Richard III (1995)

Richard III 1995

By sabu  Jun 28, 2006

Pros: One of Shakespeare's early historical tragedies from the late 1500's that is seemingly timeless as the tyranny and corruption that will do anything to gain public office and power-over an empire.

Cons: I cannot remember any that stand out, at this time.

DVD 2000 The British Monarchy has its darker sides in history. William Shakespeare (1564-1616), English poet and playwright, composed "Richard III" before he joined Lord Chamberlain's company in 1594. Since many of his texts did not com...pletely survive, I can only estimate, due to the plague, that it was written between 1592 and 1594 while the poet and playwright was coming into fame and was composing his historical cannon of the British Monarchy. The story was entitled by Shakespeare, "The Tragedy of Richard the Third." It follows directly after "Richard Duke of York," and that play's closing scenes, in which Richard of Gloucester (Richard III) expresses his ambitions for the crown, suggests that Shakespeare had a sequel in mind. There's no record of the first performance of "The Tragedy of Richard the Third," but guessing, it was probably outside London (where the plague was serious) in late 1592-93. The play first printed in 1597 and there were five reprints before it was included in the 1623 Folio. The primary source of the history of Richard III that was available to Shakespeare was Sir Thomas More's "History of King Richard III. It was incorporated in chronicled histories by Edward Hall (1542) and Raphael Holinshed (1577, revised in 1587). In my opinion, Shakespeare seems to have profited from both. Now to the show: In this DVD Shakespeare demonstrates a more complete artistic control of his historical material than its predecessors; Richard (Sir Ian McKellen) himself is a more dominating protagonist any of his others in his earlier plays. Historical events are manipulated, perhaps for the sake of an overriding design. The show's English is more highly poetically patterned and rhetorically unified. That part of the film which shows Richard of Gloucester's violent, non-stop, bloody progress to the throne is based on the events of twelve years. The remainder (mostly of his reign covers only two years. So the film's focus is on the ruthless Richard of Gloucester who killed nearly every one in the monarchy to get to the throne. The characterization of Richard III as a self-indulging ironist builds throughout the show. This updated version of Shakespeare's historical tragedy sets the story in 1930's Europe. Sir Ian McKellan plays Richard of Gloucester, the ruthless, crippled, power-hungry, and violently out of control mass murderer who killed nearly everyone in his path to get to the throne to become Richard III. A classic, not simply because of the script, but also because of the magnificent characterizations by Sir Ian McKellen and Annette Benning. m_d.md.m_d Read more Less