The 1963 version of Cleopatra was directed by Joseph L. Mankiewicz. With a running time of 248 minutes, Cleopatra was definitely a well-balanced movie. The movie tells about the wonderful love story of Egyptian queen Cleopatra and the Roman leaders Julius Caesar and Mark Antony. The ambitious story of Cleopatra combines two narratives that have traditionally been told separately: the story of Julius Caesar and Cleopatra, and the story of Antony and Cleopatra. Cleopatra is a young princess, who is very eager for power and very intelligent and manipulative. She's a woman who never quite manages to find the man who can love her and yet also be strong enough to stand by her side as an equal.
             The story begins in 48 BC, during civil wars that brought down the Roman Republic. After achieving victory in a battle, Roman general Gaius Julius Caesar sails to Egypt in order to capture his fleeing opponent Pompeii. In Alexandria, he finds Pompeii murdered and Egypt entangled in its own civil war between King Ptolemy and his banished sister and co-ruler, Cleopatra. Caesar then wants to get involved in the middle of the conflict, but Cleopatra convinces him not to by using her charm, wit, and intelligence and then persuades him to join forces with her. Their political pact then becomes interweaved with romance and soon Cleopatra gives birth to a son, Caesarion. Caesarion is thought of to join together the power of Rome and the wealth of Egypt, assisting in gaining power over the entire world, but then Caesar's people feel that he might choose Egyptian dictatorship over Roman freedom.
             Later in the movie, a group of conspirators join together and assassinate Caesar which results in another civil war that destroys Cleopatra's hopes of global rule. Years later, Mark Antony, one of Caesar's assassins and most trusted men, becomes a member of the government in charge of the Roman eastern pro
             ...