Antony and Cleopatra

Plot synopsis:
Mark Antony – one of the triumvirs of the Roman Republic, along with Octavius and Lepidus – has neglected his soldierly duties after being beguiled by Egypt's Queen, Cleopatra. He ignores Rome's domestic problems, including the fact that his third wife Fulvia rebelled against Octavius and then died.
Octavius calls Antony back to Rome from Alexandria to help him fight against Sextus Pompey, Menecrates, and Menas, three notorious pirates of the Mediterranean. At Alexandria, Cleopatra begs Antony not to go, and though he repeatedly affirms his deep passionate love for her, he eventually leaves.
The triumvirs meet in Rome, where Antony and Octavius put to rest, for now, their disagreements. Octavius' general, Agrippa, suggests that Antony should marry Octavius's sister, Octavia, in order to cement the friendly bond between the two men. Antony accepts. Antony's lieutenant Enobarbus, though, knows that Octavia can never satisfy him after Cleopatra. In a famous passage, he describes Cleopatra's charms: "Age cannot wither her, nor custom stale / Her infinite variety: other women cloy / The appetites they feed, but she makes hungry / Where most she satisfies."
A soothsayer warns Antony that he is sure to lose if he ever tries to fight Octavius.
In Egypt, Cleopatra learns of Antony's marriage to Octavia and takes furious revenge upon the messenger that brings her the news. She grows content only when her courtiers assure her that Octavia is homely: short, low-browed, round-faced and with bad hair.
Before battle, the triumvirs parley with Sextus Pompey, and offer him a truce. He can retain Sicily and Sardinia, but he must help them "rid the sea of pirates" and send them tributes. After some hesitation Sextus agrees. They engage in a drunken celebration on Sextus' galley, though the austere Octavius leaves early and sober from the party. Menas suggests to Sextus that he kill the three triumvirs and make himself ruler of the Roman Republic, but he refuses, finding it dishonourable. After Antony departs Rome for Athens, Octavius and Lepidus break their truce with Sextus and war against him. This is unapproved by Antony, and he is furious.
Antony returns to Alexandria and crowns Cleopatra and himself as rulers of Egypt and the eastern third of the Roman Republic (which was Antony's share as one of the triumvirs). He accuses Octavius of not giving him his fair share of Sextus' lands, and is angry that Lepidus, whom Octavius has imprisoned, is out of the triumvirate. Octavius agrees to the former demand, but otherwise is very displeased with what Antony has done.
Antony prepares to battle Octavius. Enobarbus urges Antony to fight on land, where he has the advantage, instead of by sea, where the navy of Octavius is lighter, more mobile and better manned. Antony refuses, since Octavius has dared him to fight at sea. Cleopatra pledges her fleet to aid Antony. However, during the Battle of Actium off the western coast of Greece, Cleopatra flees with her sixty ships, and Antony follows her, leaving his forces to ruin. Ashamed of what he has done for the love of Cleopatra, Antony reproaches her for making him a coward, but also sets this true and deep love above all else, saying "Give me a kiss; even this repays me."
Octavius sends a messenger to ask Cleopatra to give up Antony and come over to his side. She hesitates, and flirts with the messenger, when Antony walks in and angrily denounces her behavior. He sends the messenger to be whipped. Eventually, he forgives Cleopatra and pledges to fight another battle for her, this time on land.
On the eve of the battle, Antony's soldiers hear strange portents, which they interpret as the god Hercules abandoning his protection of Antony. Furthermore, Enobarbus, Antony's long-serving lieutenant, deserts him and goes over to Octavius' side. Rather than confiscating Enobarbus' goods, which Enobarbus did not take with him when he fled, Antony orders them to be sent to Enobarbus. Enobarbus is so overwhelmed by Antony's generosity, and so ashamed of his own disloyalty, that he dies from a broken heart.
Antony loses the battle as his troops desert en masse and he denounces Cleopatra: "This foul Egyptian hath betrayed me." He resolves to kill her for the treachery. Cleopatra decides that the only way to win back Antony's love is to send him word that she killed herself, dying with his name on her lips. She locks herself in her monument, and awaits Antony's return.
