This
ambitious, four-hour cable miniseries stars Jeremy Sisto (taking time
off from his regular series Six Feet Under) as Roman
general-turned-emperor Julius Caesar. Expensively filmed in Malta and
Bulgaria, the production vividly traces Caesar's rise to prominence as a
brilliant military tactician (with remarkably accurate battle scenes);
his complex relationships with his mentor General Pompey (Chris Noth)
and his second wife Calpurnia (Valeria Golino); his ideological tiltings
with Senator Cato (Christopher Walken), who advocates democracy over
Caesar's dictatorial ambitions; and his bloody (but inevitable) murder
at the hands of former friends and allies. Taking some dramatic license
with the facts, the film is basically sympathetic to its subject,
although Caesar is depicted as a flawed man, both physically and
morally. Giving Caesar points for being fundamentally honorable, in full
possession of his faculties, and possessing the "common touch" with the
Roman citizenry, the teleplay does not shrink away from the man's
violent epileptic seizures, his megalomania, his casually calculated
cruelties, and his bigamous relationship with Egyptian queen Cleopatra
(Samuela Sardo). Interestingly enough, however, the miniseries downplays
his notorious bisexuality ("Every man's woman and every woman's man").
In his final performance, Richard Harris appears as Caesar's wily bête
noire, Roman dictator Sulla. Caesar was first telecast in the U.S. on
June 29-30, 2003, by the TNT cable network. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie
Guide
Tobias Moretti als Senator Cassius, Heino Ferch als Gallierhäuptling Vercingetorix oder Christopher Noth (Sex and the City) als Pompeius wirken meist eher wie Schauspieler in historischen Kostümen. Christopher Walken als Senator Cato und Richard Harris als Sulla sind da schon ein anderes Kaliber und verleihen der Produktion allein durch ihre Präsenz Größe.
This four-hour, $18m mini-series dramatised the life of the most celebrated
of Roman emperors, from his early military victories until his
assassination. It filmed on Malta in February and March 2002. The extensive
Roman sets had been built at Fort Ricasoli in the second half of 2001,
including a replicas of the Forum, the Senate and the emperor-to-be’s homes
as a boy and young man.
Julius Caesar-Review Cato, the Younger
Sisto gives a well-calculated performance as Caesar. Noth is suitable as Roman Gen. Pompey, Caesar's onetime friend, later archenemy, and Harris is simply superb as the tyrannical Roman dictator Sulla (alas, his screen time is brief, but oh so glorious). As Caesar's most vocal critic Cato, Walken provides many telling stares and commentary. Still, no one does them better.
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Chris Walken
backstage
German Christopher Walken-Forum
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Unlike
Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, the script by Peter Pruce (HBO's Rasputin) and
Craig Warner (TNT's Mists of
Avalon) focuses on the
early days of Caesar's life, providing a portrait of a leader capable of
greatness, hobbled by vulnerabilities, and destroyed by arrogance. However,
Caesar is not the sole center of the film. The Roman Empire, with its
appreciation of philosophy, democracy, and education (for the nobility,
anyway) provides an interesting, if not startling, mirror to the present.
Rising to power through aggression and the belief that Roman culture is
superior, the Roman Empire is shown not so much as a golden age of political
thought and reason as much as it is the creation of a few powerful, highly
flawed men. One of the most chilling scenes in Caesar is the famous
assassination in the Senate chambers. Unlike depictions highlighting the
melodramatic violence, the brutality of his assassins, who were fueled by
fear and jealousy, is present, making the murder in the Senate chambers by
so-called noble men that much more horrific. 
