Julius Caesar
1970: Stuart Burge

This big-budget 1970 extravaganza features some real acting talent, but it is mixed with some fairly poor work as well. The whole is so badly conceived and put together that most of the effort is wasted. Worthy of note, however, is the reappearance of John Gielgud in the role of Caesar himself. A genuine stage-trained actor like Christopher Lee is wasted on the relatively trivial role of Artemidorus.

On the other hand, some often-good actors in other material are woefully miscast. Perhaps at the pinnacle of this dubious heap is Jason Robards. His middle-American diction bespeaks not only his origins but the fact that he hasn’t really thought clearly about what he’s saying. He seems to be reciting his lines, not bringing them forth as something he’s actually thought of to say. Charlton Heston is revisiting the role of Marc Antony, and he doesn’t do a really bad job, but he doesn’t do a really good one either. The rest drift along, as if they were not entirely in the same play, speaking their lines, but with neither real conviction nor real connection with others.

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