Her plan fails: rather than rushing back in remorse to see the "dead" Cleopatra, Antony decides that his own life is no longer worth living. He begs one of his aides, Eros, to run him through with a sword, but Eros cannot bear to do it and kills himself. Antony admires Eros' courage and attempts to do the same, but only succeeds in wounding himself. In great pain, he learns that Cleopatra is indeed alive. He is hoisted up to her in her monument and dies in her arms.
Octavius goes to Cleopatra trying to persuade her to surrender. She angrily refuses since she can imagine nothing worse than being led in chains through the streets of Rome, proclaimed a villain for the ages. She imagines that "the quick comedians / Extemporally will stage us, and present / Our Alexandrian revels: Antony / Shall be brought drunken forth, and I shall see / Some squeaking Cleopatra boy my greatness / I' th' posture of a whore." This speech is full of dramatic irony, because in Shakespeare's time Cleopatra really was played by a "squeaking boy" and Shakespeare's play does depict Antony's drunken revels.
Cleopatra is betrayed and taken into custody by the Romans. She gives Octavius what she claims is a complete account of her wealth but is betrayed by her treasurer, who claims she is holding treasure back. Octavius reassures her that he is not interested in her wealth, but Dolabella warns her that he intends to parade her at his triumph.
Cleopatra kills herself using the poison of an asp. She dies calmly and ecstatically, imagining how she will meet Antony again in the afterlife. Her serving maids, Iras and Charmian, die also, with Iras dying from heartbreak and Charmian killing herself with another asp. Octavius discovers the dead bodies and experiences conflicting emotions. Antony's and Cleopatra's deaths leave him free to become the first Roman Emperor, but he also feels some kind of sympathy for them: "She shall be buried by her Antony. / No grave upon the earth shall clip in it / A pair so famous..." He orders a public military funeral.

Tags: tragedy, violence, murder

Review:
Charlton Heston worked very hard in "Anthony and Cleopatra" an adaptation of Shakespeare scripted by himself .
Heston is the director too, and the movie is a wonderful experience of filmmaking, a true labour of love, with some fault, perhaps, but full of energetic sequences .
Heston knows very well the Shakespeare original, and he express in the screen all the strenght , all the fascination of the shakesperian text .
"Anthony and Cleopatra" was filmed in Spain , with a marvellous soundtrack and a great camera work .
Anthony and Cleopatra with Charleston Heston.
When I first saw this film I liked it very much except for Hildegard Neils performance as Cleopatra.
You could see why Antony would be attracted to her over the sedate but beautiful Octavia.This is a terrific film and grossly under rated.
If you can get ahold of the 20 year + old VHS tape and you like either Shakespeare or Charlton Heston, then get it.
The Richard Johnson/ Janet Suzeman version is good, especially Patrick Stewart, but that was a TV production- this is a film.
Instead you get lots of scenes filmed on location (by that I mean outdoors, not a set thats suppose to be outdoors), action scenes involving gladiators and a honest to goodness depiction of the Battle of Actium (ok, they reused some Ben-Hur footage in parts, but its still not bad for the time), and a musical soundtrack.
The cast is great, and Heston is perfect as Antony.
The actress playing Cleopatra gets criticism from some, but I think she did a great job as well.
Charleton Heston is excellent as Mark Antony.
There is a sunny delightful brightness to this play/film, that cannot be portrayed on the stage.
British/Spanish co-production played , written and directed by Charlton Heston.
After Julius Caesar to be killed by Bruto and Casio , in Roman empire happens the second triumvirate : Marc Anthony (Charlton Heston) commands Egypt , Lepido (Fernando Rey) rules Africa and Octavio Augustus (John Castle) governs over Rome and Hispania .
After the death of Julius , Cleopatra (Hildegard Neil , though Irene Papas was runner-up for the role and Heston wanted to cast Diana Rigg, who had co-starred with him in Julius Caesar) queen of Egypt , becomes infatuated with Marcus Antonius .
Cleopatra who seduced the conqueror Julius to gain a kingdom , now she pins her hopes on rash Mark Anthony and then he is wedded to Cleopatra , but things don't turn out so well and they are defeated by Octavio Augustus in Actium .Co-production England/Switzerland/Spain by Rank Organisation and Izaro Films .
