Cleopatra (1963)
73%RT Audience Score: 69%
Awards & Nominations: Won 4 Oscars
6 wins & 13 nominations total
Cleopatra is a lush, ostentatious, endlessly eye-popping epic that sags collapses from a (and how could it not?) four-hour runtime
Cleopatra” is a movie that’s as long as a workday, but with more drama and less coffee breaks. The sets are so big, you’ll feel like you’re watching a movie about giants. Elizabeth Taylor is the queen of the Nile, and she’s got more sass than a catwalk model. Rex Harrison as Caesar is the real MVP, and his performance is worth the price of admission. It’s a Hollywood epic that’s so extra, it’s like a buffet of popcorn and drama. So, grab your family, some snacks, and settle in for a night of ancient history and Hollywood excess.
Production Company(ies)
HBO Documentary Films, Jigsaw Productions, Sky Atlantic
Distributor
20th Century Fox
Release Type
Theatrical
Filming Location(s)
Cinecittà Studios, Cinecittà, Rome, Lazio, Italy
MPAA / Certificate
G
Year of Release
1963
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Color:Color
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Sound mix:Dolby
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Aspect ratio:2.39 : 1
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Runtime:4h 3m
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Language(s):English
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Country of origin:United States
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Release date:Release Date (Theaters): Jun 12, 1963 Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Feb 7, 2006
Genre(s)
History/Drama
Keyword(s)
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Worldwide gross: $57,777,778
Worldwide gross (inflation-adjusted): $634,556,340
Worldwide gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): 211
Worldwide tickets sold (est.): 69,199,165
US/Canada gross: NA
US/Canada gross (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada gross ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend:
US/Canada opening weekend (inflation-adjusted): NA
US/Canada opening weekend ranking (inflation-adjusted): NA
Budget and Earnings Details
Production budget (est.): $44,000,000
Production budget (inflation-adjusted): $483,239,057
Production budget ranking: 3
Marketing and distribution budget (inflation-adjusted est.): $260,224,232
Box office net earnings to date (inflation-adjusted est.): -$108,906,949
ROI to date (est.): -15%
ROI ranking: 1,476
Anne Alvaro – Clara
Agnès Jaoui – Manie
Gérard Lanvin – Franck Moreno
Alain Chabat – Bruno Deschamps
Brigitte Catillon – Beatrice
Director(s)
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Writer(s)
Sidney Buchman, Carlo Mario Franzero, Ranald MacDougall, Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Producer(s)
Walter Wanger
Film Festivals
Cannes
Awards & Nominations
Won 4 Oscars
6 wins & 13 nominations total
Academy Awards
Oscar Nominees
All Critics (40) | Top Critics (13) | Fresh (24) | Rotten (16)
As the sets seem to grow bigger and bigger, so progressively the players dwindle.
February 11, 2020
Penelope Houston
Sight & Sound
TOP CRITIC
Taylor inhabits the role with a focussed but uninhibited imperiousness, as when she turns Cleopatra’s entrance into Rome, aboard a giant rolling sphinx, into the ultimate red-carpet photo op.
October 6, 2014
Richard Brody
New Yorker
TOP CRITIC
A stately but sometimes mindboggling spectacle.
July 11, 2013 | Rating: 4/5
Peter Bradshaw
Guardian
TOP CRITIC
Melodramatic, and camp as Christmas, but nothing like the disaster its reputation suggests.
July 11, 2013 | Rating: 3/5
Matthew Thrift
Little White Lies
TOP CRITIC
It’s a once-in-a-lifetime experience, for good and ill.
July 9, 2013 | Rating: 3/5
Trevor Johnston
Time Out
TOP CRITIC
For four hours this moody, glossy pantomime leadenly plods on, saying much more about the hubris and excess of old-time Hollywood thinking than the burnished glories of an ancient world.
May 5, 2008 | Rating: 2/5
Ian Nathan
Empire Magazine
TOP CRITIC
Far from the sumptuous sets that reproduce antiquity with a certain authenticity, ‘Cleopatra’ is an epic spectacle to which I find nothing but an erratic and artificious result in its four hours and eleven minutes of length. [Full Review in Spanish]
November 2, 2021 | Rating: 6/10
Yasser Medina
Cinemaficionados
Worth a look…. for a single performance: Rex Harrison as Caesar.
February 5, 2020
Merl Edelman
Los Angeles Free Press
Rex Harrison is the undisputed hit of the show as a subtle and sardonic Julius Caesar…
October 7, 2019
Clyde Gilmour
Maclean’s Magazine
The spectacular scenes were confused and oddly minuscule… Still and all, there was Elizabeth Taylor. At first I was disappointed, a large statement considering my expectations. Then I realized what she was up to and didn’t regret my $1.25.
August 13, 2019
Dwight MacDonald
Esquire Magazine
To watch this film is to see the Hollywood story itself.
August 16, 2017
Brooke Corso
The Monitor (McAllen, TX)
It may not be as compelling and tightly edited as Ben-Hur, but Cleopatra is still a Hollywood epic that tells a grand story in a grand way. Save it for a night when the family feels like a four-hour spectacle.
March 30, 2016 | Rating: B
James Plath
Family Home Theater…
Plot
In 48 B.C., Julius Caesar (Sir Rex Harrison) pursues Pompey from Pharsalia to Egypt. Pharaoh Ptolemy XIII (Richard O’Sullivan), now supreme ruler after deposing his older sister, Cleopatra VII (Dame Elizabeth Taylor), attempts to gain favor with Caesar by presenting the conquerer with the head of Pompey, borne by his governors, Pothinus (Grégoire Aslan) and Achillas (John Doucette). To win Caesar’s support from her brother, Cleopatra hides herself in a rug, which Apollodorus (Cesare Danova), her servant, presents to Caesar. The Roman is immediately infatuated. Banishing Ptolemy, he declares Cleopatra Egypt’s sole ruler and takes her as his mistress. A son, Caesarion (Loris Loddi), is born of their union. Caesar, however, must return to Italy. Although he is briefly reunited with Cleopatra during a magnificent reception for the Queen in Rome, Caesar is assassinated shortly thereafter, and Cleopatra returns to Egypt. When Mark Antony (Richard Burton), Caesar’s protégé, beholds Cleopatra aboard her elaborate barge at Tarsus some years later, he is smitten and becomes both her lover and military ally. Their liaison notwithstanding, Antony, to consolidate his position in Rome, marries Octavia (Jean Marsh), sister of the ambitious Octavian (Roddy McDowall). The marriage satisfies no one. Cleopatra is infuriated, and Antony, tiring of his Roman wife, returns to Egypt. There he flaunts his liaison by marrying Cleopatra in a public ceremony. Sensing Antony’s weakness, Octavian attacks and defeats his forces at Actium. Alarmed, Cleopatra withdraws her fleet and seeks refuge in her tomb.
Trivia
Goofs / Tidbits
NA
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