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DVD Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Tom Stoppard's modern stage classic finds a pair of film actors worthy of its verbal japery and existential bewilderment: Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are deliciously locked in as the title characters of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. And yet it remains difficult to tell which one is Rosencrantz and which Guildenstern--even they seem unsure--a clever part of Stoppard's ingenious design. Focusing on a pair of unremarkable characters from Hamlet, Stoppard sees the great play from their confused perspective. Now and again the action of Hamlet sweeps them up, but most of the time R&G are left wondering where they are, what they have been sent for, and why they can't remember anything that happened before the beginning of the play. Richard Dreyfuss (fittingly grandiloquent) is the Player King, who seems to know more about the ominous workings of fiction and tragedy than the heroes do. Stoppard's first outing as a film director is handsomely shot but uncertainly paced--although any time Oldman and Roth go into one of their tennis-match debates on probability, identity, or death, the movie crackles. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern may be the "indifferent children of the earth," but for this brief moment they deserve center stage. --Robert Horton
Review(s): DVD Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
In a tragedy even minor characters die
The scene closes in on Rosencrantz & Guildenstern or is it Guildenstern & Rosencrantz discussing the odds of a flipped coin coming up heads. What seems to be a casual curiosity is the setting for the eventual outcome of the story. If the names sound familiar then you will recognize them from the play "Hamlet". Their story was never fully told until now.
Through out the film we get snippets of Hamlet and visions of what is to come. The real fun is in the fact that the dialog and the actors could have easily been seamlessly slipped into the original play.
Their play on words not only matches Shakespeare but a good dose of Lewis Carroll; "Toes on the other hand","Don't you mean the other foot?"
Disperses through the story Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) makes all the great discoveries from gravity to flight to steam engines and so forth. Every time he goes to show them to Guildenstern (Tim Roth) they are overlooked, or dismissed.
The only person that was a tad over the top, acting like he was acting wad Richard Dreyfuss as the leader of the acting troop. However this is one movie that you can get away with it.
Hamlet - A Different Perspective
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is another wonderful Stoppard play and the video is true to form. Who else but Tom Stoppard would come up with the concept of Hamlet as seen through the eyes of R&G (or is it G&R?).
The movie is generally true to the play script (available from Amazon), with some minor modifications. But they do not change the nature of the play. The essence, from the symbolic pages (of a script?) flying in the wind near the beginning to the near-inventions of various machines throughout, to the word play with the traveling acting troupe's leader at the outset, is preserved.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is almost an anti-Hamlet, although it does contain some of Shakespeares script unchanged (His scenes with Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in them are included in the play and video.) This video will be a source of entertainment for a long time, as each time one sees the video, new insights come. Highly recommended.
Questions?
This is a highly recommended film. I enjoy it from the moment it introduces itself to the end statement. This is one that any film critic or buff should watch and any Shakespeare enthusiast needs to see.
Rarely has The Merchant of Venice, one of Shakespeare's most complex plays, looked as ravishingly sumptuous as in this adaptation, directed by Michael Radford (Il Postino). In a decadent version of renaissance Venice, a young nobleman named Bassanio (Joseph Fiennes, Shakespeare in Love) seeks to woo the lovely Portia (newcomer Lynn Collins), but lacks the money to travel to her estate. He seeks support from his friend, the merchant Antonio (Jeremy Irons, Reversal of Fortune); Antonio's fortune is tied up in sea ventures, so the merchant offers to borrow money from a Jewish moneylender, Shylock (Al Pacino, Dog Day Afternoon). But Shylock holds a grudge against Antonio, who has routinely treated the Jew with contempt, and demands that if the debt is not... More Info about this DVD Actor(s): Al Pacino - Jeremy Irons - Joseph Fiennes - Lynn Collins Director(s): Michael Radford DVD Release Date: Released the 10 May 2005 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Ah, Shakespeare. The great bard. You've heard he's a terrific writer. One of these days, you may actually get around to catching one of his plays. Yeah, right. Well, with the help of the Reduced Shakespeare Company, not only can you catch all of Shakespeare's plays at once, but you can have a riotous good time doing so.
Three men performing 37 plays in less than two hours may seem a bit of a stretch. But Adam Long, Reed Martin, and Austin Tichenor--all members of the Reduced Shakespeare Company--pull it off beautifully with The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged), a slapstick show that summarizes the playwright's stage work (with the sonnets thrown in). Never read Titus Andronicus? No problem; it's presented here as a cooking show. Can't keep your... More Info about this DVD Director(s): Paul Kafno DVD Release Date: Released the 01 May 2003 Usually ships in 24 hours
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Franco Zeffirelli's stripped-down, two-hour version of Shakespeare's play stars Mel Gibson as a rather robust version of the ambivalent Danish prince. Gibson is much better in the part than many critics have admitted, his powers of clarity doing much to make this particular Hamlet more accessible than several other filmed versions. The supporting cast is outstanding, including Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, Ian Holm as Polonius, and Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia. Zeffirelli's vigorous direction employs a lively camera style that nicely alters the viewer's preconceptions about the way Hamlet should look. --Tom KeoghMore Info about this DVD Actor(s): Mel Gibson - Glenn Close Director(s): Franco Zeffirelli DVD Release Date: Released the 24 February 2004 Usually ships in 24 hours
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