Film You May Have Missed (#7)

Richard III (1995)

 

By the time Shakespeare wrote Richard III, just over a hundred years had passed since the events depicted but it was played out in late Elizabethan dress and in the language of the 1590’s, so why did purists get so upset when director Richard Loncraine set his version of the play in the 1930’s/40’s?

Personally, I find Shakespeare’s language difficult to understand and the plots of his Histories require a level of knowledge only Simon Schama possesses, so any help is a bonus. Setting Richard III in an alternate 1930’s Fascists England but retaining the language certainly works for me.

Sir Ian McKellen as Richard in the guise of a Dictator King obviously takes centre stage and the audience is expected to root for this obvious sociopath much in the same way as we enjoyed the antics of Francis Urquhart in the original British version of ‘House of Cards’. Loncraine even uses the same talking-direct-to-camera trick.

The supporting cast includes Jim Broadbent, Nigel Hawthorne, Maggie Smith, Jim Carter, Edward Hardwicke, Dominic West, Bill Paterson and the underrated Tim McInnerny (best known as Captain Darling in Blackadder despite a long and successful stage career that has included the British National Theatre, the Royal Shakespeare Company, the Royal National Theater and the Old Vic Theatre Company).

One last thought – Isn’t Richard Loncraine the perfect name for a director of a Shakespeare adaptation? He was destined to do it the moment he was christened.