Caesar the Conqueror (1962)

In 58 BC Caesar has conquered Gaul and set his sights on Britain. However after freeing a prisoner named Vercingetorix, Caesar accidentally provides the resistance with a natural leader. He brings together the various tribes and they fight repeatedly with the Romans inflicting many defeats. In Rome the senate dismisses his request for more troops, not wanting to expend soldiers on a campaign that they suspect is just Caesar seeking personal glory. Caesar is recalled to Rome to explain his actions but instead passes secretly through the mountains and returns to Gaul looking to lead the campaign against Vercingetorix.

Although credited as being based on Julius Caesar's famous auto-biographical work Commentaries about the Gallic War, Caesar the Conqueror bears no more relation to history than any other generic Historical Peplum. While there was a character named Vercingetorix who rose up against the Romans in Gaul and there are plenty of name checks, very few of the other facts presented here are accurate and the main theme (a love story of course) is completely the invention of the screenwriters. Equally many of the interesting stories from the conflict are missed out, notably the beseigement of the Roman troops as they themselves surrounded half of the Gallic forces in the Seige of Alesia.

The film does open well, with the political wrangling in the Senate and some decent characterisation, but it soon looses its way, becoming very episodic and hard to follow - interesting scenes such as Caesar and a small group crossing the mountains to sneak into Gaul has enough storyline potential to last a whole film, but is rushed over and what there is seems completely unnecessary to the plot - in contrast, many important elements of the story such as his meeting up with the rest of the armies after crossing the mountains, are told only in coversation and not seen. By the end the film has noticably lost its way with poor characterisation making many scenes confusing, while the ending is particularly abrupt.

Little known director Tanio Boccia doesn't do too well - while the dialogue scenes are adequately helmed, the fight and battle scenes look tepid and are often very confusing with jarring editing. The Roman costumes all look good but the Gallic warriors have a strange mix of costumes, some of which look positively Mongolian. Unusually this production was helmed in Jugoslavia rather than the normal Spanish locations and the landscape looks suitably French. The soundtrack is a good mix of horns and drums that in particular really suits the battle scenes.

Cameron Mitchell is one of the small group of American actors who appeared in several European films during the 1960s and his performance here is typically strong. Looking noticably aged he seems to be really enjoying himself in the role and is probably one of the best elements of the film, a change to his usual 'strong silent type' performances. A young looking Rik Battaglia and the pleasantly buxom Dominique Wilms play the Gallic resistance well.

With some rather tepid direction and a none-too impressive storyline, this Historical Peplum would have nothing to recommend it, except for the always enjoyable sight of Cameron Mitchell in full flow as Caesar. Peplum fans might want to seek this one out and it is certainly one for fans of Mitchell but not generally recommended.

Anyone famous in it?	Cameron Mitchell - an American actor who appeared in a trio of films for Mario Bava, including Gli Invasori (1961)
Directed by anyone interesting?	Tanio Boccia - a very little known Italian director who helmed the daft Peplum Sansone contro i pirati (1963) and a few Spaghetti Westerns, including Uccidi o muori (1967)
Any violence/gore?	Quite a number of surprisingly bloody deaths
Any sex?	None
Who is it for?	Cameron Mitchell fans will certainly enjoy this and Peplum fans might want to check it out.

Visuals	Cropped - 1.85:1 anamorphic widescreen. Colour The print is of a very varied quality, with some shots very grainy and dark but not too much print damage. The cropping is particularly noticable in a few scenes. Generally watchable and markedly better than mostPD prints. Note: the opening credits are in 2.35:1
Audio	English and Spanish mono The English track sounds fine, although the dubbing is not perfect.
Subtitles	Spanish (based on the Spanish audio)
Runtime	1 hr 37m 07s (PAL)
Extras	None.
Availability	Spanish release. DVD Title: Julio César, El Conquistador de la Galia
Region	Region 2 (UK, Europe) - PAL
Other regions?	Not available elsewhere.
Cuts?	Cut status unknown. The print used is English language, although a title card that appears part way through is in Italian.

The Film

In Brief

The DVD

Summary

Links