MovieChat Forums > Much Ado About Nothing (2013) Discussion > Dear Americans Please Stop Screwing Up S...

Dear Americans Please Stop Screwing Up Shakespeare

posted 12 years ago by rugby7
61 replies | jump to latest

And we Brits will promise never to make a western...It's the accent and lack of theatrical timing. There are some very good American actors such as Kevin Kline, Laurence Fishburne and Malkovitch who have the theatrical training. But every time you guys shoot Shakespeare the directors choose untrained movie actors who are utterly wrong for the part and ignore actors with real heft.

Even the awful Midsummers Night Dream with Calista Flockhart worked because of Kline, Strathairn, Tucci and Bill Irwin. All these guys are trained at Shakespeare.

Anymore messing with the Bard and we'll remake Red River with Ricky Gervais or Shane with Eddie Izzard.

It's your choice America...

[–] 12 years ago

[deleted]

[–] artsy_fartsy 12 years ago

This cracked me up! Would Eddie Izzard play Shane?

[–] sying 12 years ago

I would want to see that!

[–] NVDan 12 years ago

Anymore messing with the Bard and we'll remake Red River with Ricky Gervais...

No way! If Ricky Gervais is going to be cast in a John Wayne remake it should be Rio Bravo.

___
Aliens? Us? Is this one of your Earth jokes?

[–] rjbmuse 11 years ago

I'd see Ricky Gervais as John Wayne.

[–] 11 years ago

[deleted]

[–] NVDan 11 years ago

How about True Brit ?

___
Sorry, sometimes my wife forgets that she is not an alien from outer space.

[–] TrentB777 12 years ago

"Brits are better than Americans"~you

No one cares. Joss Whedon will make whatever film he wants to.

Goodbye.

http://thecinemareviewed.blogspot.com/

[–] harveythepooka 12 years ago

I don't think you can say that Americans own the western and I can't say the Brits own Shakespeare. If you don't like a more loose, modern interpretation of Shakespeare and will only buy it with period costumes and men dressed as women or what have you, just don't watch. I am definitely going to watch before I pass judgment because just because something is different doesn't mean it's bad. And I would love to see Ricky Gervais ride a horse. I think I would watch just about anything to see that so go and remake red river.

Also there are 2 highly critically acclaimed movies I can think of right now based on Shakespeare: West Side Story and The Lion King. I am sure there are tons more so there is no reason to be a snob about it. The story is the same, and in a movie the story, and characters is what's important, whether it's in iambic pentameter or not. If you dislike the sound of Shakespeare being spoken by someone who doesn't sound like Prince Charles then do you honestly appreciate the words anyway?

[–] jabell 12 years ago

10 Things I Hate About You is the Taming of the Shrew, of course. And Kiss Me Kate is also Taming. KMK is one of my very favorite movie musicals.

I mentioned this in another post. Shakespeare wrote for the people! He'd probably have worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer if he were alive today!

Boo Hoo! Let me wipe away the tears with my PLASTIC hand!--Lindsey McDonald (Angel)

[–] RamanujanHardyTaxiCab 12 years ago

He'd probably have worked on Buffy the Vampire Slayer if he were alive today!

I would have loved to see that.

[–] clyons 12 years ago

I don't think he was talking about costumes or period or accent--he was talking about using actors who know how to do the material. Shakespeare requires specific training to speak that Elizabethan dialect without it coming across as gibberish. He said some American actors do it beautifully, and from what I hear SOME of the actors in this production have the proper background and give fine performances (hardly up to the highest standard), but many others do not. It's an ensemble piece, so that's a problem.

Obviously the OP is kidding, and knows people are going to do what they're going to do, if they have the money and clout to do it.

Btw, West Side Story is an original musical based very loosely on Romeo & Juliet, and The Lion King is a somewhat original work based (without credit) on a Japanese anime series. What on earth gave you the idea it was Shakespeare?

I think you just want this movie to be The Greatest Shakespeare Production Ever, and it's not going to be in the Top 1000--it's like people care more about Joss Whedon (who will be forgotten in a few decades) than Shakespeare (who will outlive every single director and screenwriter working today). Whedon is a competent maker of superhero crap, and that's fine, but he's not a great artist. I think he just did this to remind himself what real writing is. Something he hasn't been guilty of in a long time.

[–] laurendorward-990-190608 12 years ago

The lion king is based on Hamlet fyi.

[–] Max_cinefilo89 11 years ago

Joss Whedon (who will be forgotten in a few decades)

Yeah, keep telling yourself that...

[–] laurendorward-990-190608 12 years ago

I don't think the OP is saying that he is saying that Americans cannot seem to get the nuances of the old English correct, the timing is all out, personally I couldn't even get through the trailer.
Rewrite it in a modern setting, with an adapted script, sure...But not in the original way it was intended. Lurhman already tried and imo failed with Romeo and Juliet.

[–] Sannasonic 12 years ago

Just want to share this little piece. This is by far the
best presentation of this play I've ever seen, the way they interact with
the audience and speak the words. Just brilliant.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VNreIMXhl4

"If I could change one thing in life, I'd make time for us"

[–] plkldf 11 years ago

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8VNreIMXhl4

Sorry, I thought that was not very good. People don't talk like that: shouting, declaiming. To me the delivery in the Whedon version is much more pleasing, and much truer to the original intent. It's a story told by actors, not a script *declaimed* by actors as they walk around gesturing at each other. Who's Beatrice, BTW? I can't place her.

--
GEORGE
And all's fair in love and war?
MRS. BAILEY
[primly] I don't know about war.

[–] aestevalis_0 12 years ago

I'd watch Eddie Izzard in 'Shane'.

Human beings are an irrational species. Some are even afraid of pickles.

[–] koppmeier_kevin 12 years ago

The original poster needs to go back and do their homework.

It's not just Americans screwing up Shakespeare.

The laughable version of Romeo and Juliet with Leonardo DiCaprio and Clare Danes was directed by Ausralian Bazz Lehrmann.

The Brits aren't getting of so easy either. You may want to watch Brannagh's Much Ado About Nothing w/ Americans Denzel Washington, Michael Keaton, and Keanu Reeves. Also check his Hamlet w/Jack Lemmon, Billy Crystal, and Charlton Heston.

[–] clyons 12 years ago

Again, the OP was not saying Americans can't do Shakespeare. He was simply saying Americans should stop SCREWING UP Shakespeare, by casting people in key roles who don't have the training and background to handle them. Keanu Reeves obviously doesn't, but his role was tiny in Branagh's Much Ado. Denzel Washington was doing Shakespeare long before he was a movie star--he played Richard III on stage a few years before he was in that film--very few British thespians could match his power and range.

It's partly about experience, and it's partly about talent--some actors will NEVER be able to do Shakespeare well. Like, for example, Nathan Fillion. Who can't do anything well, period.

[–] msdantemax 12 years ago

Shakespeare didn't write his work specifically for brits, it's ment to reach and influence the entire world. So it being interpreted by many different directors all over the globe just seems right to me but hey Shakespeares work exlusivly belongs to you guys, right ?

[–] clyons 12 years ago

Again, that is not the OP's point, and he went out of his way to say Americans can do Shakespeare right.

We just usually don't.