The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #28: Looking for Richard [Richard III] (1996)
28. Looking for Richard [Richard III] (1996) Al Pacino is among the absolute best American film actors, and he would have a triumph as Shylock in Michael Radford’s 2004 film of The Merchant of Venice, a triumph he would extend to the stage in the Shakespeare in the Park production of Merchant in 2010, which would Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #27: Throne of Blood [Macbeth] (1957)
#27. Throne of Blood [Macbeth] (1957) When your humble rogue reviewed Akira Kurosawa’s Ran, he asked if an adaptation of Shakespeare can be meaningfully Shakespearean if the language is changed from English to Japanese, without the sense of the screenplay even trying to translate the poetry and psychological trains of thought in the original texts Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #26: Strange Brew [Hamlet] (1983)
26. Strange Brew [Hamlet] (1983) Ever since I noticed that Jon Finch, who played the title role in Polanski’s Macbeth, looked like Max Von Sydow, I’ve been suffering from some degree of Sydowmania. The Swedish actor who played chess with Death in The Seventh Seal has recently lent his gravitas to The Force Awakens and Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #25: Ran [King Lear] (1985)
25. Ran [King Lear] (1985) Shakespearean tragedy can be something of a downer. To give you some idea of the moody fuck I was before the age of 30, this observation had never quite occurred to me. I remember enticing my friend Numisiri to watch the Zeffirelli Hamlet with me and our friend Sam Van Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #24: Julius Caesar (2012)
#24. Julius Caesar (2012) I am not fond of color-blind casting, wherein a director expects an audience to ignore the races of a production’s actors and imagine the story happening in a sort of bizarrely post-racial context that did not exist in the real world in Shakespeare’s original settings. At the same time, the sense Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #23: Macbeth (1971)
#23: Macbeth (1971) Early on, this Roman Polanski film from 1971, the year of my birth, looks like every non-Shakespearean’s nightmare about what Shakespeare is like: forgettable characters braying gibberish that is meant to set the scene, but in essence makes us not especially want to watch the story at all. Jon Finch, our Macbeth Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #22: Macbeth (1996)
#22. Macbeth (1996) Geoffrey Wright’s Macbeth (1996) very much looks like the 1990s when it was made. Lots of shabby European décor, retro rock instrumentals, foppish couture, and a well-oiled Bohemian sensibility at the fringes. The kingdom of Scotland is imagined as gang warfare, complete with prostitutes and drugs, in Australia. The weird sisters first appear Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #21: Macbeth (2010)
#21. Macbeth (2010) As I established last time, I find Macbeth a difficult play to like. The story is one of stupendous coveting of power and how such an impulse, if acted upon, erodes the soul. There’s also a lot of semi-pointless wrestling with the idea of prophecy and Fate, and man’s relationship with the Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #20: Macbeth (2015)
20. Macbeth (2015) Confession: I don’t like the play Macbeth, which I regard as the tragic story of a porter who is trying to do his job when Scotland decides to miserably implode, politically speaking. MACBETH [Aside] If chance will have me king, why, chance may crown me, Without my stir. If only the imbecile went Continue reading
-
The Rogue’s Guide to Shakespeare on Film #19: Coriolanus (2011)
#19. Coriolanus (2011) If, like me, you’re an American with a functioning cortex, then the current political climate looks dire, with presidential candidates presented to the public precisely like any other capitalistic commodity by public relations and branding firms, with an almost absolute loathing for polysyllabic words or anything resembling actual ideas, plans,or philosophies about Continue reading
About
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.
Recent Posts
- Episode 693: Emily Van Duyne!
- Comics Are Trying to Break Your Heart #349: Jangling Keys
- Video: Mickey Mousing Around #4: Responding to the Barn Dance, with Samantha Nickerson
- Episode 692: Fire x Fire x Fire 2025 with Tod Caviness and Dianne Turgeon Richardson!
- McClurg’s Musicalia Playlist #150: An Unwanted Milkshake
The Drunken Odyssey 