Watch Cleopatra For Free

One of my all time favorites.

Absolutely Brilliant!

This is one of the few movies I've ever seen where the whole audience broke into spontaneous, loud applause a third of the way in.

Excellent and certainly provocative... If nothing else, the film is a real conversation starter.

Rex Harrison is Julius Caesar with a British accent. Elizabeth Taylor is Cleopatra, and Richard Burton is Marc Antony. Cleopatra gives the first half of this long movie to Caesar and the second half to Antony. It makes use of my 3 years of Latin. I saw it that summer with my first girl friend. Egypt meets Rome! I admit the history was over my head at age 17, but I have since grown into it. Caesar was murdered by his friends, while Cleopatra and Antony committed suicide. We only catch a glimpse of the cobra as it slithers away. In 1963, Hollywood was not yet willing to shock audiences. Wimpy Roddy McDowell plays wimpy Octavian, who went on to inherit the Roman Empire. The summer of 1963 was a season of overblown productions, another of which was How the West Was Won.

"Cleopatra" (1963) is better that it's reputed to be. It's overlong, of course, but the production drips with opulence from nearly every frame, the acting is strong, the storytelling is good (despite the cuts), and there are some HUMONGOUS set pieces (Cleopatra's entrance into Rome probably surpasses anything similar that has been attempted before or since). Personally I think every movie buff needs to see this movie at least once, it can be an eye-filling experience and it can be an ordeal, but it's a rare example of cinematic ambition (over?)shooting for the moon. *** out of 4.

(Flash Review)I watched the 4hr version. There is a 2hr cut as well as a long lost 5.5hr version. Watch Cleopatra, the ruler of Egypt, use her femininity to attract and try to influence such famous rulers as Caesar and Mark Antony as she tries to increase Egypt's world standing and her own title. Taylor and the male leads do a convincing job with dialog that is engaging, informative and moves the meaty story along at a decent clip to help mask its immense length. The various main and sub plots are solid and easy to follow even with a slew of characters. The sets steal the show and they are huge, realistic and bold. There is humor, drama and sorrow and is a memorable film for the ages.

Undeniably spectacular sets and settings, off and on. Amazingly soporific dialogue unimaginatively spoken by miscast actors. Rex Harrison is patrician enough, but he's not my idea of a little, epileptic, balding, battle-hardened veteran who has fought his way from Rome to the British Isles and back; and Miss Taylor is definitely not my idea of Cleopatra. She's more like a chubby housewife from a London suburb, giving herself airs. It's the director and the script that make a movie. They've managed to make more or less nothing here. I'm talking about the first half of the 2 DVD discs, and am taking a few hours off, to recuperate, by scribbling a few thoughts.Back to the sittathon. Contrary to a lot of the opinions on this website, I thought the second disc was slightly better, acting-wise, than the first. Burton was more passionately emotive, and even Liz improved a little. I wouldn't say they were anything special however. Roddy McDowall seemed to me abysmally miscast as Octavian, but I suppose he did his best. There had obviously been an effort to replicate the man's actual appearance, but I can't believe the historical Augustus was quite so fragile looking. In the first disc the entry of Cleopatra's entourage into Rome was definitely spectacular. I can't believe her actual entry was anything remotely like it. In the second disc, the battle of Actium had me lost, I regret to say. I gather the reason this half of the film flowed so badly and was so difficult to follow was because large chunks had been cut from the narrative to reduce the film from 6 hours to 4. If I've got that right. The result was something of a butchered mess. I did wind up feeling sad. But can't bring myself to award more than half marks.