Julius Caesar Essay Example for Free

Julius Caesar Essay Julius Caesar is a film version (1953) of Shakespeare’s play and is called to be the most successful Hollywood adaptation. The director of the film Joseph L. Mankiewicz made a successful attempt to authentically preserve the characters, themes and actions. Mankiewicz used the technique of the screen to the utmost advantage in the use of close-ups, of detail to illustrate key moments in film terms. Julius Caesar is a tragedy of an assassin â€Å"who is too honorable to succeed†. Caesar is a ghost story, seduction, study of marriage and fortune-telling. The film production is also a course in public speaking, social studies lesson, history of civil war and revenge and forgiveness, dramatic story about regretted decisions, tribute to the power of mental images. The historical context is Caesar’s victory over Italians and Pompey’s sons whereas the historical events presented in the film production are the conspiracy between Cassius and Brutus to assassinate Julies Caesar and the power of Roman Empire that is so desired by certain characters. Brutus, Caesar’s best friend, is easily convinced that assassinating the best friend can be justified as it will assist in establishing liberty in Roman Empire. It resulted in Brutus agreement to join the conspiracy. Caesar ignored the warning about attending the Senate meeting and thus he was assassinated by conspirators. Although at the funeral Brutus made an attempt to justify his crime appealing to the crowd, he made a fatal mistake allowing Mark Antony to speak, because Mark was the most faithful follower of Caesar. the crowd was incited and turned away from conspirators Morality won in a certain way, because Antony’s military forces defeated the conspirators and Brutus committed a suicide. After reviewing the historical context and events it is seen that a row of historical issues arose from the film. The first issue is tyranny that was so common in those times. In a certain way Julius Caesar is a story about the death of a benevolent tyrant. Although Caser had some good virtues in his character, he was a tyrant at heart and many people suffered from his cruelty. He was responsible for killing of innocent people as accepted no compromises thinking firstly about his own welfare. The next common historical issue is the question of betrayal. Although Brutus is portrayed as a respectable and noble person, he is betrayer at heart. It is necessary to note that being a weak person in a certain way he was all the more easily manipulated into killing his best friend. Brutus betrayed Caser when stabbing him when Caesar looked him in the eyes and betrayed Caesar for the second time when believing he did it for the good of the Roman Empire. He explained even his motives to the citizens, but remained misunderstood. Another issue arising from betrayal is the desire of absolute power, because for the characters it meant more than position and name it was everything. Although every power has limitations and there is no absolute power, every character in the film had in a certain way his power. It appeared from the movie that characters used their power only for their convenience. Finally the last important issue is the question of loyalty which was rather unique and uncommon for those times. If the loyalty had not been involved in the film, the Roman Empire â€Å"would not have been torn apart†. Otherwise if loyalty had been involved in all aspects, tyrant Caesar would have the emperor of for many years. War would not have broken out if people would have been more loyal to Caesar. The example of loyalty in the film is Mark Antony, a character misunderstood by all people. In conclusion it is necessary to admit that film is really successful in making people think about historical issues and problems, because many of the problems are still present in contemporary society. It is possible to state that the movie complements the historical discussion of the written texts, because it presents all historical events in more vivid and realistic way and it is easier for more people to understand the problem. All these conceptions of the play are valid, because people for four hundred years have been periodically returning to admire Julius Caesar. References Jorgens, Jack J. (1985) Shakespeare on Film and Television. New York: Scribners.