Product Description

Studio: Lions Gate Home Ent. Release Date: 06/22/2004 Run time: 161 minutes Rating: Nr

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #27119 in DVD
• Brand: Lions Gate
• Released on: 2004-06-22
• Rating: Unrated
• Aspect ratio: 1.33:1
• Formats: Color, DVD, NTSC
• Original language: English
• Number of discs: 1
• Running time: 161 minutes

Customer Reviews

Brilliant Performance!
This is a brilliant performance of Antony and Cleopatra..... and I say this as a reader/viewer who normally likes to read but not watch Shakespeare. Janet Suzman as Cleopatra is at least as fine a Cleopatra as Liz Taylor (and infinitely superior to Leonor Varela's embarrassingly adolescent portrayal), but Richard Johnson as Antony is so marvelous that you can only think of Richard Burton as an unappealing weakling after watching Johnson. What a marvelous Antony - FINALLY you can begin to understand why Cleopatra loved him! And don't miss a younger Patrick Stewart as a very dramatically effective and engaging Enobarbus. This is a film that bears repeated watching; I've watched it three times in one week and will undoubtedly view it far more than most videos on my shelf. The staging and sets aren't noteworthy but you don't even need them because the acting (filmed very closeup) is so superb. This deserves to be a classic. Don't miss it.

Great performances!
I've seen this play on film and on stage, but this British television version is by far the best version I've seen. Richard Johnson seems to be EXACTLY the embodiment of Marc Antony that Shakespeare must have envisioned - pure poetry and agony. And Janet Suzman channels Cleopatra in a way that is almost spooky (Cleo lives!). I also personally love the set design, which is solely used to create the mood of the characters and plot. This is like a stage play, in that it allows the viewer to focus on the characters, not on locations (I'll leave that to the deeply inferior movie version that plays the story out like an over-produced historical document). Trevor Nunn proves that one doesn't need lavish productions in order to recreate great Shakespeare. Just get some great actors on an open set and let the magic happen!

This is most likely the best production of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra you will ever see!
I'm not sure what the above reviewers were looking for, but I have had an English bootleg of this production for years, and have never seen a better one. Janet Suzman and Richard Johnson wowed all of the English critics when this RSC production was onstage. And Patrick Stewart won every supporting actor award that season. And, it's directed by the great Trevor Nunn. Nuff said! I'm glad to get a new DVD copy of this production. Any classical theater fan or Roman history buff needs to have this one in their collection.