Page 121 - Shakespeare in the Movie From the Silent Era to Shakespeare in Love

110 I Shakespeare in the Movies

El Cid. Medium-range (rather than long) establishing shots seemed
an obvious attempt to conceal the lack of a worthy set design.
Rather than historical Roman togas, the costuming by Julia Tevelyan
Oman was instead modeled on a baroque vision of classical Rome, as
later imagined by eighteenth-century painters. Heston described the
costumes as "anachronistic, ugly, and impossible to wear."
Howard Thompson of the New York Times tagged the film as
"flat and juiceless as a dead haddock." Despite its own limitations,
M-G-M's 1953 version towers over Burge's version. However, there
are qualities that shouldn't be overlooked, individual elements that,
in some instances, outclass their counterparts in the Mankiewicz
film. Chief among them is Gielgud's performance. Sir John makes
Caesar marvelously ambiguous, alternately sly and foolish. We here
believe that this man could early on see through Cassius's false show
of friendship, yet be vulnerable enough to flattery that he could be
lured to the forum against all logic. Louis Calhern offered a sim-
plistically pompous Caesar, while Gielgud creates a wise and weary
man, proud of his accomplishments rather than ego driven all out of
compass. When he dies, we are moved in a way we were not in the
earlier film.
The assassination scene is staged more realistically and believ-
ably here. In the 1953 film, the killing, once it begins, does not
noticeably change in tone. Caesar stands among senators who fall
upon him en masse. Since the assassination proceeds from Caesar's
refusal to bend on a noble's banishment ("I am as constant as the
north star"), it makes sense to have Caesar initially seated, across
from the body of senators, who recline in a gallery. This allows us to
believe that what Caesar initially perceives as a normal debate could
quickly transform into a confrontation, then escalate into brutal vio-
lence. The marvelous looks that pass over Gielgud's eyes reveal his
changing reaction to, and growing fear of, the men before him. When
attacked first by Casca (Robert Vaughn), then others in turn, Caesar
rises, stumbling about aimlessly as he is further mangled. When he
spots Brutus (whose back remains turned to the doomed man), Giel-
gud's eyes light up, wordlessly conveying Caesar's certainty that he'll
find solace. But when he grabs Brutus's arm, Caesar notices a knife,
then watches in disbelief as the blade punctures his stomach. Giel-
gud's reading of the legendary "Et tu, Brute?" allows the line, for
once, to play as the perfect conclusion to what occurred rather than
a remote quote from antiquity.