I think Heston delivers a very fine Marc Antony, and despite the limitations of the Elizabethan script, one closer to the historical Antony than say, Richard Burton's rather neurotic (if charismatic) non-Shakespearean take on the role with Elizabeth Taylor-- though of course this was a far later script, and based on a novel. Antony was a hero of his time, sort of a rock star to the Romans, and was popularly reputed to have been descended from Hercules. In John Castle's terse portrayal, Octavian is well served as the master manipulator he truly was. Rome explained Cleopatra's partnership with Antony as the folly of a Roman unmanned by an exotic temptress, and since after all the winner gets to write the history, this is the version handed down to us.
I have a real problem with Hildegard Neil's Cleo, however. I know she can act, but she just doesn't work as the glittering siren Shakespeare intended. She's actually a Londoner, but her Cleopatra seems more like some modern Newport socialite. We see Antony falling head over heals for this person, and you just have to say "go figure!" Carmen Sevilla's beautiful Octavia has considerably more physical allure, though of course she's portrayed as frigid and no competition for the Nile temptress. (The historical Octavia was actually one heck of a lady, and later brought up some of Antony's children by Cleopatra.)
One of the standouts in this cast is Jane Lapotaire's luminous Charmian, for my money a much more compelling presence than the supercilious and somehow tacky Cleo. In 1981 Lapotaire was in fact cast as Cleopatra in an Elizabethan-dress BBC production of A&C, but to mixed reviews.
Anyway, this 1972 version of Shakespeare's version of the Roman version of Antony and Cleopatra's story is well worth a look, and its flaws are easily overlooked.
