Julius Caesar

Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1953 version of Julius Caesar, starring James Mason, John Gielgud, and Marlon Brando, is one of the few Hollywood renderings of Shakespeare that works. Hollywood has had a rather dismal record adapting Shakespeare to the screen, but one of the few happy exceptions to this was Joseph Mankiewicz’s 1953 version of Julius Caesar. For those unfamiliar with the play, it concerns the decision by two noble Romans, Brutus and Cassius, to assassinate Caesar because the popular general is about to declare himself dictator, which would end the Roman republic. After the deed is done, Caesar’s young ally Marc…