7.5 | / 10 |
Users | 4.1 | |
Reviewer | 4.5 | |
Overall | 4.2 |
Historical epic. The triumphs and tragedy of the Egyptian queen, Cleopatra.
Starring: Elizabeth Taylor, Richard Burton, Rex Harrison, Pamela Brown, George Cole (I)Drama | 100% |
History | 87% |
Romance | 83% |
Period | 67% |
Epic | 59% |
Biography | 45% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.22:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.20:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English: Dolby Digital 4.0 (Original)
Spanish: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
French: DTS 5.1
Spanish: DTS 5.1
Portuguese: Dolby Digital 5.1 (448 kbps)
English SDH, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Danish, Dutch, Finnish, Hebrew, Icelandic, Mandarin (Simplified), Norwegian, Swedish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (2 BDs)
Region free
Movie | 4.5 | |
Video | 4.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 5.0 | |
Overall | 4.5 |
It was the end of an era. Once mighty rulers found themselves powerless in the wake of events beyond their control. New alliances formed, sending shock waves across the bow of the existing world order. Communities that once teemed with activity were left barren and empty, mere husks of their former selves. A once incredibly opulent society was brought to its knees, never again to be the same. Wait a minute: are we talking about the decline of Ancient Egypt or 20th Century Fox circa 1962-63? The fact is, the descriptions are equally apt for either situation. If Cleopatra ostensibly was about the last Pharoah of Ancient Egypt, the film also stood as a metaphor for the bloated excesses which would continue to create problems for many of the major Hollywood studios, ultimately leading to either their outright demise or at least their radical reorganization. Fox seemed to be the most prone to stumbling in the 1960s, though it certainly had competition from other once mighty studios. Cleopatra probably looked stellar on paper, with a trio of A-list stars and (ultimately) the participation of Joseph Mankiewicz, an intellectual filmmaker of protean capabilities who had nonetheless never attempted a film of this magnitude before. But the actual production was weighed down by so many calamities, including the near death of star Elizabeth Taylor, that the already large budget ballooned into previously unheard of territory, coming very close to bankrupting Fox in the process. There’s a certain irony in watching Cleopatra, especially its closing scenes which offer vistas of a deserted royal lair and realizing that Fox would soon suffer much the same fate, selling huge tracts of its now desolate backlot to create Century City in suburban Los Angeles (no jokes please about how desolate Century City turned out to be). Cleopatra was as famous for its cost overruns and the supposed scandal of the hyperbolically publicized affair between Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton which occurred during the film's prolonged shoot as it ever was for anything inherent to the film itself, but the intervening decades since the film’s release have offered some perspective on a famously troubled production that actually resulted in a rather awe inspiring film.
Cleopatra is presented on Blu-ray courtesy of 20th Century Fox Home Entertainment with an AVC encoded 1080p transfer in 2.22:1. As fans of this film no doubt know, Fox released a Cleopatra Blu-ray in the United Kingdom last year which my colleague Dr. Svet Atanasov reviewed here. I imported this region free title since I am such a huge fan of the film and couldn't wait for its announced domestic release. I have included five screenshots from the UK edition (the last five accompanying this review in locations 31-35) which show there is no appreciable difference between these two releases, leading me to believe these are almost certainly the same transfer. In fact the only major difference between the UK and US releases was the decision to place the Entr'acte at the beginning of the second disc rather than the end of the first disc, something that had riled the more persnickety consumers who picked up the UK release. Otherwise, this domestic release is very much in line with what Svet discussed in his review of the UK edition. Some people have grumbled about the color timing of this release, alleging a blue tint, but if anything I feel this may be just slightly (and I emphasize slightly) on the brown side, something that tends to happen with aging elements (I have subtracted a half a point due to this, but obviously your mileage may well vary). That said, this is simply a staggering transfer of large format source elements, one absolutely rife with impeccable fine object detail and some amazing depth of field in the location sequences. There is no damage that I noticed anywhere throughout this transfer, and also no compression artifacts. Best of all, there hasn't been any over aggressive digital tweaking here, and the result is a beautifully filmic presentation.
Cleopatra features a lossless DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 mix (as well as a Dolby Digital 4.0 mix). There's some very slight brittleness in the DTS mix that is quite noticeable in some of the dialogue, especially in the first scene with Caesar and Cleopatra, where Harrison's voice sounds just slightly boxy (I almost wonder if this scene was post-looped, which might account for the quality difference). Otherwise, though, this is a spectacular sounding track, one that really makes the most of Alex North's absolutely miraculous score (easily one of my all time favorites, and one that I personally believe should have easily bested John Addison's charming but less ambitious Tom Jones for that year's Academy Award). The doublebasses and cellos are so much more vibrant in this lossless mix it's almost unbelievable, as is the huge battery of exotic percussion North marshaled for this incredibly visceral score. Other than the slight anomalies mentioned above, dialogue is very cleanly presented and there is some incredible immersion in several of the film's huge set pieces (some of which depend again upon North's simply incomparable scoring).
Cleopatra comes in a handsomely designed DigiBook full of pictures and text, and it's housed in a nicely
illustrated slipcover
(one of the few times I personally can recall a DigiBook being housed this way). This is undoubtedly a more handsome
presentation than the
UK edition which came out last year. The on disc supplements include:
Disc One
I have loved Cleopatra since I first saw it on television when I was a kid and then managed to find the original soundtrack LP for a mere 49 cents at a bargain basement store. The film was unfairly pilloried at the time of its release due to the cost overruns and the infamous Taylor- Burton affair, but time has been more than kind to this enterprise. Unusually intelligent and impeccably produced, Cleopatra is a one of a kind entertainment that is both epic and intimate. This Blu-ray features fantastic video and audio and has superior supplementary material. Highly recommended.
1951
1960
2007
1998
2005-2006
1934
70th Anniversary Edition
1939
Fiftieth Anniversary
1959
2009
1964
2017
1953
2008
2009
2011
2013
2006
Special Edition
1968
45th Anniversary Edition
1965
2011