However, every time the story zooms out to deal with these important socio-political issues, we lose our place with the characters acting out the drama. Instead, these elements are treated as hugely important in their own right, until they pass and some new tangent replaces them. Or, perhaps, they could be mentioned in passing or used as a backdrop to the romances between Cleopatra and her two Roman toyboys. We get tangents on the burning of Alexandria, or the politics of Rome, or the Roman civil war, all set up and played out – but there’s no joy or fascination in any of these hugely influential moments.Īny of these settings could carry their own historical adaptation. Despite the fact that Elizabeth Taylor gets top billing and her character’s name brands the film, the movie doesn’t seem consistently concerned with the two most important romances in her life. I do believe that, somewhere, there is a four-hour film that can hold an audience’s attention, but this movie really tries to cram too many ideas into its runtime. The movie is simply too inconsistent to maintain interest over such a long time. Caesar’s half would have been “too talky”, with Anthony’s film would have been “too loud.” So, putting the pair together, do we get a good film? Separate, the two halves would each have seemed awkward. The first half is primarily governed by politics and discussion, with impressive action sequences taking up large chunks of the second half. In fairness, I don’t think splitting the movie in two would have helped – it is structured as one giant film, despite the revolving cast and shifts in mood. Studio executives, keen to capitalise on the gossip around the Burton-Taylor romance, would not delay the release of the second half (the one which paired the couple up on screen). It had been suggested at one stage that the film be cut in half and released as two distinct movies, following Cleopatra’s relationships with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony. Even at four hours, the movie seems to be missing certain key moments and developments, which are frequently tripped over by a large and expansive (and revolving) cast. When you consider that the first cut presented to studio executives was six hours long, it gives you an indication of how incomplete a four-hour film could possibly be.
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