i didnt like caesar in this movie.he was too dry.it wasnt how i imagine caesar;not overweight and he didnt seem to have a strong character just an arrogant one.i know caesar is supposed to be arrogant but other caesars ive watched displayed arrogance differently,with more charisma...anyhow i loved brando is this movie and brutus was also wonderful,but i dont believe that the movie would be worth watching if it were not for brando's performance.
shareYes, I didn't picture Caesar to look like this either. I think Lee J. Cobb would have made a great Caesar.
shareI was at first troubled by the Caesar portrayal but then settled into it. He is charismatic, observant, and played intelligently. He is the Caesar that Shakespeare wrote and though he may not be the General Patton that many imagine Caesar to have been, he is very much in the mold of Napoleon which may be more reasonable if one is to be a general and statesman.
Yes, I like Calhearn in this role too! Caesar was indeed an unprincipled ambitious and brutal conqueror.
shareThere's more to it than Brando's performance. And his character was equally arrogant. Perhaps Caesar seemed to you more like a well-fed corporate middle-manager in a toga. I don't know. I thought the performance was fine.
shareThis film has a very strong cast - it wasn't just Brando in this film although he was very good. Everyone was very strong.
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If you grew up in the 1960s, as I did, you'd think that Louis Calhern's Caesar was modeled on President Lyndon Johnson, although the film was a decade before LBJ's ascendancy!
shareI agree that Louis Calhern as Caesar was a flaw, especially compared to the striking performances by Brando, Mason, and Gielgud in the other three lead roles. I wish they would have cast Orson Welles as Caesar. He was young, but still reasonably slim, and I think with makeup would have been a fascinating choice, on par with the other three.
shareYes, you can't carry off Caesar as a simple villain. The record shows that he was charismatic and popular.
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Of course Olivier would have been a great Caesar, but would he have accepted what is in reality a supporting role to such as Brando, Mason and Gielgud?
Gielgud *did* play Casesar in the 1970 version, and very well, but by then, he was too old for Cassius.
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