Tuesday, March 7 | 5 Films
As part of Turner Classic Movies’ annual 31 Days of Oscar event, tune in on Tuesday, March 7th for a night of sweeping epics focusing on some of the most fascinating figures and events from the annals of history. While these movies depicted tales fraught with triumphs and tragedies (and interestingly, as part of the plotline almost every subject in these films perish), they were deemed worthy of potentially receiving the ultimate accolade in the motion picture industry: the Academy Award for Best Picture.
Based on William Shakespeare’s play and directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz, 1953’s Julius Caesar focuses on the assassination of the Roman general and statesman and the desire for revenge that followed. Starring James Mason as Brutus, John Gielgud as Cassius, Louis Calhoun as Caesar and Marlon Brando as Mark Antony, after besting rivals in battle and now on the fast track to major power, at a public celebration Caesar is given a prophecy by a fortune teller to “Beware the Ides of March” (which according to Wikipedia, was “notable in Rome as a deadline for settling debts,” with the term “ides” signifying the days in the middle of each month. These days were devoted to the Roman god Jupiter, and sacrifices were made in tribute). While Caesar ignores the warning, shuttling himself and Mark Antony away, little does he know that Brutus and Cassius are leading a pack that intends to murder him before he can cause major political damage. When Caesar is ambushed and stabbed to death, Mark Antony’s desire for retaliation is eventually taken care of as the film progresses. As he shows the masses what type of person Caesar really was and what he planned to give his people, the killers implode under the weight of their own terrible deeds and guilt.
While Gielgud and Mason were no strangers to performing the Bard’s works, giving masterful performances (particularly Gielgud), it was Brando’s role as Mark Antony, reciting the famed and emphatic “Friends, Romans, countrymen” speech found in Act 3, Scene 2 of the play, that stole the show. Julius Caesar also starred Greer Garson, Deborah Kerr, Edmond O’Brien, Alan Napier and John Hoyt. Julius Caesar received several Academy Award nominations, including Best Picture, Best Cinematography, Black-and-White, Best Music, Scoring of a Dramatic or Comedy Picture and Best Actor in a Leading Role for Brando. It picked up a single nod for Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Black-and-White.
Taking place fifteen hundred years later chronologically, but released only thirteen years after Julius Caesar, A Man for All Seasons (1966) revisits a subject that has been used in countless movies, as well as television: the reign of England’s Henry VIII. Written by Robert Bolt (based on his play of the same name) and directed by Fred Zinnemann, the focus of A Man for All Seasons is that of an outsider that is close to the situation, but an outsider all the same.
Under the backdrop of Henry VIII’s “Great Matter” in which he was petitioning the Catholic Church to declare his marriage to Catherine of Aragon invalid so that he could marry Anne Boleyn, the mercurial king (Robert Shaw) is using every possible tactic to get the Church to see things from his perspective (historically, as Catherine of Aragon was the widow of his deceased elder brother, Arthur, a papal dispensation had to be obtained in order for them to marry, and Henry wanted to apply the same principle to get out of the marriage). When then Lord High Chancellor Cardinal Thomas Wolsey (a rather unrecognizable Orson Welles) couldn’t get the job done, he was out. Sir Thomas More (Paul Scofield) was in. A lawyer by trade, More was certainly pragmatic, but also a devout Catholic. When Henry was not successful in getting the annulment from the Pope, he broke from the Catholic Church and created the Church of England to obtain his sought-after divorce, declaring himself the Supreme Head. As Henry now requires his subjects to take an Oath of Supremacy (thus accepting his new role, the new state religion and his new wife as Queen), More must weigh his own steadfast ethics and religious beliefs against the King’s proclamation and has everything to lose. Just ask Thomas Cromwell (Leo McKern).
The film also starred Wendy Hiller, Corin Redgrave, John Hurt, Susannah York, Nigel Davenport and Vanessa Redgrave in a brief (and mostly silent) appearance as Anne Boleyn. A Man for All Seasons received six Oscars: Scofield for Best Actor in a Leading Role, Zinnemann for Best Director, Best Costume Design, Color, Best Writing, Screenplay Based on Material from Another Medium, Best Cinematography, Color and Best Picture. Shaw also received a nomination for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, as did Hiller for Best Actress in a Supporting Role for her portrayal of Alice More.
