Review of Julius Caesar

Introduction

Most people know about Gaius Julius Caesar; he did after all pay a brief visit to conquer England. ( I came I saw , I found it a bit chilly like)From a powerful family in Rome, Caesar was clever enough to escape the intrigues of various rulers to emerge as a great soldier and an ambitious leader. His downfall was to believe his own publicity about his divine status. Perhaps if he had good secret police Caesar would have identified the conspirators before they came to him with their `issues`.

This DVD is a compilation of the series previously shown on the BBC and includes a well known cast and at least 800 extras including the Bulgarian Army.

Rome has been recreated and Bulgaria doubles for Gaul in the battle scenes. Using people rather than green-screen the team behind this have tried to revive the `sword and sandal` epics of the past. The cast includes Chris Noth as Pompey, Jeremy Sisto as Julius Caesar and Richard Harris as the dictator Sulla.

Video

This is a made for TV production and has high production values. There are no problems with the picture.

Rome looks very clean and unused but I suppose it was in those days.

Audio

Some thought and presumably some money has gone into the soundtrack which is not unpleasant to the ear.

The script lacks conviction though and due to the cast being garnered from around the globe the `Romans` appear to lack a common language. It does have it`s moments but overall it lacks the fire in its belly that would make me watch it again.

Features

Julius Caesar Backstage

A short back-stage look at the production. Quite interesting and probably long enough.

Julius Caesar Trailer

Julius Caesar: Historical timeline.

There`s much more information on here than I was able to grasp from the plot of the film. He really did quite a lot including two more marriages than were included and a better explanation of what was happening in Gaul and elsewhere.

Julius Caesar: the man and his legacy

On screen information-white on coloured background so put your specs on for this.

It`s interesting to speculate what would have happened if he had not been assassinated- he may well have founded a dynasty with Cleopatra`s son as the next king of Rome and Egypt.


Crew Biographies

On screen information again.

Picture Gallery
Quite a lot of pictures which can be fast forwarded; includes stills and on-set pictures

Conclusion

This jolly romp through a turbulent period of history concentrates on spectacle rather than character development. We are given little teasers about the man and his motivation but nothing that explains the change from a noble man who stands up to dictator Sulla and refuses to divorce his wife to a cold power hungry dictator. There`s just not enough detail to get us to care about any of these people.

As history it is not accurate enough to satisfy even me, and I`m easy to please. It is well known and documented that Caesar was a very neat man going so far as to be always shaved and his body hair tweezed away( a hard man indeed). This one has designer stubble most of the time. He was also a ladies` man and rumoured to be a man`s man but this Caesar appears to be well-behaved unitl he meets Cleopatra. Two of his marriages are ignored and all of his other affairs including the one with Brutus` mother. The friendship between Brutus is not built up in this account but it has previously been seen as pivotal that even Caesar`s greatest friend wanted him dead. It all adds up to a production that is big on spectacle but fails to engage our emotions.

The cast are variable with Chris Noth having the correct Roman profile mostly standing around looking like he`d rather be somewhere else. Christopher Walken also relies on his hair and clothing to convince as Cato. It`s a shallow production. Good enough to pass the time but there are Roman epics such as "I Claudius" which managed to pack in a lot more historical fact and drama .

If you want a good read instead then try Colleen McCullough`s Masters of Rome series based on the dictators including Marius, Sulla and Caesar which would make excellent television.