Selv om Joseph Mankiewicz' 1953-udgave af Julius Caesar ikke er fejlfri, er det måske nok alligevel den bedste amerikanske Shakespeare-filmatisering nogensinde. Aldeles fremragende fremstår både James Mason og Sir John Guilgud som de sammensvorne romere Brutus og Cassius, der står bag mordet på den ambitiøse Caesar, og Marlon Brando som Marc Antony spiller flot op til de to med sin "engelske" accent. Kun Louis Calhern som Ceasar virker fejlplaceret.
År 44 BC. Julius Cæsar vender tilbage fra slagmarken i triumf efter at have vundet over sine fjender. Snart får han dog en advarse. Skumle mænd er i gang med planer om at snigmyrde den populære regent og overtage magten i Rom, men Cæsar er overbevist om, at han er urørlig, og han nægter at lytte til sin rådgivere.
Twenty year-old Julius Caesar flees Rome for his life during the reign of Sulla but through skill and ambition rises four decades later to become Rome's supreme dictator.
He came. He saw. He conquered. The tale of an ambitious power-grab that turned to tyranny. How Julius Caesar dismantled five centuries of ancient Roman democracy in just 16 years.
Throughout history, civilizations have come and gone, but few have altered the world as immensely as the Roman Empire. From its legendary founding by Romulus and Remus to its magnificent takeover of the Mediterranean to its eventual fall amidst the rise of Christianity, the many lasting influences of the Roman civilization remain with us today. Experience documentary history at its best and bear witness to the rise and fall of an empire.
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 they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.
