“Beware the Ides of March”: Take a stab at these Julius Caesar movies today

To paraphrase Mean Girls for a moment, it’s, like, totally time to kill Caesar! Today is March 15th, better known as the Ides of March, which is when Caesar was famously killed by twenty-three Roman senators in order to dethrone him because he went a little, you know, mad with power. Over the years, people really like to celebrate Caesar’s famous assassination online.

It’s the internet, man. We don’t know what to tell you on that front. Plus, sometimes you just want to celebrate when one of history’s most famous dictators, well, who are we to judge, you know? In order to celebrate the Ides of March, here are some of the best movies about Caesar (or the Roman era). 

Cleopatra (1963)

Cleopatra is one of the biggest productions ever to happen in movie history. Like, seriously, this film was so big that it almost bankrupted 20th Century Fox. Decades before the studio did go bankrupt and was sold to Disney, but that’s another story for another day. The film stars Elizabeth Taylor in the title role with Richard Burton as Marc Antony & Rex Harrison as Julius Caesar. 

This movie, interestingly enough, focuses more on the aftermath of the Ides of March over the lead-up to it. While there is a lead-up to the Caesar’s murder, it gets far more interesting to see Cleopatra navigate the fallout following his death. More than that, it’s a technical masterpiece with some of the most gorgeous costumes & sets put to film. Of course, there’s also the fact that a white woman is playing Cleopatra.

That said, it’s one of those films where you have to recognize the historical context and racism pervading the industry that leads to such casting. Either way, it’s considered a classic film and definitely worth watching if you’re interested in movies on the Ides of March. 

Caesar Must Die (2012)

One of Shakespeare’s most famous plays is Julius Caesar, which follows his assassins (chiefly Brutus) as they plot his demise. You know the line “Et tu, Brute?”. That’s from this play. This Italian drama film directed by Taviani Brothers is set in Rebibbia Prison, which is a prison just outside of Rome. It follows a group of convicts in their rehearsals for a prison performance of Julius Caesar. 

In fact, here’s the wild part, Caesar Must Die used actual prisoners as the actors in the film, which brought a sense of heightened emotional intensity and realism to the performances. It won the Golden Bear at the 2012 Berlin International Film Festival, which was a major upset that year. It’s definitely a movie to put on your Ides of March viewing list. 

Zulfiqar (2016)

Big Bollywood fan that wants to celebrate the Ides of March? Be sure to check out Zulfiqar. This film combines the plays Julius Caesar and Antony and Cleopatra from William Shakespeare for this adaptation. It follows the Godfather-like head of a crime family known as “The Syndicate” as those around him plot his death. Of course, there’s drama, sex, intrigue, and romance at every turn.

Zulfiqar takes those big emotions from Shakespeare and amplifies it a thousand fold. Of course, it’s also not a very good movie. Critics lambasted it when it came out and there was a controversy of Muslim characters being cast as the bad guys. Those are points against. Much like Caesar, however, the film had ambitions too big for it to properly handle. Either way, it’s a good choice to put it on and heckle. 

The phrase “Beware the Ides of March” has become one of the most enduring warnings in Western storytelling, and by 2026 it remains inseparable from cinematic portrayals of Julius Caesar. Across decades of film and television, the assassination of Caesar on March 15, 44 BCE continues to function as a dramatic shorthand for political betrayal, ambition, and the fatal consequences of ignored warnings.

In cinema, the Ides of March rarely stand alone as a literal moment. Instead, filmmakers treat it as a gravitational center—the event toward which all intrigue, conspiracy, and moral compromise inevitably collapses. Whether adapted directly from Shakespeare or filtered through historical epic, the warning operates less as prophecy and more as a test of character. Caesar’s tragedy is not ignorance of the danger, but his refusal to act on it.

Classic adaptations of Julius Caesar remain the backbone of how modern audiences visualize the Ides. Joseph L. Mankiewicz’s 1953 film version, often cited in film studies through the 2020s, framed the assassination with stark black-and-white severity, emphasizing rhetoric and performance over spectacle. By 2026, that restraint feels newly relevant, particularly as audiences grow fatigued with hyper-digital historical epics. The film’s power lies in its talk-heavy tension—every speech a blade, every alliance provisional.

Later screen interpretations expanded the visual scale but kept the same thematic core. Big-budget Roman epics and television miniseries of the late 20th and early 21st centuries leaned into pageantry—columns, crowds, bloodied togas—but still returned to the same fatal flaw: Caesar’s certainty that he is untouchable. The Ides of March, in these versions, become a meditation on power’s ability to distort perception.

By 2026, modern historical filmmaking has increasingly reframed Caesar narratives through ensemble storytelling. Rather than positioning Caesar as the sole tragic figure, newer interpretations emphasize the collective psychology of the conspirators. Brutus, Cassius, and the Roman Senate are portrayed less as villains and more as actors trapped by ideology, fear, and performative virtue. The Ides, then, become less about destiny and more about systems collapsing under their own contradictions.

Politically, the phrase has gained renewed resonance in recent years, and filmmakers have not ignored this. Contemporary Caesar films and re-releases are frequently discussed in relation to modern leadership crises, populism, and institutional decay. The warning “Beware the Ides of March” reads, in 2026, as an indictment of leaders who mistake popularity for permanence. That subtext has helped keep Caesar movies culturally relevant far beyond their historical setting.

Streaming platforms have also contributed to a quiet revival of interest. Shakespeare adaptations, Roman-era films, and political thrillers inspired by Caesar’s assassination are regularly resurfaced in recommendation cycles tied to election seasons or political news spikes. While not always marketed explicitly as “Ides of March” content, these films benefit from a shared symbolic language audiences immediately recognize.

Visually, filmmakers continue to return to the assassination scene itself as an exercise in restraint or excess, depending on era. Some linger on the violence, emphasizing chaos and betrayal. Others cut away, letting the act occur almost off-screen, focusing instead on reaction shots and aftermath. By 2026, there is a noticeable trend toward the latter—suggesting that implication, not gore, better serves the mythic weight of the moment.

What distinguishes Caesar films from other historical epics is their refusal to offer moral closure. The assassination does not restore order. Rome does not become freer. Violence begets more violence. This cyclical bleakness has aged well, particularly in a media environment increasingly skeptical of heroic narratives. The Ides of March are not framed as justice, but as consequence.

In 2026, Beware the Ides of March functions less as a title or quote and more as a cinematic signal flare. It alerts viewers that what follows will be about trust misplaced, power misread, and warnings ignored in plain sight. As long as filmmakers remain interested in political tragedy—and history keeps supplying parallels—Julius Caesar’s fatal day will continue to be reenacted on screen, not as a relic, but as a mirror.

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How are you celebrating the Ides of March? Should we have more movies about Caesar? Sound off in the comments and let us know your thoughts!