The Cleopatras (1983) User Reviews

Much maligned

[emrys-948-238958 · 8/10 · 14 February 2015]

This was an interesting series, it made a real effort to re-create style and manner of the Egyptian court. I remember a lady professor (I think it was) at the time saying it was interesting to see professional dancers translating the fixed and stylized images we have from tomb paintings into actual dance. Did they have bare breasts? Yes, the tomb paintings do, so the dancers do. Every effort is made to keep the costumes match what we know of dress at that time.

The series set an entirely believable note of claustrophobic pomposity. We do know that the Egyptian court was remarkably insulated from the ordinary Alexandrians, whom they feared, and they had good reason to to. It was a very inward looking group.

The series is bedeviled by the occasional outbreak of truly dreadful acting, e.g. Caesar's reaction when Cleopatra is unrolled from her carpet - that is the clip that is always shown. But most of it was pretty good. The contrast between the straight laced, changing to thuggish Romans is nicely contrasted with the hedonistic Egyptians. Sadly, Cleopatra is all wrong. She is presented as a sort of precocious 6th former, a 17 year old convent schoolgirl, whereas it is quite obvious that she was in fact a very tough and ruthless survivor from an early age. More like Elizabeth I than some kind of ingénue.

I have long thought that the BBC should issue the series in DVD, but 1983 was in the early days of video recorders and the rights situation may just be too complicated.

Surprisingly Good Historical Romp

[ian1000 · 7/10 · 17 September 2011]

I vaguely remember liking this show when it was first shown in 1983, and I remember realising soon that, despite its BBC pedigree, and impressive cast, it was not in the same league as "I, Claudius".

Now, thanks to, er, certain video screening websites, all 8 episodes can be seen. I would recommend fans to obtain a free video downloader for the website - it will, as its name suggests, allow the download and retention of the video.

The series tells the story of the most recent ancestors of the famous Queen Cleopatra; some may not be aware that she was Cleopatra VII. The story of her family is related to her in flashback form; the actress playing the Queen also plays an earlier Cleopatra.

The story concludes with the famous Caeser, Antony, Octavian and Cleopatra saga.

I found the show to be entertaining, and the dreadful behaviour of the Egyptian royals to each other is both amusing and disturbing; watch in episode 3 as one nasty Cleopatra meets a grisly (and topless) fate that seems justified.

And so to the nipple count. There are lots of naked breasts on display, mostly the servant girls. Those offended by the female form should avoid "The Cleopatras".

Gets better once you forgive the production values

[brucebrickhouse · 7/10 · 17 December 2019]

I've only seen this from youtube, and that from what appears to be videotaped years ago from a TV broadcast. The other reviewers have it right - a cheesy, zero budget production, shocking to our eyes 40 years later for exposed (yet unattractive) breasts and the psychotronic visuals and segue fades.

But the history - which is why I was watching it - isn't bad at all, and tells an almost unknown story of the murderous Ptolemy family, the last Pharaohs, a Greek family established after Alexander conquered Egypt, and the last dynasty before the Romans ended what was left of the Egyptian empire, after a 2,500-3,000 year run. It gets better as it goes along, possibly because of the efforts of the redoubtable Robert Hardy, a hardy perennial in 1970s mini-series, and because the story is more familiar of the last Cleopatra, lover of Caesar and Marc Antony- Cleopatra VII. The costumes and dancing also seem to have been well researched, Even the strap-on beards are accurate, if a bit silly looking, and the Pharoahs do wear the battle helmet only when appropriate.

If you enjoy history, and 1970s mini-series (truly the golden age of history and other mini-series, at least with respect to historical accuracy), roll your eyes a few times and suspend judgement of bizarre effects and enjoy this series. It deserves to be dusted off and made available on DVD or streaming.

an unusual historical series

[myriamlenys · 6/10 · 28 July 2020]

"Unusual" may be an understatement, since there can't be too much English series like it. For good and for evil, "The Cleopatras" stands out like a loud, garish neon sign...

The series is devoted to violence and intrigue at the courts of the Ptolemaic pharaos, who ruled over Egypt until the defeat of the last (and most famous) Cleopatra. Consequently the series also treats the fall of a once great empire : the mighty Egyptian empire loses ever more isles and colonies, dwindles to a Roman vassal state and, finally, to a Roman province. As the episodes progress, it becomes clear that the omnipresent gold has turned into a liability instead of an asset, since it has attracted the undivided attention of a more successful and more lucky rival from across the sea.

