History Vs Hollywood
Director: Joseph L Mankiewicz Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison Country: Egypt Released: 1963
Does Cleopatra tell epic lies in its classic drama?
A historic Hollywood epic, but did it get the facts straight?
01
The early part of the film concentrates on Caesar as he chases down his adversary Pompey to Egypt only to be presented with his head by the young pharaoh Ptolemy XIII. As shown in the film, Caesar was disgusted by this treatment of a respected Roman.
02
Cleopatra first gets to meet Caesar by being hidden inside a rolled up carpet and being brought to his private chambers. She later witnesses him experience an epileptic fit. These elements come from the writing of Plutarch and Suetonius respectively.
03
The film makes a big point of Cleopatra’s Greek heritage, which goes some way to excuse Taylor’s casting as an Egyptian. Modern historians believe her heritage would have been much more mixed. Her fashion in the film is also more 1960s than Egyptian.
04
A large omission from the film is any reference to the children Cleopatra and Mark Antony had together. While her son with Julius Caesar is prominent, she had boy and girl twins with Antony, followed by a further son later.
05
During the Battle of Actium the film shows Antony leaving the conflict to chase after Cleopatra as she appears to depart on her ship, abandoning his men to die. This is more or less how Plutarch described events, so it sticks to the history here.