Imposing sets , lavish costumes , good stars , massive scope , opulent interiors , including great spectacle of crowd scenes well staged by Joe Canutt who was Heston's stunt stand-in for Ben-Hur, most notably during the famous chariot race .
This is a special version of the Egyptian temptress's lust for Marco Antonio after Julius Caesar's death and results to be an intermittently extravaganza by Charlton Heston who is a tower of strength , as always .
Charlton ¨Chuck¨ seem to be enjoying herself in the lead character in this hokey , spectacular as well as theatrical adaptation based on Shakespeare's play .This marked the third and final time Charlton Heston would play Mark Antony , he did so previously in Julius Caesar and also in Julius Caesar .
Superb British/Spanish support cast such as Eric Porter , Peter Arne , Julian Glover , Douglas Wilmer , Warren Clarke , Freddie Jones as Pompey and Juan Luis Galiardo , Sancho Gracia , Aldo Sambrell and Fernando Rey who was wounded by an armour dressed by Heston .
In Cabo De Gata was filmed a naval battle in which took part two ships .Other films dealing with the infamous Egyptian Queen and her Roman lovers saga are the following : Silent version ¨Cleopatra¨ with Theda Bara ; ¨Caesar and Cleopatra¨ by Gabriel Pascal with Claude Rains , Vivien Leigh and Flora Robson , ¨Cleopatra¨ by Cecil B De Mille with Claudette Colbert , Warren William and Henry Wilconson ; ¨Cleopatra¨ by Joseph L .
Heston managed to "open up" the play without losing the intimacy of the love story.
When the wounded Antony looks up to Cleopatra's tomb and cries "I am dying Egypte, dying!" I got it.
The passions of such great leaders shake nations to their core.This one is about Heston, on the verge of losing his matinée idol status by 1974 but with the acting seasoning of more than two decades.
He tackles Shakespeare and brings his own experiences of filming Julius Ceasar, El Cid and Ben Hur to the table.It is a labour of love indeed, but also one of determination.
I bought this movie knowing it didn't have a big success in its time and also it didn't receive good critics.
So I didn't hope a very good movie and the only reason to buy it is because I'm a big fan of Charlton Heston (even I don't like Shakespeare).
This title is great because it combines the loyalty (and love) to Shakespeare with the sense of entertainment for the big screen.
And the result is powerful: maybe the actress who plays Cleopatra is not the best for this character (although she is a good actress), but Heston and the rest of the cast are wonderful, the same as the soundtrack and the way to adapt the original material.
In Fraser Heston's forward to his father's Anthony And Cleopatra that is on the DVD that I just bought he mentions that his father was ever mindful of the mammoth Elizabeth Taylor film that only came out nine years earlier.
He wanted to do something different and in that I felt that Charlton Heston failed.
Not that this is not a good production, it most certainly is, but it did not break any new ground in that regard in the way that Laurence Olivier's Shakespeare films had done.
Heston is a stalwart and resolute Mark Antony who for the first time in his pantheon of classical heroes on the screen is really quite the fool, but a fool for love as history has brought Antony down to us.
He terribly underestimates Octavian played by John Castle who is best known as Prince Geoffrey of Anjou in The Lion In Winter.
Heston marries Carmen Sevilla as Octavia and Castle thinks him and his following tied to the Caesar family.
But Heston has a yen for Hildegarde Neil who is every bit as beguiling and seductive as Elizabeth Taylor or Claudette Colbert ever were as Cleopatra.
Fraser Heston's narrative tells us how.Antony And Cleopatra is a fine production, not the best Shakespeare adaption, but still quite good.
Good Adaptation of Shakespeare's Play.
I personally enjoy this version of Shakespeare's play in film form.
It's beautifully filmed, directed, edited, acted out, written and the costuming and the sets are lavish.
But each of us are entitled to have our on opinions about Heston and this film adaptation.I personally feel this film is a worthy entry in to the epic historical drama realm.
He is without a doubt one of the greatest actors of all time, but what was he thinking when he made this movie.
It proves that not even Heston can make a Shakespeare story interesting.
This is by far THE WORST Heston movie that I've ever seen.
If you are a Shakespeare fan maybe you'll find this movie entertaining, but if you're not don't waste your time, you'll regret it in the long run..
