Julius Caesar is a 1970 film adaptation of William Shakespeare's play of the same name, directed by Stuart Burge.

[3] Orson Welles was the first choice to portray Brutus, but was passed over for Jason Robards, who had considerable difficulties during production: frequently missing rehearsals, refusing to appear on horseback, and holding up the proceedings due to illness.

[citation needed] The reviews for this version upon its theatrical release were mostly negative, with Robards especially being criticised for his wooden performance as Brutus.

understandably bellows Cassius (Richard Johnson) in the last lap of the third filming of William Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, which opened yesterday at the Kips Bay Theater.

Made in England and Spain and in color, with a perfectly viable cast headed by Jason Robards and Charlton Heston, the new picture is generally as flat and juiceless as a dead haddock.

That solid, intelligent treatment may have lacked majesty but it did have two fire-and-ice performances by John Gielgud as Cassius and Marlon Brando as Mark Antony.

In Sir John's former Cassius slot, Johnson looks anything but "lean and hungry," with a bearded sneer, contrasting Robert Vaughn's bland, eye-rolling Casca.

However, Diana Rigg and Richard Chamberlain, as Portia and Octavius Caesar, are briefly excellent in their quicksliver precision and feeling.

So there's poor Robards trying to remember his lines, and all this synthetic walla curling around him, and then Charlton Heston leaps in with his Mark Antony speech.

[8]Charlton Heston later expressed dissatisfaction with the film, which had been a passion project, claiming it had a poor director, an unsuitable cameraman, and the wrong actor as Brutus.

[9] Upon its 2013 Blu-ray disc release, it met with a more positive review from the website DVD Talk, although Jason Robards' performance was still soundly panned.