Julius Caesar

I watched this mostly because I enjoy watching historical movies and on occasion a well produced Shakespeare play. When I read one of the reviews I felt compelled to watch it for myself and discover why this take on Julius Ceasar would raise such wrath.

It was an entertaining play performed by African actors whom I believe that William Shakespeare himself would have been pleased to watch. In theatre actors and playwrights have a degree of artistic liberty to give the play a personal touch. I remember watching Ralph Fiennes play Coriolanus in a modern day Rome, the magnificent and talented Ian McKellen play Richard III in an alternate Fascist England, or another great actor Anthony Hopkins who played Titus. Orson Wells is said to have done a Fascist version of Julius Ceaser in the 1930's, and who doesn't remember Leonard DiCaprio in modern-day Romeo and Juliet.

This version of Julius Ceaser has a rich and beautiful African resonance to it and I love it. What makes Shakespeare so great is you can take any one of his plays and place it in any era or culture and it will always long familiar. Shakespeare understood people and bravo to the actors who played this version so well.

I am puzzled by the extremely low ratings of Julius Caesar (2012) here at imdb, especially since at kanopy the viewers have raved about it (also at Amazon, where it is available from Prime video). And justly so, in my opinion. Yes, Shakespeare appropriated stories about ancient Rome, so of course the question arises: who should play the roles, given that there are no ancient Romans around anymore?

In this production, the problem is solved by setting the entire play in a modern, post-colonial African country, with only black actors as the cast. Most of the acting was excellent and the scenes were somehow made to match the original text. I am impressed and encourage potential viewers to ignore the cranks.

Richly imagined, beautifully acted version of one of Shakespeare's great historical tragedies. I have seen many re-imaginings of the Bard's plays over the last several decades of my life, and found this one of the best I have had the privilege of seeing.

Cheap way to get publicity: make something European set in Africa. Make as much controversy as possible.

And ironically, this ends up being kind of r@cist. Why not put some original content based on actual African history? That would be refreshing. Some nuanced story with different story structure than the usual Greco-Roman plays.

But no, let's rehash Julius Caesar one more time to save actual creative work.

BBC is just a shadow of its past.

Julius Caesar

There have been many modern adaptations of Shakespeare's plays, with varying results. This version of Julius Caesar is by far one of the best. The setting is a small, dictatorial African country, the players are African-American, and the finished product is remarkable. In even the most successful modern adaptation, the delivery tends to be a mind-numbing drone of Shakespearean of the lines with little thought to the cadence of natural speech. Most of the time, these modern adaptations seem unnatural and forced. Here, the natural delivery of the play gives new meaning to the play itself, allowing the viewer to see the dynamics of the conflict between the players. Julius Caesar is a remarkable Shakespearean play in that the main character is killed off relatively early, and while the remainder of the play centers on his assassins, Caesar always remains on the assassins' mind. This quality of the play is clearly demonstrated by this version of the play. The acting is top-notch, and its setting in a Central African country divided with internal strife give new meaning to the play. The acting and delivery of the play will keep you engaged for the duration.