Critic's Grade: C-

Joseph L. Mankiewicz' historical drama "Cleopatra" is a failure of epic proportions, a bland, listless, unmoving soap opera that is for its time what Michael Bay's "Pearl Harbor" is for our time. Seeing it one year shy of its 40th anniversary, I cannot help but contemplate all the necessities this movie so clearly lacks: a sense of character development and connection, a script that effectively fuses history and drama into something more than what feels like a stage play, and so much more.

The film is frought with flaw upon flaw, most notably resting on the shoulders of Elizabeth Taylor, who plays the famed Queen of Egypt in a shoddy, one-note performance that bears little emotional resonance or powerful intrigue. There are small moments in earlier scenes where her coldness befits the character, but she carries this attitude on for the rest of her venture, giving us little reason to care for Cleopatra on any level other than a power-hungry, greed-driven tyrant bent on bending everyone around her to her will.

The story also makes the mistake of giving us no reason the care for anything that happens to those surrounding her. It tells the story of Cleopatra's affair with Julius Caesar (Rex Harrison), who is also seen as a domineering dictator with a lust for power. The two form what feels more like an alliance than an actual relationship based on love and devotion, and perhaps this is actually true to history, but if that is so, then why should we be willing to offer our sympathy to these two people who so clearly care for nothing but their own bloated egos?

The sequence of events, as seen in the eyes of writer/director Mankiewicz, is a muddled combination of the passionate love affairs between Cleopatra, Caesar, and Marc Antony (Richard Burton), and the politics of their time, which center on the increasingly unstable bonds between the Roman and Egyptian empires, and how these connections are affected by the aforementioned relationships. There are battles, murders, killings, conspiracy, assassination attempts, betrayals of trust, and so many other plot elements that quickly run out of steam, due to the fact that Mankiewicz shows little effort in attaining a semblance of order to these events. And that, coupled with our ever-increasing disdain for the characters, keeps us from wanting to become involved more than we already are.

Upon its release, the film garnered attention the likes of which was bestowed upon such epics as "The Ten Commandments" in 1956 and "Ben-Hur" in 1959. This is not without justification: as you see, "Cleopatra" is a grand-scale monument to excess and style, replete with expansive set designs, vivid colors, intricately detailed costumes and and overall grandeur that is far-reaching and, in certain sequences, breathtaking. A sequence in which Cleopatra makes her entrance into Rome behind an entourage of dancers is completely awe-inspiring in its vision and scale, while the battle sequences have been instilled with just enough kinetic energy to make one appreciate their magnificent conception.

But to examine this tactic further is the realize that, besides the gorgeous scenery and elaborate, lofty production values, there is nothing behind it to back it up. The great thing about movies like "The Ten Commandments" and "Ben-Hur" is that the look of these movies never transcended their feeling, the beating heart of their stories that brought us into the emotional turmoil and resolutions of their characters. With "Cleopatra," Mankiewicz appears to have focused more of his attention on surrounding his actors with all the glitz, glamour and bravura of the ancient world that money can buy, and this does not a movie make.

Not that the actors are terribly interesting to begin with. As previously stated, Taylor's Cleopatra is flat and uninvolving; suffice it to say the same fate is bestowed upon her costars, Harrison and Burton, who make her suitors out to be little more than lovesick, powerless whimps who bow down to her stunning beauty and every beck and call. Their scenes feel rehearsed and phony: not once does the dialogue from any of the cast ever reach a convincing note, much less a meaningful one. And on a side note, Taylor's costumes, for the majority of the film, look more like a fashion parade than realistic ancient Egyptian apparel.

If for no other reason, you must see "Cleopatra" as a means to an end of a theory long-upheld by many: if a movie was made before the 1970's, it is automatically assumed a classic without flaw. This movie proves that theory wrong without flaw (I guess it's not entirely flawless, is it?). Mankiewicz's visually dazzling but ultimately flat, sprawling epic is one of the more forgettable Hollywood foibles.

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