Envious Roman senators Cassius (John Gielgud) and Casca (Edmond O’Brien) convince noble Brutus (James Mason) to join their plot to assassinate Julius Caesar (Louis Calhern). While the conspirators manage to get the Roman people’s sympathies, Marc Antony’s (Marlon Brando) speech turn the people from the murders and sets up the destruction of the Republic.
Producer John Houseman and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz stick to the basics to make this one of the better Shakespearean films. Great actors reciting great dialog in a fitting and non-distracting setting—that’s all it takes.
The sets were recycled from earlier movies, but you’d never guess that. There is a bit of German expressionism at work as the cameras are often angled up in the early scenes, making the buildings seem gigantic (and the murderers-to-be appear even more sinister). Add in the vivid B&W, and the film has a perfect, stylized Rome that supports, but never takes attention away from, the lines.
While top billing is given to Marlon Brando as Antony and the title is Julius Caesar, the lead is actually Brutus. The play is a tragedy not because of what happens to Caesar, but because a good man lets his patriotism and altruism cloud his judgment. James Mason is superb as the noble Brutus, using his melodious voice, which was often wasted in lesser films, to great effect.
As the quality of any Shakespearian performance depends to an overwhelming degree on the acting, I’m happy to say that Mason isn’t the only one to give real life and meaning to the dialog. Gielgud, O’Brien, and Calhern match him, as do Greer Garson and Deborah Kerr in near cameo roles. While Julius Caesar is not a particularly difficult play to understand, clarity is always an issue with an adaptation of Shakespeare as so many words and phrases have fallen out of use (and no one ever spoke in verse), but in this version, everything is perfectly comprehendible due to the actors’ tone and expression. This is a cast that knows what they are saying, what the underlying emotions are, and how to get that across to an audience.
Less impressive than the work of the others is the linear performance of Marlon Brando. He is better than I expected, dropping his often used mumbling in favor of reasonably clear enunciation. Still, he, or director Mankiewicz, made poor choices for Anthony, in particular having him simply shout one of Shakespeare’s most famous speeches. “Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears” should be the beginning of a sly eulogy that twists the emotions of the crowd. Here it is just loud.
The only complete failure in the production is a lackluster battle scene where far too few soldiers run about at cranked-up speed having little contact with each other, while archers, who obviously aren’t being filmed at the same time, shoot at nothing in particular. As it is unnecessary to show the combat, I fault Mankiewicz for adding something that he was incapable of pulling off or paying for. But it is only a few minutes and easy to ignore.
I love the overall look of the film, and listening to Mason, Gielgud, and O’Brien together is a treat. Take away Brando and replace him with Paul Scofield (who was the choice if the stunt casting didn’t work out) and this would easily have been a 4 star film.