Movie Review: Julius Caesar (1953)

If there is a name that strikes fear in all too many public school students
today, it is "William Shakespeare." Shakespeare is dreaded because the
nature of his writing renders his works difficult to understand. Shakespeare's choice of poetic language is baffling to many young people who have no place for poetry in their lives. Such is the intellectual barrenness of the public school system.

This barrenness was was evident even back in the days when most people think of public education as being in some sort of golden age. Well, even back before the slide in college prep test scores that started back during
the 1960's, literature was not anywhere close to the choices made in selection of fictional reading material made by young people when they were not in an educational environment.

As a result, previous Shakespeare movies such as the classic 1936 production of "Romeo and Juliet" starring Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer bombed out at the box office. By the early 1950's, Shakespeare plays were considered economic poison for the movie studios. This made MGM's decision to go ahead with this production all the more surprising.

The original play "Julius Caesar" by William Shakespeare is one of the
bard's more peculiar plays. There are few heroes in the play for an audience to root for. The title character is a vainglorious swine who richly
deserves to be assassinated. None of the conspiratorial assassins are
characters who win the sympathy of the crowd.

Over half a century following its release, the 1953 Julius
Caesar is still one of the best, if not in fact the very best,
film adaptation of a play by William Shakespeare. It was nominated
for five Academy Awards including Best Picture and it won the Oscar
for Best Black & White Art Direction/Set Decoration. It was directed
by the legendary Joseph L. Mankiewicz and produced by John Houseman.

One of the most notable aspects of Julius Caesar is the idea that people can have honorable motives for doing an heinous act. In this case, the conspirators were aiming at assassinating the dictator Julius Caesar and restoring the republic. In order to win public support for their attempted coup, the conspirators know that they must enlist the support of the dictator's nephew, Brutus, who is wildly popular with the Roman people.

The 1953 movie version of William Shakespeare's play Julius
Caesar is a movie with distinct strengths and weaknesses. On the
plus side, you have a strong cast, solid script, excellent
cinematography & consistent direction. On the minus side, the Battle
of Phillippi was poorly done and some of the dialogue was rather dense.

All that said and done, Julius Caesar is still a great Hollywood movie
adaptation of the classic play by William Shakespeare. If you want to watch an excellent Shakespearean movie, then this is the best one to catch at your local video shop.