Fremantlebiz - Paul's Letter from Australia

War and peaceful pastimes

This is the official weather forecast for Perth issued at 4:30 pm yesterday: "Forecast for Friday evening. A few showers with the chance of some small hail overnight. Fresh W/SW'ly winds becoming cool fresh to strong SW'ly tonight."

Well, maybe because it was Friday afternoon and everyone wanted to go home, but they sure got that one wrong. We've been having one of the stormiest nights I can remember, with almost continuous gales and non-stop pounding rain since about 7pm. At 4am on Saturday morning its still going on, too much noise going on to go back to sleep. I've just taken a look at the online infrared satellite image and it looks like we are in for a turbulent weekend.

News came through a couple of days ago that another Australian SAS soldier has been killed in Afghanistan. Sergeant Matthew Locke reportedly was shot in the chest while hunting down Talib tribesmen near Tarin Kowt in Oruzgan Province. The official reports, Australia's military Governor General and senior politicians on all sides have heaped illustrious praise upon the warrior. The Chief of the Army also described him as "a genuine hero."

His death came during his second tour of duty in Afghanistan. The Sydney Morning Herald mentioned that he had previously shot and killed Afghans in earlier operations. My feeling is there's a haunted look on his face in the official photograph of him published widely today around the nation.

There was another Matthew Locke who was a well known English composer. Amongst many works, he wrote the music for a 1658 opera titled, The Cruelty of the Spaniards in Peru .

So now safely on the subject of composers, a few weeks ago I purchased from the US via Amazon a two CD compilation of original soundtrack music composed by Howard North for the movie Cleopatra. It was released earlier this year. This is a very beautiful suite and compares well with the music by the same composer for the film Spartacus. I'm listening to the Cleo music at the moment on my iPod as I type.

However I had never managed to see Cleopatra when it was in Perth cinemas circa 1963. I was a projectionist working for the opposition in what were my pre-conscription Vietnam war days.

After I had acquired the CD of the music, I became quickly aware that there was a significant gap in my appreciation of how it was originally used. So last week I sought out a copy of the movie on DVD. Lo and behold there was one at JB Hi Fi for twenty five bucks - cheap enough for what was once the most expensive film in motion picture history.

It's a very long movie - so long that it needs two DVD disks. The original release print on 70mm film probably weighed a quarter of a ton or more. A 35mm print would have weighed less, but still taken up 21 heavy spools. Total running time is 249 minutes - four and bit hours. It could have been longer except that the cigar smoking Hollywood moguls reckoned that four hours was enough.

They were wrong. I reckon I could have handled another two hours with ease and not been bored. Perhaps in some vault there are still reels of unused footage? Maybe one day someone might take up the challenge and work something up? Apparently Elizabeth Taylor was pretty disgusted with final release version and disassociated herself from it.

But that aside, my wife and I really enjoyed what we saw when we sat down for the entire afternoon last Saturday. The story is in essence about the strategic interaction between Rome and Egypt, and in turn the politico/romantic liaisons of Cleopatra, firstly with Julius Caesar played by Richard Burton, and then after he was bumped off by Brutus et al, with the cad Marc Anthony, played by Rex Harrison.

Elizabeth Taylor was of course stunning in the role of Cleopatra. No superlative would be sufficient to describe how gorgeous she looked in every one of her scenes. But she wasn't just a pretty face, her acting couldn't be faulted, and some of her facial expressions made any words totally unnecessary for what needed to be conveyed.

And what could I say about Richard Burton and Rex Harrison which could be adequate? They played their roles in the manner of their reputations, with great skill, and leaving no room for criticism. They were as superb in their parts as they were supposed to be.

The movie was made in very high definition 70mm Todd AO in the days before computerised effects. I have no hesitation in saying the photography, lighting and traditional effects were far superior to modern films of, say for example the ilk of Gladiator. The crowd scenes in Cleopatra consisted of real extras.

My retro rating for this movie is four and a half stars out of five. If someone comes up with the missing footage I'd go for five.

© MMVII Paul R. Weaver.

About the writer

Check out each month's subject index on the Calendar Page for my "common-man" monologues about survival in 21st century Australia – plus a little history occasionally. An original essay is added most days as part of an undertaking to write a couple of million words.

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