Julius Caesar (1970 film)
Julius Caesar is a 1970 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, directed by Stuart Burge. It stars Charlton Heston as Mark Antony, Jason Robards as Brutus, Richard Johnson as Cassius, John Gielgud as Caesar, Robert Vaughn as Casca, Richard Chamberlain as Octavius, and Diana Rigg as Portia.[2] It was an independent production of Commonwealth United Entertainment, filmed in England and Spain. It is the first film version of the play made in colour.
Julius Caesar
Robert Furnival
Julius Caesar
1599 play
by William Shakespeare
Eric Boyd-Perkins
Commonwealth United (U.K.)
American International Pictures (U.S.)
- 20 February 1970 (Tokyo premiere)
- 4 June 1970 (U.K.)
- 3 February 1971 (U.S.)
116 minutes
United Kingdom
United States[1]
English
Reception[edit]
Critical response[edit]
The reviews for this version upon its theatrical release were mostly negative, with Robards especially being criticized for his wooden performance as Brutus.
Howard Thompson wrote in his review:
Critic Roger Ebert gives it only one star. In his review, he wrote:
Charlton Heston later expressed dissatisfaction with the film, which had been a passion project, claiming it had a poor director, an unsuitable cameraman, and the wrong actor as Brutus. He called Jason Robards’ performance “the worst performance by a really good actor.”
Home media[edit]
The film was released on DVD on 11 May 2004 initially and then 1 February 2005, 25 July 2006, and 19 February 2013 afterwards.[9] Upon its 2013 Blu-ray disc release, it met with a more positive review from the website DVD Talk, although Jason Robards' performance was still soundly panned.[10] Its previous DVD release, which was pan-and-scanned rather than letterboxed, had been harshly criticized, and several other DVD reviewers also disparaged the film.[11]