MovieChat Forums > Julius Caesar (2003) Discussion > Why is Jeremy Sisto Julius Caesar?

Why is Jeremy Sisto Julius Caesar?


If this movie is based on the play by Shakespeare, then the role of Caesar should be played by a much older man (like twice Jeremy's age). Jeremy would be more suited to the role of Marc Antony (although I was always confused about Antony's age. My teacher said he was around the same age as Brutus and Caesar but I always thought he was significantly younger).

I obviously haven't seen this and just wanted to know.

"My teacher says true beauty is found within"
"That's just something ugly people say"

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It isn't based on Shakespeare's Caesar. In the TV mini series Julius Caesar appears as a young man in his twenties up to the age of his death.

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Okay, thanks. And do you know anything about Antony's age in the play? It's not crucial for me to know, but just to appease my lack of knowledge.

"My teacher says true beauty is found within"
"That's just something ugly people say"

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When Marcus Antonius joined Caesar in Gaul he was in his twenties and when he died he was about fifty. But this is history - as the for the play, I'm not sure but as Shakespeare must have been faithful to the sources (most notably "The Twelve Caesars", by Suetonius), it must be something like this too.

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[deleted]

Based LOOSELY on history. There are a number of inaccuracies in the movie. The most glaring that I saw was the protrayal of a troubled Caesar yielding to Vercingetorix's request to kill him in private. In truth, Vercingetorix was paraded through Rome's streets in chains during Caesar's victory triumph, then publicly strangled to death. The HBO series "Rome" shows this more accurately.
I thought Jeremy Sisto did a good job as a young Caesar but not so good with the older Caesar. Caesar died at about 58 years of age; Sisto didn't come off at all as a man in his mid 50's. He did a great job of emulating an epileptic seizure though, although the recovery phase passed unrealistically quickly (for example, when he had a seizure in the company of the pirates). One minor quibble: the real Caesar was famously bald. Most movies do not show this. The only one I can recall with a bald Caesar is the version with Marlon Brando as Marc Antony. The Caesar in "Rome", while not bald, seems much more believable to me than Jeremy Sisto.

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The most glaring that I saw was the protrayal of a troubled Caesar yielding to Vercingetorix's request to kill him in private. In truth, Vercingetorix was paraded through Rome's streets in chains during Caesar's victory triumph, then publicly strangled to death. The HBO series "Rome" shows this more accurately.
Well, I'm not so sure it does. There is no extant description of the execution of Vercingetorix, but it is likely that Vercingetorix's fate was the traditional one: publically paraded through Rome during the Triumph but then privately executed (either strangled or beheaded) in the Carcer or, more specifically, Tullianum subsequently known as the Mamertine Prison.

This is how Sallust describes the death of Lentulus following the Cataline conspiracy.
In the prison, when you have gone up a little way towards the left, there is a place called the Tullianum, about twelve feet below the surface of the ground. It is enclosed on all sides by walls, and above it is a chamber with a vaulted roof of stone. Neglect, darkness, and stench make it hideous and fearsome to behold. Into this place Lentulus was let down, and then the executioners carried out their orders and strangled him. (Sallust, Bellum Catilinae 55 3-5 - http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Sallust/Bellum_Catilinae*.html)
So both Rome's presentation of the execution as public and Julius Caesar's suggestion that the privacy was a compassionate concession seem to be of doubtful historicity.


Call me Ishmael...

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Sisto is the worst Caesar I've ever seen.

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Rex Harrison is the best Julius Caesar.

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Strangest thing of all was watching an inferior Julius Caesar (Jeremy Sisto) with a superior Julius Caesar (Sean Pertwee) standing next to him.

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