It's utterly unintelligible to a contemporary speaker of English, so regardless of how "great" the performances may have been regarded seven decades ago, this is now total garbage. I bailed on it ten minutes in; don't waste even that much time. The story needs a modern remake with a completely new script. Dialog can be weighty and still be understood by its intended audience.

This is a good standard filming of the Shakespearean drama about Roman politics

Brando really is suprisingly good here (the rest of the cast is as great as you expect) and I like how this adaptation reduces the play to it's essential pieces which allows for the plot to move quickly.

This could be the best Shakesperian movie adaptation. A masterclass from the all star cast with Brando outshining them all.

A perfectly well put together adaption of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The performances are well done, and memorable. Marlon Brando steals the show in this picture.

Beyond a doubt my favorite film adaptation of a Shakespearian play. Marlon Brando is fantastic as Marc Antony. He truly shows his flexibility as an actor in the truest sense of the word. But the true star of the play, and so of the film, is Brutus, played by the excellent actor James Mason. He is riveting in his portrayal. The acting in general is in the style of the 1940s and 50s, so more stylized than the technique we see in today's acting, so watch and try not to compare it the more realistic approach we see today. It's apples and oranges.

I would love to be able to give this movie five stars. But it has too many flaws. Despite the distinguished cast, almost all the acting, except for that of James Mason, is stiff and declamatory, lacking in subtlety and nuance. The plaza where the great speeches of Brutus and Marc Antony take place is claustrophobic and looks like a construction site. The citizens of Rome look like poorly costumed actors rather than real people. Little is done to differentiate the main supporting characters. Especially annoying is the fine actor Edmund O'Brian playing what should be a semi-comical character, Casca, as a mere dull message bearer. And no one could possibly take Lous Calhern's wooden old man as Caesar the conquerer. But most disappointing is John Gilgud's one-dimensional, angry Cassius. It's impossible to believe that he actually persuades Brutus to assassinate Caesar. Three stars for effort. But successful Shakespeare on film still belongs to Laurence Olivier.

If you struggled in high school to decipher the archaic prose style of "The Bard" then you'll agree with my one star rating. I just clicked on this hoping that it might parallel the Shakespearean story but with dialog intelligible to the modern English speaker. I was wrong. The actor cast in the title role is a clear mistake; one would naturally expect a younger and more vigorous-looking man to portray the conqueror of Gaul and the victor of the Civil War. This Caesar looks as if he's about to expire any minute from purely natural causes, not via assassination. I just couldn't watch this for more than ten minutes. It's tough enough to read a written version of the play and make sense of it; it's darn near impossible to make much sense when your ear is assaulted by rapid-fire speech. I congratulate the actors for mastering their lines, but I can't rate this higher on that account alone.

Brando really is suprisingly good here (the rest of the cast is as great as you expect) and I like how this adaptation reduces the play to it's essential pieces which allows for the plot to move quickly.

A great adaptation of one of the shortest plays of the Shakespeare. And with a great cinematography, sets and a cast of great actors I don't think it is an exaggeration to say, that Brando is clear stand out. As Mark Antony was also intended to be in a play. At first Brando was met with skepticism by his contemporaries but he carries the role brilliantly. Going from a figure in a background, to a scared silhouette in a hallway, to begrudgingly shaking hands with a conspirators hiding his rage, to a calculative play on the crowd's emotions. All with fervor, all so convincingly, that you might just turn into a caesarist right then and there. It is no fault of the movie but the play does not really elaborate on anyone's character or motive for the conspiracy besides Brutus and Cassius, and to be fair so doesn't the history.

Proper adaptation with a good cast.

Dir: Joseph L. Mankiewicz (All About Eve, Cleopatra (1963), Sleuth (1972)) Cast: James Mason, Marlon Brando, Louis Calhern, John Gielgud, Edmond O'Brien, Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr Envious Roman senators Cassius (John Gielgud) and Casca (Edmond O'Brien) convince noble Brutus (James Mason) to join their plot to assassinate Julius Caesar (Louis Calhern). While the conspirators manage to get the Roman people's sympathies, Marc Antony's (Marlon Brando) speech turn the people from the murders and sets up the destruction of the Republic. Within minutes of the films opening, I was captivated. Classic Shakespeare is so engaging. I was compelled to rewind and re-watch many scenes . Let me be clear this isn't because it was confusing, but rather that the lines and delivery were so rich that I was holding on to that moment of the performance and staying there. Every line felt like it was addressing so many different levels of information - to myself, to the character it was being said to, to the actor speaking the dialog. I was blown away but the richness. The performances here are key to the films success. I was very impressed by Marlon Brando performance as Mark Antony. Shakespeare's most famous speeches. "Friends, Romans, countrymen, lend me your ears". Brando dropping his often used mumbling in favor of clear and intense enunciation. Marlon Brando was absolutely tremendous. As the quality of any Shakespearian performance depends to an overwhelming degree on the acting, I'm happy to say that Brando isn't the only one to give real life and meaning to the dialog. Mason, Gielgud, O'Brien, and Calhern match him, as do Greer Garson and Deborah Kerr in near cameo roles. While Julius Caesar is not a particularly difficult play to understand, clarity is always an issue with an adaptation of Shakespeare as so many words and phrases have fallen out of use (and no one ever spoke in verse), but in this version, everything is perfectly comprehendible due to the actors' tone and expression. This is a cast that knows what they are saying, what the underlying emotions are, and how to get that across to an audience. Oscar-winning art direction-set decoration. 10/10

Great adaptation of the Shakespeare play. I was absolutely stunned by Marlon Brando's funeral speech. It makes you really understand why this makes the people riot against Brutus and Cassius. I saw other adaptations of the same play, but there the actors that play Marc Anthony never come even close to Brando's performance.

The best epic movie ever made!

Incredible classic. One of the best Shakespeare movies I’ve seen. Decadent and mysterious and thoroughly enjoyable.

obviously well-acted, but I'd like to see a remake in modern language

In this movie, you have the world's greatest playwright (Shakespeare) combined with one of the world's greatest actors (Brando), two other fantastic talents (Mason and Gielgud), and a compelling historical tale (the assassination of Julius Caesar and resulting civil war). On paper, this should be an extraordinary film. And I have to say, the scenes with Brando right after the assassination are compelling (the one in private ending with him raging "Cry 'Havoc!'", and of course the address to the crowd), even if he slips on a word or two. Watch it primarily for those, because the rest of the film, while erudite and worth watching, just doesn't translate as well. I disliked Louis Calhern as Caesar as he didn't have the right bearing or presence. Director Mankiewicz is faithful, perhaps too faithful, to the original, though adapting the play may have been a damned if you do, damned if you don't type situation. Regardless, there are elements that shine with Shakespeare's beautiful words, and there are other elements that fall flat.

Brando brilliantly delivers the great monologue but even with Mason, Gielgud and Calhern carrying their own weight, the film, outside the acting, is mostly flat.

Still the best JC adaptation out there, no matter how old. The cast is excellent. Most people watch this for Marlon Brando - and he's a great Antony - but it's James Mason and John Gielgud who really make this movie so memorable. They had wonderful chemistry. Hard not to root for the Liberators, even if they are doomed.

9.5 out of 10: The captivating performances and set design makes for one of director Joseph Mankiewicz's more underrated classics.