The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #48: Haider [Hamlet] (2014)
48. Vishal Bharwaj’s Haider [Hamlet] (2014) After having recently revisited Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho with the delightful recognition that the film was even better than I had remembered, I decided to test my luck with another loose adaptation of Shakespeare. In an earlier review, I covered Vishal Bharwaj’s Omkara, an Othello imagined in a wild country Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #47: My Own Private Idaho [Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2] (1991)
47. Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho [Henry IV, Parts 1 & 2] (1991) Gus Van Sant’s My Own Private Idaho is a stylized, Midnight Cowboyesque romp through the gay underworld of the mid-and-north-west. Oh, and it’s sort of an adaptation of Henry IV. Bill Stafford’s music takes the steel guitar of honky tonk music Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #46: Henry V (2012)
46. Thea Sharrock’s Henry V (2012) Can Tom Hiddleston carry Henry V alone after we have watched him acting alongside Simon Russell Beale and Jeremy Irons in the two parts of Henry IV? Nope. No. Not really. Hiddleston was excellent as the sleazy, wild Prince Hal, and was impressive in his coronation at the close Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #45: Henry IV, Part 2 (2012)
45. Richard Eyre’s Henry IV, Part 2 (2012) Let’s recap my assessment of The Hollow Crown so far. Episode 1 (Richard II) was excruciating, except for the monkey. Episode II (Henry IV, Part 1) proved to be quite good. Henry IV, Part 2 simultaneously feels like a reboot and a sequel to Part 1, which Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #44: Henry IV, Part 1 (2012)
44. Richard Eyre’s Henry IV, Part 1 (2012) There is no Richard II in episode two of The Hollow Crown, so already there was good reason to hope. Episode two presents Henry IV, Part 1. The title role is played not by Rory Kinnear, who performed the role admirably in Richard II, but instead by Jeremy Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #43: Richard II (2012)
43. Rupert Goold’s Richard II (2012) Dear readers, your indulgent rogue sometimes has a difficult time out of doors during those times when he is recognized as such a keen evaluator of the films made from Shakespeare. “Will you review this film?” they yip, and “Will you review that film?” they yap. I can’t stick Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #42: Discovering Hamlet (1990)
42. Mark Olshaker’s Discovering Hamlet (1990) Documentaries about Shakespeare tend to bore me, as they must. I may be a rogue, but I do have some bona fide academic credentials, and most documentaries cannot gracefully bridge the needs of the novice Shakespeare viewer and the not-novice. If there was an A&E Biography of Richard Burbage, Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #41: Omkara [Othello] (2006)
41. Omkara [Othello] (2006) With the exception of The Tempest, the plots of Shakespeare’s plays are not actually original to him. What is original is the exceptional psychological depth that he granted the characters in these plays, and the exquisite language with which he chiseled their psychologies into existence. So when artists adapt Shakespeare onto film, Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #40: Cymbeline (2014)
40. Michael Almereyda’s Cymbeline (2014) With his Hamlet, Michael Almereyda demonstrated some interesting interpretive choices marred by casting a mawkish, mumbling Ethan Hawke as Hamlet, and Ethan Hawke Ethan Hawked the shit out of that shitty film. With his Cymbeline, Michael Almereyda demonstrated some astoundingly feeble tawdry interpretive choices marred even further by casting a Continue reading
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The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #39: The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
39. Franco Zeffirelli’s The Taming of the Shrew (1967) All right, readers, let’s get to it. The Taming of the Shrew is one of those infernal puzzles Shakespeare has bequeathed to us. We don’t use the word shrew these days to describe women, so if you want to imagine a current translation, the play might be Continue reading
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The Drunken Odyssey is a forum to discuss all aspects of the writing process, in a variety of genres, in order to foster a greater community among writers.
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