The Yang and the Yin. Ever since I studied it at school, I have regarded "Antony and Cleopatra" as one of Shakespeare's greatest plays.
This is the only feature film adaptation to have been made of it in the sound era, although there were two silent versions and there have been several made for television.
There was, of course, the 1963 epic "Cleopatra" with Elizabeth Taylor, but although the second part of that film told essentially the same story it did not use Shakespeare's dialogue.Fortunately, the late Charlton Heston shared my love of the play and decided to film it with himself as Antony.
He originally asked another great Shakespearean, Orson Welles, to direct, and then also took on the role of director when Welles turned it down.
He was only to direct one more feature film, "Mother Lode", although he also directed a made-for-television version of "A Man for All Seasons".Despite the title, there are actually three people at the heart of this drama, the third being Octavius Caesar, Antony's political rival.
Budgetary considerations, however, may have precluded this.Caesar is the prime example in the play of Roman values, Cleopatra of Egyptian ones.
Antony, who wants both political power and the love of Cleopatra, is caught between the two.
At one point Caesar tries to heal their political rift by organising a marriage between Antony and his sister Octavia, but we know this will never work.
Although she is beautiful and virtuous, Octavia is too much the Roman maiden, and too much her brother's sister, for her ever to be a serious rival to Cleopatra in Antony's affections.I think that Heston plays Antony in the right way, emphasising the fact that his character is not just caught between love and ambition but is also caught between two worlds.
Among the supporting cast mention must be made of Eric Porter as Antony's lieutenant Enobarbus, who starts off as a cynical observer of events but then becomes a tragic hero in his own right when he has to decide between remaining loyal to his old friend Antony and throwing in his lot with Caesar, who appears certain to emerge victorious.There will always be controversy about Cleopatra's ethnicity; the historical character was of Greek descent and therefore probably Caucasian in appearance, but lines in the play itself suggest that Shakespeare thought of her as a black African, and she is sometimes played by black actresses in modern stage productions.
In 1972, however, a love affair between a white Antony and a black Cleopatra would have been controversial, at least in America, and the role went to the British actress Hildegarde Neil.
(The previous year, in "The Omega Man", Heston had played a character in a romantic relationship with a black woman, but in that film their love was only one small element in the story.
In "Antony and Cleopatra" the love between the title characters is the whole point of the play).
Neil certainly had the looks for the part, and speaks her lines well, but I felt that she lacked the sensuality and seductive allure which Taylor brought to the role.The film was not well-received by the critics when it first came out and only had a limited release in the US.
Unlike some particularly grating Shakespeare adaptations of recent years, Charlton Heston's overlooked "Antony & Cleopatra" manages to work as cinema and as an adaptation of a work by the world's most famous playwright.
The production values-- giant panoramas, expensive battle sequences, glorious period costumes-- are staggering, and Heston comports himself quite well in the triple role of screenwriter/director/actor.
Not that I intend to use all my Shakespeare film reviews to bash Kenneth Branagh, but compared to Heston, he's awful, unpalatable in all three capacities.
He is that anyway, but even Heston's just-decent acting is well balanced by his expert direction of others.
The exception to that is Hildegard Neil, an awful Cleopatra.
John Castle's performance as Caesar is obviously the best in the film, but still doesn't touch Roddy McDowall's bold, furious, intense Octavian in the Liz Taylor mega-film.
And Hildegard Neil really drags the movie down a bit, although she's not as bad as everyone says.
This is Shakespeare lite in the sense that the play has been cut to fit a movie, not a play.
It has been done quite well and the balance between movie and classic play is well proportioned.Where the movie excels is in the locations, the epic battles and the camera work.
It serves as a fine introduction should anyone wish to experience the original text.The actors are all in good form and make the lines serve their character.
An ego production is still an ego production even when the names are big and the intentions honorable.One has to respect Charlton Heston all the more, whatever his politics (which one need not respect at all) for wanting to prove himself as a real actor in the worst way even after all his success in overblown performances in various Hollywood epics.
