Stream it now Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead 1990

 

Written and directed by Tom Stoppard, "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" almost lives up to the profoundness of its source material, while also adding a few enhancing details to the original storyline.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

The sight is dismal. And our affairs from England come too late. The ears are senseless that should give us hearing, to tell him his commandment is fulfilled. That Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead.
--Hamlet, Act V, Scene ii

We never do entirely learn which is which. Because it doesn't matter. They are Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and that is enough. (According to the script, Gary Oldman's character is Rosencrantz; Tim Roth is Guildenstern.) Can you, hearing a line spoken from the original Hamlet, remember which one said it?

Some quarter of the Stoppard is not Stoppard, but is instead Shakespeare. That's an estimate, of course; I've not taken the time to run through the play and count. However, some of the best of it is the paraphrasing. Guildenstern's excellent "dead in a box" speech is perhaps the best possible interpretation of "To be or not to be."

It seems traditional to get the best, or at least best-known, actor you can afford who is older than your Hamlet to act the Player King. (Their Hamlet, incidentally, is currently doing Resident Evil movies.) In the Branagh, it was Charlton Heston (with Aunt May as the Player Queen, yet!). In the Olivier, it was a man not well-known for film (I don't feel like taking the time to look up his probable stage credentials) who then later became one of many Doctors Who. Pete Postlethwaite for the Gibson. Robert MacNeil (as in MacNeil/Lehrer) in the lousy Hawke. George Voskovec (whom we've seen as "Juror #11" from Twelve Angry Men) in the Burton. (The Player King in the Kline--yes, Kevin Kline!--played Rosencrantz in the Burton.)

However, I will always be partial to Richard Dreyfuss, though Pete Postlethwaite is an old favorite of this journal. It seems to be that he is the best foil for Tim Roth and Gary Oldman (or is it Gary Oldman and Tim Roth?). He is slightly grizzled in this, slightly seedy. He is far from being the young idealist of American Graffiti. I think his closest role to this one is his dual role in Moon Over Parador, where he plays a down-at-heels actor playing a dictator. In both, he appears to have control over lives when in fact he's merely exploring the control someone/something else does. Or am I overthinking again?

When I was in college, the final quarter of my senior year, I watched a crapload of Hamlet, and this is still one of my favorites. Its production of Hamlet, its play-within-a-play, its two different dumbshows--and its commentary on the nature of acting and of audiences--endears it to me. I can also quote about as much of it, when pressed, as I can from the original play.

I've always suspected Shakespeare to be full of malaprops, but between the fast and furious dialog with antique sentence structure and no real motivation to study it, I've just preceded where its led hehee.

Rosenkrantz and Guildenstern (R&G) are clueless minor characters playing out their roles in Hamlet. They are like two huge malaprops, feeling their way through the story, not even sure who's Rosenkrantz and who's Guildenstern. As if born yesterday, R&G, ably played by Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, get summoned by Denmark's new king to help figure out what's up with Hamlet, or so they think. Along the way, they meet the traveling acting troupe that figures later in the tragedy, led by The Player (Dreyfuss).



Rosenkrantz about to discover winged flight with a page from Shakespeare's Hamlet


Hell I never thought existentialism could have a humorous twist, but R&G can be funny!

(8 out of 10)

First of all, in case I don't mention it later on, and it's not made blatantly obvious in my discussion, this is a comedy - a funny one.

Have you ever seen a performance of Shakespeare's "Hamlet", either a stage play, or perhaps one of the fine movie versions? You know the story. Hamlet's uncle kills his father, marries his mother, tries to have him killed, yadda yadda yadda.... His mother thinks Hamlet is going insane because he's been acting depressed (ya think). So she sends for his companions, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, to keep an eye on him. Every now and then, you'll read "Enter Rosencrantz and Guildenstern". They then have Shakespeare-like banter with Hamlet or Queen Gertrude or Polonius or ........... whatever. Then you'll read "Exit Rosencrantz and Guildenstern". Ever wonder what happens to them after they exit, when they're not on stage? No? Neither did I.

This movie is their story, from the moment they were "sent for", to their ultimate demise (I'm not giving anything away here, they get killed in Hamlet - it's the name of this movie, for cripe's sake). But despite that, it's very funny. Tim Roth and Gary Oldman never come out of character. They are in Shakespeare mode all the way through, but the conversations they have are priceless. In fact, the entire film is completely driven by dialog. Not unusual, since Shakespeare's main strength is dialog.

Not everyone will like this film. The dialog is fast and funny, and you have to be quick and pay attention. Not everybody is willing to put in that kind of effort. If you don't, you'll miss the point, and it may be rather boring. Some people think Shakespeare shouldn't be "messed with", and won't like the satire and comedic puns that are rife throughout the script. Some people will think it's rather vulgar - it's not. "I hated it! There's no plot!" What are you talking about? It's Hamlet! But do you know who liked it? My kids. I played it for them when they were fairly young and they loved it. They didn't get everything, but they got enough.

Here's why I like this film.


An excellent screen adaptation by Tom Stoppard, of the play by Tom Stoppard, and then directed by Tom Stoppard. Think of all the money they saved.The banter between Rosencrantz and Guildenstern is very reminiscent of the banter between Dante and Randal in the movie Clerks, - not exactly, but reminiscent. Sort of like Kevin Smith writes Shakespeare.Rosencrantz always seems to be on the verge of some discovery, which we recognized, but which then eludes him.Hamlet's story, somehow not as interesting as R & G's.So many great quotes - if only I could remember them.Here's one - by Richard Dreyfuss as the head of the acting troupe. "We're actors! We're the opposite of people!"Here's another by Rosencrantz. "I can't think of anything original! I'm only good in support." - a reference that neither character ever appears without the other.Shakespeare wishes he wrote this play. He told me so.If you ever do a coin toss with R & G, call out "heads" before they do ........ trust me on this one.It's just four floggin' beats.Enjoy.

11-08-06

Good effort that does not work entirely, but there is some good stuff along the way. The acting is great, well made technically. A bit talky at times but amusing.

At the start of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", Rosencrantz(Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern(Tim Roth) are very much alive and on their way to Elsinore Castle, summoned by King Claudius(Donald Sumpter) to look into the madness of their old pal Prince Hamlet(Iain Glen). On the way there, they have a long discussion about probability and are briefly entertained by a group of actors.

Written and directed by Tom Stoppard, "Rosencrantz and Guildernstern Are Dead" is an entertaining bit of intellectualizing on the nature of watching a play(One of the characters even refers to himself as a spectator.) but this is no more than a thin conceit stretched to the breaking point. The movie takes the above minor characters from "Hamlet", and pushes them to the lead but they are still on the periphery of the action with which they are interwoven. And the film sadly does not flesh out the characters any. However, Roth and Oldman do a wonderful job acting in tandem.

Here's some film ratings.