The movie starts out with Caesar's near-lethal encounter with Sulla, when still quite young, and ends with his "Ides of March" assassination by a group of conspirators. In between the viewer is treated to a pleasantly linear and legible account featuring some of the political and military giants shaping the fate of Rome - and, as a result, determining the future of considerable parts of Europe, Africa and Asia. Many of the usual names are present - people such as Sulla, Pompey, Cato the Younger, Brutus etc. - but some seem to have escaped over the garden wall, like Crassus. Also missing is Caesar's wife Pompeia, which is a pity since she was involved, marginally or not, in one of the juiciest sex scandals of the age.
The portrayal of Caesar himself is interesting, describing his progress from a commendably straightforward young man of the "I think what I say and I say what I think" variety into an experienced politician and thence into a hardened general of disturbing brilliance. Near the end he seems to be turning into something both superior and inferior to flesh-and-blood mankind. It's like watching an individual morph into his own statue.
(Me, I suspect the real-life Caesar of having been a more licentious and debauched person than shown ; I also suspect him of having had a keener appreciation of the many, many advantages bodacious amounts of money can provide. But who am I ?)
Parts of the movie are compelling, such as the confrontation with Sulla (a terrifying Richard Harris, here) ; other parts are not. The casting is original to the point of madness - Christopher Walken as Cato the Younger ? Really ? - but the result works out reasonably well in practice. The visual effects aren't anything to write home about and some of the larger battle scenes lack scope and grandeur. For instance, you'll note a discrepancy between the number of irate Gauls mentioned and the number of irate Gauls actually darkening the landscape. On the other hand the costumes are well-done. The actors also wear them with ease, which is an achievement worth mentioning since wearing this kind of garb requires both confidence and practice. There exist more than enough historical epics set in ancient Rome where the characters look like the survivors of some blanket-related catastrophe.
The movie can be shown in class - not to children, of course, but to older adolescents - as a starting point for a discussion about the life and times of Caesar or about the Late Republic. ("In the movie, young Julia is shown running pretty freely around the City, alone or with some friends. How much more likely is it that she, as a gently reared girl from a prominent family, would have been accompanied by servants, duennas or bodyguards ?") Ideally, the pupils will be bright enough to keep themselves busy for hours, thus allowing the teacher to smile benignly and slip into a daydream about the kind of damnatio ad bestias most suitable for that guy from apartment 16B who plays Slipknot till four a.m. Such are the rewards of a Classical education !
The portrayal of Caesar himself is interesting, describing his progress from a commendably straightforward young man of the "I think what I say and I say what I think" variety into an experienced politician and thence into a hardened general of disturbing brilliance. Near the end he seems to be turning into something both superior and inferior to flesh-and-blood mankind. It's like watching an individual morph into his own statue.
(Me, I suspect the real-life Caesar of having been a more licentious and debauched person than shown ; I also suspect him of having had a keener appreciation of the many, many advantages bodacious amounts of money can provide. But who am I ?)
Parts of the movie are compelling, such as the confrontation with Sulla (a terrifying Richard Harris, here) ; other parts are not. The casting is original to the point of madness - Christopher Walken as Cato the Younger ? Really ? - but the result works out reasonably well in practice. The visual effects aren't anything to write home about and some of the larger battle scenes lack scope and grandeur. For instance, you'll note a discrepancy between the number of irate Gauls mentioned and the number of irate Gauls actually darkening the landscape. On the other hand the costumes are well-done. The actors also wear them with ease, which is an achievement worth mentioning since wearing this kind of garb requires both confidence and practice. There exist more than enough historical epics set in ancient Rome where the characters look like the survivors of some blanket-related catastrophe.
The movie can be shown in class - not to children, of course, but to older adolescents - as a starting point for a discussion about the life and times of Caesar or about the Late Republic. ("In the movie, young Julia is shown running pretty freely around the City, alone or with some friends. How much more likely is it that she, as a gently reared girl from a prominent family, would have been accompanied by servants, duennas or bodyguards ?") Ideally, the pupils will be bright enough to keep themselves busy for hours, thus allowing the teacher to smile benignly and slip into a daydream about the kind of damnatio ad bestias most suitable for that guy from apartment 16B who plays Slipknot till four a.m. Such are the rewards of a Classical education !