Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Brainsbell The story-telling is good with flashbacks.The film is both funny and heartbreaking. You smile in a scene and get a soulcrushing revelation in the next.

Joanna Mccarty Amazing worth wacthing. So good. Biased but well made with many good points.

Hayden Kane There is, somehow, an interesting story here, as well as some good acting. There are also some good scenes

MartinHafer "Cleopatra" is clearly a case where I am giving a film a favorable rating even though I really thought the plot was pretty stupid. After all, as a retired history teacher, the film is a mess and creates a ridiculous image of Cleopatra which history cannot support. Imagine...in this film she is SO seductive and beautiful that a lowly fisherman agrees to kill himself after they complete a short love affair! And, imagine that the mere sight of her compels people to destroy their lives! That's the Cleopatra of this film--an almost complete fiction created by French playwright Victorien Sardou.The reason I STILL think it's worthwhile is the historical context for when the film was made. It was 1912--and a feature length film in America might be 20 or 30 minutes max---yet here we have a costume drama lasting nearly 90 minutes. And, although there's a bit of overacting here and there, the film is reasonably well directed by Charles Gaskill. Worth seeing as a curio at least--even if the story is pretty crappy.

xavrush89 Good but not great. Like some of the other commentors, I saw this on TCM with the new music soundtrack. Unlike many, I liked the new music. Since this film is so dated, the music "freshens it up" a little. It's really more effective as a time capsule rather than as a drama. The star, Helen Gardner, also produced, so this is her vision. We all know the story, but what is interesting is the acting style and visuals. I agree with the other viewer here about the female cast members. You can't help but notice. With all these surgically enhanced, or personal-trainer enhanced, washboard-abbed stars today, it is nice to see a movie full of people who weren't under such pressure to look a certain way. There's plenty of "unintentional humor" here too, for those looking for camp value.

lugonian "Cleopatra" (1912), directed by Charles Gaskill, which premiered on Turner Classic Movies in August 2000, stars stage actress Helen Gardner in the title role. In spite of when it was made (1912), I was prepared to witness a prestigious production handicapped by some overacting and bad camera shots. However, what makes the movie unbearable for me to watch is the really bad sound track that accompanies it: bongo drums, off screen chanting, etc. An organ score would have been sufficient. Presented in correct silent film speed, "Cleopatra" plays at 90 minutes, but again, complaining about the score, made it seem like it runs at 190 minutes. "Cleopatra" was obviously filmed in a studio sound stage, with backdrops moving about like a painted curtain. Had it been done a few years later under the direction of DW Griffith, then possibly it would have become a masterpiece as his 1916 production of INTOLERANCE. But because of that new underscoring (there I go again), maybe "Cleopatra" would have been somewhat bearable. I recommend the present version for insomniacs only.

michael.e.barrett I'm amazed to see a 1912 feature that's almost 90 minutes long. By contrast, "From the Manger to the Cross" is under 70 min. The tinting and restoration are good, the modern music by Chantal Kreviazuk is interesting if unnecessary (there's no reason to be turned off by it--you can always play your own music!). The film is not in "pure" tableau style but in modified tableaus. That is, there is some cross-cutting from different locations, and dialogue cards do interrupt the shots. The first scene is even somewhat distracting in its cutaways to a man who is a short distance away. During the battle of Actium, the camera suddenly goes in for a series of near close-ups of Cleopatra and Antony from the waist up, and the entire scene is told in these alternating shots with captions. (A way to avoid staging a battle.) The scene in which she barges down the Nile and seduces Antony is a typical example of "film d'art" tableau style, with only dialogue interrupting the shot occasionally. The major lengthy sequence at the end, however, begins in two locations: in Cleo's chamber on an upper floor and outside on the ground below, and Antony is raised up through the window on a rope, then for the rest of the complex scene the camera pans right and left as called for by the action. Fascinating and typically noble.