Cleopatra

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4:37

Cleopatra

G

1963

4h 3m

History

Drama

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Tomatometer

Popcornmeter

56%

Tomatometer

43 Reviews

67%

Popcornmeter

10,000+ Ratings

"Cleopatra" is a lengthy, sprawling, spectacular love story, helmed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, depicting Cleopatra's manipulation of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony in her ill-fated attempt to save the Egyptian empire. This threesome in one of the most famous and gloriously powerful love triangles ever to be captured on film.

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Critics Consensus

Cleopatra is a lush, ostentatious, endlessly eye-popping epic that sags collapses from a (and how could it not?) four-hour runtime.

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Kate Muir

The Times (UK)

Cleopatra is a piece of overcooked lunacy.

Jan 2, 2024

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Penelope Houston

Sight & Sound

As the sets seem to grow bigger and bigger, so progressively the players dwindle.

Feb 11, 2020

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Richard Brody

The New Yorker

Taylor inhabits the role with a focussed but uninhibited imperiousness, as when she turns Cleopatra's entrance into Rome, aboard a giant rolling sphinx, into the ultimate red-carpet photo op.

Oct 6, 2014

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Penelope Gilliatt

Observer (UK)

The events have no pressure behind them: instead of erupting out of the upheavals of three powerfully exciting and self-willed personalities, they seem to be happening because the extras and the sets are there.

Mar 6, 2024

Full Review

Dilys Powell

Sunday Times (UK)

The difficulty for the performer of getting out from under the scenery, the sets, the costumes and the colour and making an impression not as a member of the cast but as an actor (or actress) is severe.

Aug 8, 2022

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Judith Crist

New York Herald Tribune

I must report that this film is at best a major disappointment, at worst an extravagant exercise in tedium.

Aug 8, 2022

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Eli H

Its a gorgeous looking film, but it is excruciatingly long at four hours. It has a natural endpoint in the middle and probably is an example of a movie that could have been two films. Richard Burton is very good as Marc Antony, everyone else give middling performances. This movie needed to be cut, but Mank couldn't bare to have audiences miss a speck of gold of his immaculate set. You can skip this one unless you've got serious patience.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

10/22/25

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John R

This movie is a gorgeous mess. I recently saw it in lovely 70 mm. It really is two movies inartfully smushed together. The casting of the spectacular and talented Elizabeth Taylor as the Middle Eastern Cleopatra does not work very well, although she does well given the script and circumstances. Roddy McDowall's character has a good arc. Rex Harrison and Richard Burton are good but not great. The movie also has too little action for its subject matter.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

10/22/25

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Walter H

I saw this in a theater on its initial release. My date was a no show (sob) but I watched it all, with an intermission that was popular at the time for long movies. The supporting cast make the movie work. Taylor was OK but too old to play a 21 year-old Cleopatra with any credibility, while Burton did not convince me that Antony might've ruled the Roman Empire but for the nagging problem of Octavian. Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar and Roddy McDowell as Octavian make the movie work, as well as other good supporting cast members. It goes on and on but truly is an epic.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

06/08/25

Full Review

Alexsander F

Now that's Absolut Cinema, a memorable epic that can be compared to Virgil's great Aeneid. It's four hours that pass in four minutes, but I'm a bit biased since I'm a great enthusiast of Roman history, period films and epics, and this film is a real treat for lovers of history and the great Shakespearean tragedies.

Rated 5 out of 5 stars

05/17/25

Full Review

thiago s

Filme bacaninha, o roteiro é mais ou menos, as cenas são bacaninhas, o elenco é mais ou menos, e alguns ajudam a melhorar o filme, a história é bacaninha, os personagens sao bacaninhas, e o filme deveria ter cenas bem melhores.

Rated 1.5 out of 5 stars

05/12/25

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rick r

CLEO {E TAULOR} AND MARK ANTHONY {R BURTON} WERE BORING WITH THEIR DREARY SHACKSPEARIAN MONOLOGS.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

12/27/24

Full Review

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Joseph L. Mankiewicz

Director

Elizabeth Taylor

Cleopatra

Richard Burton

Marc Antony

Rex Harrison

Julius Caesar

Pamela Brown

High Priestess

George Cole

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Cleopatra: Trailer 1

4:37

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Synopsis

"Cleopatra" is a lengthy, sprawling, spectacular love story, helmed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, depicting Cleopatra's manipulation of Julius Caesar and Marc Antony in her ill-fated attempt to save the Egyptian empire. This threesome in one of the most famous and gloriously powerful love triangles ever to be captured on film.

Director: Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Producer: Walter Wanger
Screenwriter: Sidney Buchman, Carlo Mario Franzero, Ranald MacDougall, Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Distributor: 20th Century Fox
Production Co: Twentieth Century Fox
Rating: G
Genre: History, Drama
Original Language: English
Release Date (Theaters): Jun 12, 1963, Wide
Release Date (Streaming): Sep 18, 2012
Runtime: 4h 3m
Sound Mix: Stereo
Aspect Ratio: Scope (2.35:1)

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