Movie Review: Cleopatra (1999)

 

With the recent controversy over Netflix’s heavily ahistorical Docudrama Cleopatra unfolding, I decided to check out another live-action adaptation. The most famous onscreen version of Cleopatra is Elizabeth Taylor’s 1963 epic, a movie that was both a box office hit and flop thanks to its ludicrous budget. Whatever its flaws, the movie has a special place in popular culture. More recently there has been the aforementioned Netflix series produced by Jada Pinkett-Smith. Despite its claims to be a documentary, it’s even more inaccurate than most fictionalized dramatizations, from its clownish portrayals of major Roman figures to its blackcasting of the Macedonian Ptolemies (and Egyptians) to the claim that Cleopatra was the true brains behind the Julian Calendar.

Having already seen the 1963 epic with Elizabeth Taylor as the famous queen, I watched Hallmark’s two-part mini-series from 1999. I got it from the library on DVD, but it is readily available for viewing on YouTube. Its general story structure is heavily derived from the Elizabeth Taylor film. For example, movie is split into two parts with the first focused on Cleopatra and Julius Caesar and the second with her and Marc Antony. Like the 1963 epic it begins with Cleopatra exiled while her sister Arsinoe and her literal kid brother Ptolemy hold the throne of Egypt.

Despite the general plot similarities, there are many differences in how Cleopatra is portrayed. Like with other film adaptations Hallmark plays up her beauty by casting Chilean actress Leonor Varela. Many historians actually disagree with the idea that Cleopatra was particularly beautiful, as several ancient sources suggest that it was her wit and personality, not her looks, which ingratiated her with the male power players of her day. Still, having a beautiful queen is better for dramatic purposes. Despite Netflix and Jada Pinkett-Smith’s attempts to say otherwise, Cleopatra was Macedonian and thus white. Leonor Valera is a brown Latina, but does look like she fits into the Mediterranean environment unlike the pasty white Elizabeth Taylor and black Adele James (from the Netflix docudrama). What’s actually distracting is that she has her Latin American accent. The mini-series does not really make any firm attempt to delineate the different peoples with accents. For example, most of the Roman characters have the usual British accents, but Marc Antony is definitely American. Cleopatra’s advisers and handmaidens likewise sport American and British accents while she, again, sports a Latin accent.

Back to Cleopatra, her character is not as in control of things as usually portrayed. She has her moments of power, but also suffers some major political losses when contending with Rome. One criticism I have is that when things do not go her way she can get a little too visibly emotional when expressing her distaste to Julius Caesar or one of her advisers. Of course, this is a Hallmark production.

Cleopatra, like most great political leaders, would have been able to control her emotions and not show weakness. This Cleopatra also has a couple moments where she gets in on the action. One might complain that this veers into girl boss territory and it is correct that the real Cleopatra was no warrior. In Hallmark’s defense, however, she only fights when directly attacked and also this was not, like the Netflix series, purported to be a documentary.

The other two major characters are Julius Caesar and Marc Antony. Julius Caesar is played gloriously by Timothy Dalton, an actor I always love to see. One standout moment involves him dramatically rising out of a bath in slow motion. The relationship between Cleopatra and Caesar here is filled with much more tension than is usually seen in other adaptations. While they enjoy each other’s company to the point of having an affair, Julius Caesar clearly has the upper hand and tends to support Cleopatra’s power plays only as far as it stabilizes Egypt and ensures its protection payments to Rome.

Dalton’s performance is by far the best part of the mini-series. When his character gets assassinated at the halfway point the movie gets noticeably less engaging. At this point Cleopatra begins her proper relationship with Marc Antony, played by Billy Zane. I do have to commend the mini-series for introducing Antony relatively early on. In the 1963 film he took forever to show up and had almost no interaction with the title character until Caesar was dead. Here he escorts Cleopatra to Rome and defends her against an assassination plot. Thus when they ally with each other and become true lovers, it feels more natural. As with many other adaptations Cleopatra is shown to have a genuine romance with Antony, even though their relationship had as much political motivations as that of her and Caesar’s.

One final character of note is Octavian (Rupert Graves), later to become Augustus Caesar. This miniseries continues the odd trend of portraying Octavian as a haughty semi-villain. I think the issue is that filmmakers (and those directing Shakespeare’s plays based on the period) like to make Cleopatra the protagonist. After all, how many powerful queens became major players in the days of Rome? As a result Octavian, who challenges her and Antony, has to be put in the light of antagonist. It is ironic because in the days of the Roman Empire Octavian was portrayed as the hero who prevented the wicked foreigner Cleopatra from taking over the world through Marc Antony. It should also be noted that Cleopatra and Antony tend to get the role of underdogs. In reality they controlled the eastern, more prosperous half of the Roman Empire. It was the superior tactics of Octavian’s favored commander Marcus Agrippa which produced so many defeats for Cleopatra.

As far as production values go Hallmark’s mini-series is not too bad despite the constraints of television. CGI helps create the vistas of Alexandria and Rome while the interior sets are good. I did notice a couple costume gaffes with the Roman army. I believe the feathery helmets did not appear until centuries later. The battle scenes are not too bad despite their limitations. The highlight is Julius Caesar personally getting into the fray while fending off Arsinoe’s army at Alexandria. I doubt he was that personally involved in the actual combat but it’s cool to see thanks to Dalton’s performance. The Battle of Actium was a major naval clash, but with its limited budget the mini-series mostly focuses on the action aboard Antony and Cleopatra’s ships respectively. Trevor Jones’ musical score is also quite good.

Overall Hallmark’s Cleopatra is a solid three hours of entertainment. The second half is not as engaging as the first and the portrayal of the lead character is mixed. But it is much more faithful to history than the supposed documentary on Netflix and tries to treat its historical figures with a measure of respect.

Rating: 6/10