Word: casca
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...beginning of Julius Caesar, before Caesar's assassination, Casca has a premonition of disaster that he reports to Cicero: "Against the Capitol I met a lion, who glared at me, and went surly by." The implication is that in every civilization, however lofty, a lion always roams the streets; the jungle never entirely disappears. What most men fear is a lion in the soul. Women, too, perhaps, but not in the matter of rape. That is male terrain, the masculine jungle. And no man can glimpse it, even at a distance, without fury and bewilderment at his monstrous capabilities...
...reporter's pad. The Soothsayer is a blind man hawking copies of an astrology magazine. Mark Antony, on his first appearance, wears a jogging suit and running shoes. In his domestic scene with his wife, Caesar is attired in pajamas, bathrobe and slippers. Cicero appropriately carries a book, and Casca nervously smokes cigarettes. You get the idea...
...touching scene with his loyal wife Portia (Mary Alice). Gylan Kain's Cassius is less convincing. He possesses the character's guile and envy but not his menace. Morgan Freeman, an actor of intrepid gifts, would have suited the part better, and is somewhat wasted as Casca. While firm in his authority, Sonny Jim Games' Caesar is smugly arrogant rather than imperiously regal...
...really starting novelty that Kahn has introduced is the staging of the actual assassination of Caesar. At this point Casca and the rest of the conspirators execute their dagger thrusts and other bodily movements in ultra slow-motion, turning the scene into a graceful choreographed ritual. The director perhaps got the idea from the slow-motion violence in such recent movies as Bonnie and Clyde, The Wild Bunch, and Bunch Cassidy and the Sundance...
JOSEF SOMMER, who has usually specialized in portraying old men (and who played Caesar in the 1966 production), is now a properly lean and cynical Cassius. His wide vocal range and unfailingly intelligent line-readings add up to a first-rate performance. Joseph Maher's Casca will be almost equally good if he learns to say "part" and "market" instead of "paht" and "mahket...