93 - Julius Caesar (1953)

Ah yes Mr bright side, a song about getting cuckolded, the perfect song for a wedding.

So, it's important to understand that what the conspirators are doing isn't Revolution, it's Reaction. Caesar, as a Populare politician, is functionally on the side of the Plebians, the common people. He is in favor of things like land redistribution for the working class, which would take it from the landowning Patrician ruling class, and put a dent in their profits. The main objections to Caesar by them were not that he was going to make himself a king and that he was violating norms (the norms have been violated and failing for a few hundred years at this point), it was that he was threatening the bottom line for the rich ruling class. Caesar wasn't a Fascist or a Revolutionary, he was a Reformer, working within the already very extended confines of the existing institution. And the ruling class of Rome wouldn't tolerate even that. Sound familiar? If anything, this play, as well as Roman history itself, is about how attempts by the ruling class to prevent progress just leads to the contradictions of the system getting worse, and causing the whole thing to fall apart in chaos and violence. This may not have been the intention of Shakespeare, but it's obvious if you look at it from outside a monarchist lense.

There was a really fascinating Broadway adaptation of Julius Caesar made in 1962 set in Cuba, where Castro is Caesar and Raul is Mark Anthony, and the senators are reactionaries who are trying to backstab the revolution. It failed pretty quickly, but I would love to see another attempt at it. It was called "Infidel Caesar".

better a day early than a day late I, suppose

Josh's comment around 47:10 is... Prophetic

Man I that bit bout trump Julius Caesar from his first term is weird to hear in time of writing this but I'm not sure if it's changed or more true?

This is my first time commenting on Patreon. Listened to this episode today, it was great! Then I went to a pool bar with some friends. There were 5 TVs above the bar. The largest TV, in the middle, cycled Shakespeare quotes the entire night. When I decided to take a picture, it was the “As he was ambitious, I slew him” quote. Life’s funny like that sometimes.

Not sure why but this episode has become the one I put on to fall asleep. I’ve never made it to the commercial and also I’ve never not laughed like a child at Charlie Brown and his love of big naturals.

We did Julius Caesar in school and I couldn't get into it at all until we watched this in class, so nice to remember how enjoyable this adaptation is Also if you do other Shakespeare adaptations in future would be quite interested in hearing your thoughts on the Julie Taymor Titus Andronicus film at some point

"taylor sheridan's mary kate and ashley series is really phenomenal" sent me into several minutes of fevered searching, did taylor sheridan work on those olsen twins joints under a pseudonym? did he do some kind of expose documentary on them? is there another taylor sheridan i don't know about who's like a youtuber or podcaster or something? ...oh i've been defeated by brian's bone dry delivery

Weirdly we did Julius Caesar in high school, but it was in history class instead of English class. Same teacher had us read sections of Henry V too, I think he was a theater guy who just somehow ended up teaching the wrong class. The only Shakespeare we did in English class was Romeo and Juliet and Midsummer Night's Dream.

Ivlivs Ivlafs Ivluvs

That commercial was a personal attack on me specifically wasn’t it?