The growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but both have sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
Acting
Brando's 'Friends, Romans, countrymen' — method acting meets the Bard, electrifying.
Direction
Mankiewicz's crowded Senate scenes: paranoia you can practically smell.
Writing
Shakespeare's dialogue, razor-sharp and weirdly applicable to modern politics.
Director
Joseph L. Mankiewicz
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Brando was paid $250,000 and threatened to quit unless his friend John Garfield got cast; Garfield died before filming, and Brando nearly walked.
Mankiewicz shot the assassination in near-silence for two minutes—unheard of in 1953—to force audiences to witness complicity without musical escape.
US