Produced and released only a few years after the implementation of the Hays Code, and directed by W.S. Van Dyke, Marie Antoinette (1938) starred Norma Shearer as the titular (and later disgraced) Austrian archduchess and eventual Queen of France whose spectacular downfall was a major incident during the French Revolution. When the young, bubbly Marie is set to marry King Louis XVI (Robert Morley), the adolescent grandson of the current king (John Barrymore), in her naïve optimism, she imagines her lovely life as Queen. Arriving at the spectacular Palace of Versailles, the timid Louis isn’t quite what she was expecting, but the wedding go on. As her husband has very little interest in her in many respects, she becomes the toast of the court, which does change when she becomes Queen. She would make friends with Swedish dignitary Count Axel de Fersen (Tyrone Power), with the pair eventually becoming star-crossed lovers; kept apart due to her marital and regal duty. Throughout the film, Marie flitters and flutters and gets into plenty of trouble, including in relation to a certain diamond necklace. Yet as the French people became more and more disillusioned as to how the monarchy is running the country, it ends up in an all-out rebellion. With a capture, a failed escape attempt, a stint in prison and her life hanging in the balance, through it all, the Queen maintains her strength, devotion and love for a man she could not have.
Based on the 1932 Stefan Zweig biography entitled “Marie Antoinette: The Portrait of an Average Woman,” it also starred Anita Louise, Joseph Schildkraut, Gladys George and Henry Stephenson. Marie Antoinette received four Academy Award nominations: Shearer for Best Actress in a Leading Role, Morley for Best Actor in a Supporting Role, Best Art Direction and Best Music, Original Score (of note, famed Revolution-era anthem “La Marseillaise” was incorporated into the music in the Overture).
It is difficult to fathom that it has been almost 106 years since the events of the Russian Revolution in 1917, in which the Bolshevik party toppled the government, resulting in the removal of the centuries-long ruling Romanov czardom. What history buff hasn’t heard of the captivity and the mass execution of the last czar, Nicholas II, his family and several attendants one year later? Directed by Franklin J. Schaffner, written by James Goldman and Edward Bond, and based on the book of the same name by Robert K. Massie, Nicholas and Alexandra (1971) depicts the intimate moments of the royal couple and the turbulent final years of both the life and country they knew.
Nicholas (Michael Jayston) had married the German-born Alexandra (neé Princess Alix of Hesse and by Rhine), a granddaughter of the United Kingdom’s Queen Victoria. Called “Sunny” by her husband, Alexandra (Janet Suzman) not only had to adapt to a court and country that was entirely different than what she was familiar with, but the pressure to provide Russia with a male heir was exacerbated as she gave birth to four daughters in quick succession: Olga, Tatiana, Maria and Anastasia. When she upheld her duty in the people’s eyes by finally giving birth to a son, Alexei, their world is shattered when the baby czarevitch is diagnosed with hemophilia, a hereditary disorder in which the blood does not clot properly. Finding solace in her adopted religion of Russian Orthodoxy, her fanatical devotion to monk and mystic Grigori Rasputin (Tom Baker) increases due to her desperate attempt to heal her son. It didn’t help that the public didn’t care for Alexandra nor her attachment to Rasputin, but Nicholas’ reign was disastrous. Much like Marie Antoinette, he was not in tune to the serious problems plaguing the country including rampant poverty, embroilment in several wars and overall civil and political unrest. Following one catastrophe after another, Nicholas is forced to abdicate and the family is exiled; kept under constant guard in the far-eastern town of Yekaterinburg in the Ural Mountains.
Co-starring Harry Andrews, Jean-Claude Drouot, Irene Worth, Laurence Olivier, Lynne Frederick, Ania Marson, Candace Glendenning, Fiona Fullerton and Roderic Noble as the Romanov children, Nicholas and Alexandra won two Academy Awards: Best Costume Design and Best Art Direction-Set Decoration. It was also nominated for Best Music, Original Dramatic Score, Best Cinematography, Suzman for Best Actress in a Leading Role and Best Picture.
Also being shown that evening is 1934’s Cleopatra, which starred Claudette Colbert as the irresistible Egyptian queen who seduced not one, but two very influential Romans (portrayed by Henry Wilcoxon and Warren William). Directed by Cecil B. DeMille, it would win a single Oscar for Best Cinematography, along with nominations for Best Film Editing, Best Sound Recording, Best Assistant Director and Best Picture.
From the ancient era to 18th century France, 16th century England to 20th century Russia, these movies transcend time and present an unprecedented glimpse into worlds that many of us could only learn about through our schoolbooks. Whether as a nominee or winner, and certainly thanks to the cast and crew behind them, they will always have the badge of honor that is Oscar.
