repeated watching; I've watched it three times in one week and will undoubtedly view it far more than most videos on my shelf. The staging and sets aren't noteworthy but you don't even need them because the acting (filmed very closeup) is so superb. This deserves to be a classic. Don't miss it.

Rating:
Summary: Talk like an Egyptian
Review: William Shakespeare was a very prolific writer. But, quite often his themes would appear in several of his stories. The tragic love story of ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, although surrounded by war and negotiations, ends in a manner befitting Romeo and Juliet. This story is almost a sequel to JULIUS CAESER. Rome is governed by three separate factions, one of which, Mark Antony, is busier wooing the Queen of Egypt, Cleopatra, then taking care of business at home. In the end, like Juliet, Cleopatra fakes her death to which the distraught Antony tries to kill himself; I guess he learned that from Romeo as well.

ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA is not the greatest Shakespeare story but this Trevor Nunn production is great. From the main cast to wonderful supporting roles from Ben Kingsley (GANDHI) and Patrick Stewart (STAR TREK: THE NEXT GENERATION). This is a video-play. They have re-choreographed the successful stage production making it more movie-like. In the end, like the other Shakespeare tragedies, most of the characters we have met are dead. Be sure to rewind when the last drop of blood falls.