The Ptolemaic dynasty produced not only kings but also queens, many of whom were at least as powerful, ambitious and/or nasty as their male relatives - hence the title. Now the Ptolemaic dynasty was infamous for the remarkable facility with which it committed all kinds of -cide : people killed off their parents, siblings, spouses, children and so on as if murder were going out of business. On top of that, the dynasty, originally descended from a Greek general, had adopted the Egyptian custom of marriage between close relatives, in order to safeguard the purity of the "divine" blood. As a result one could bump off one's wife, sister and mother-in-law in one fell stroke. This made for an extremely bloody and extremely unnatural environment.

"The Cleopatras", which tackles this theme with great gusto, paints a picture of a world in which nearly all family ties have been perverted and in which nearly all moral norms have been discarded. The result is violent, sleazy, weird, disquieting and darkly comical, like the comedy of manners from hell. Brace yourself for buckets of blood and gallons of poison... (While you're at it, also brace yourself for countless scenes of semi-naked dancers and slaves shaking parts of their anatomy in front of heavily-drinking guests.)

It's an enjoyable series, but mainly in a "guilty pleasure" kind of way. Very uneven, it seems to stand somewhere at the dubious crossroads where "so good that it's good" meets "so bad that it's good". For instance, there's a variety of mind-boggling effects used in order to frame flashbacks and tales. The whole is given an additional layer of surrealism by the inclusion of a musical score which seems to have been meant for some other kind of entertainment - perhaps a children's programme about horse riding, a sports show about the Winter Olympics or a documentary series about the charms of Oriental cooking ?

Anyway, you have been warned.

An opportunity missed - by leagues...

[CinemaSerf · 6/10 · 18 November 2020]

Written by Philip Mackie, who also penned "The Caesars" (1968), I recall the furore at the time here in the UK when the BBC started showing "The Cleopatras". This eight-parter was accused of being a seedy, tawdry - and just about everything else pejorative - depiction of the Ptolomeic court in Alexandria that saw a multitude of women called Cleopatra rule Egypt. What those criticisms failed to acknowledge is that this is pretty much exactly how these depraved, incestuous individuals did behave. Mothers married sons, fathers their daughters - indeed it would have been quite possible for your mum, your brother and your camel all to have been the same person... What is bad about this, though, is the casting - Richard Griffiths as "Pot Belly" and Graham Crowden as narrator "Theodotus" are dreadfully miscast from the outset, and along the line we find similarly misfiring contributions from Robert Hardy ("Caesar") and a dreadfully dry Patrick Troughton ("Sextus"). The visual effects - sliding/mixing VT and virtually no outdoor photography make the staging look cheap and static; and the plethora of indistinguishable actresses portraying the title role give us very little by way of a glimpse into their devious, despotic and debauched existence. Sadly, the thing just hasn't aged at all well - and for such a fascinatingly rich seam of stories and characters, this series falls well short of competent.

Clunky 80's melodrama

[roideleville · 5/10 · 29 March 2017]

A decent script suffers from truly awful production values and lousy editing. The cheap, pasteboard sets (often merely a sound stage with curtains or lighting filling in for walls) the lousy sound (lots of stage echoes), and questionable costume choices (no, they did not dress like ancient Egyptian tomb paintings) all combine to undermine what is, by itself, a fascinating romp among some of history's most ruthless royals: the ever-murderous Ptolemies of Egypt. The acting is uneven and pales when compared to the much superior I, Claudius, of which this farce was obviously intended to mimic. If the viewer can overlook the choppy editing and poor production standards, the story itself becomes quite entertaining. I would love to see this series done better. At least the idea was sound---an Egyptian version of I, Claudius---but it's a shame the BBC put so little faith or investment into it.

I loved this show

[lucyrfisher · 29 March 2013]

It was vulgar and blingy and probably historically accurate as well. I mainly remember Caroline Mortimer as one of the Cleos and the late Richard Griffiths hairless as Pot Belly. He had a great death scene (and eye makeup). Just watching a clip from a certain website with Graham Crowden (in slap) as Theodotus. Michelle Newell is looking into a pool where lotuses float - the water is going wiggly - we are going back to the distant past... It all seems to be there. The early 80s were a great era for telly. Perhaps this is where they got their love of Ancient Egyptian style. "You will join your compatriots at the receiving end of the elephants' feet! Arrest them! I am the power in the land! Give my love to the elephants."