Julius Caesar (1970, Pan & Scan)
Picture:
C- Sound: C Extras: D Film: B-
Shakespeare
is not easy to do on film and keeping it interesting on many levels is not
easy. One of the more ambitious attempts
is a 1970 version of Julius Caesar
that was made in England.
In between his two Planet Of The
Apes films, Charlton Heston played Mark Antony here, joined by John Gielgud
in the title role, Jason Robards as Marcus Brutus, Richard Johnson as Caius
Cassius, Robert Vaughn as Casca, Richard Chamberlain as Octavius Caesar, Diana
Rigg as Portia, Christopher Lee as Artemidorus, Jill Bennett as Calpurnia, and
other veterans like Michael Gough and Andre Morell rounding out a sizable cast.
Though it
is not well thought of, this is a better film than may have given it credit
for, always considered inferior to the 1953 Joseph L. Mankiewicz version, but
it has its pluses that may not be getting credit because of how the older
version has overshadowed this one. I
like the cast and some really good performances and chemistry all around. There are some unintended hoots, partly
because some of the non-British cast might seem awkward, but the film itself is
hard to judge on this DVD for the following reasons.
Thought
he image is letterboxed at the beginning of the film, the image becomes a
dreadful pan and scan presentation that lops off about 60% of the image shot by
cinematographer Ken Higgins in 2.35 X 1 Panavision and printed at the time in
dye-transfer three-strip Technicolor.
The letterboxed footage at the beginning looks very faded and soft. The Dolby Digital 2.0 Mono is designed on
home theater systems to go into Pro Logic mode and stuff all the sound into the
center channel, which is no help. Either
way you play it back, it is very average and the Michael J. Lewis score suffers
as well. There are no extras.
Director
Stuart Burge, who did a 1959 version of the story with Gough as Cassius for
British TV, obviously knows the material and the free-style the film is shot
using the full scope frame and edited by Eric Boyd-Perkins is a plus. Too bad this DVD version butchers that. Hope it is eventually issued properly, maybe
in a special edition.
- Nicholas Sheffo