I hear you saying "that's exactly the way he did prove it," but no, as limited as this film proved with Heston using Shakespeare and other famous plays to get his own production company going in anticipation of the fast approaching days when real roles wouldn't be forthcoming, it isn't the disaster it might have been (how frustrating, though, that a genuinely great American Shakespearean like Orson Welles had to struggle for years to finance his Shakespeare while financiers lined up for "Moses" with relative alacrity).
In this case don't blame Shakespeare, 'though it's not one of the best in his canon, but Heston's adaptation and the limited budget he had to work with.One could *almost* forgive the obvious miniatures for the sea battles and the toy pyramid (Cleopatra's tomb - whose doll house proportions are emphasized by an idiotic pull back shot from the air at the end!) for the generally solid performances of the no-name cast, SOME of whom went on to solid stage careers.
Best of the lot, John Castle as Octavian Caesar, is very good indeed.
Heston himself, adapter, director and star, is certainly no worse an Antony than Marlon Brando's miscast attempt in 1953's JULIUS CAESAR (or might not have been if he had had a decent director to reign him in), but we realize we're in Heston-ego-silliness before the credits are even over and the overblown score is all but trumpeting (french horning?) "WE'RE SERIOUS" as a herald's horse barges through market sellers' tables and immediately after when Heston does the first of several literal "bodice ripping" scenes chewing scenery and scattering the pearls he's wearing just because news has arrived from Rome.
If Heston, the director, can't quite make sense of "The Battle of Actium" sequence, he comes closer than many directors and serious historians have before him.
The Cleopatra Heston found he could afford, Hildegarde Neil, is more hampered by a passing resemblance halfway between Elizabeth Taylor and Sally Kellerman than any actual failings of her own or her director.If the viewer is willing to indulge the excesses of a star just starting to show serious age and unaware how silly the film mannerisms picked up in a career as "star" could look as he tried to segue into a seniority as a serious actor, this ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA can be worth its two and a half hours screen time.
Heston only played on Broadway four times in his career - appearances ranging from 1947 to 1960 - but the only time the show he graced managed to run longer than a single week (a fate which must have wounded) was his first appearance, in a Katherine Cornell production of ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA, in which Heston played the tiny role of Proculeius, one of Caesar's (Octavian's) soldiers who has two fine brief scenes with Cleopatra near the end of the play, for a very respectable 126 performances under Guthrie McClintic's direction.
It was an experience which clearly stayed with him for the rest of his life (and he did well by the actor in his role in this film).
It's his and our loss that McClintic wasn't around to direct the star for this film as well.Certainly worth having, but don't expect Olivier..
Charlton Heston Takes Control -- And Has Marc Antony Mummified!.
Charlton Heston is my hero, and always will be.
But this version of ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA does not belong in his highlights reel, even if he directed and saw it as the highpoint of his career.There are some bright touches.
It's no accident that Jane got to play Cleopatra herself a few years later, and she was sensational!
(Colin Blakely was a better Antony, too, much more passionate and emotional than Chuck Heston.) Freddie Jones is funny and poignant as the broken down has-been, Pompey.
Historically, Sextus Pompey's father was the supreme ruler in Rome, long before Caesar, Octavian, or Antony.
Watch him emerge from the surf bawling curses at the cowardly Cleopatra, after her ill-timed flight has cost the forces of Antony everything.
Go Dim Go!Now I love Charlton Heston.
But Antony is so many things that Charlton Heston doesn't understand and can't project on the screen.
You never see the drunken Antony, the good-time guy who loves getting down and dirty with the soldiers, with the slaves, with whoever is around.
Antony is a brave soldier, but he's also warm, impulsive, sensual, and charming, and those are things you just don't do well on screen.Even the death scene suffers from Chuck's determination to stay in control.
Shakespeare chose to show Antony bungle his suicide, so that in his final agony he could be helpless in Cleopatra's arms.
It's a well filmed play, but not a great movie..
This movie does a better than average job of turning a Shakespeare play into a movie, but it doesn't succeed well as a movie.
With the exception of Heston, who seemed to be spend the first third of the movie smiling at some joke that rest of the cast weren't in on, I thought the acting was good.
The script was faithful to the play - actually too faithful - and this is why this was a so-so movie.
If Cleopatra makes hungry where she most satisfies, this film satisfies if we had been left hungry for more.