VHS : Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead [1990] [1991]

Rating: - That was a cult play but times have changed
This play is a myth in Shakespearean theater, maybe even a cult. When the play came out in 1967 it was acclaimed as a postmodern rewriting of our vision of the world. A tragedy like Hamlet's is here entirely captured through the eyes of the two secondary characters in the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Finally someone was looking at great dramatic historical events from the point of view of two insignificant witnesses, maybe even not witnesses, just people there unwilling and un-chosen, just there by accident or opportunism. They look and understand nothing. They feel something is hidden from them but they do not know what. They capture glimpses and tidbits here and there from behind a window or through a closed door and the plot is slowly reconstructed out of shape from a completely deconstructed partial vision. They even think they are taking advantage of the situation to their own profit and they end up hanged. That was received by many in America as a metaphor of the Vietnam war, a war decided and managed by the leaders of the world but fought and suffered by the simple draftees. It was an immediate success on American campuses. But today, and even maybe in 1990 when the film was made, the meaning is no longer that simple, that postmodern. It is not a metaphor of the war on Iraq. It is not in anyway an anti-war pamphlet as it once was. It is not even an anti-establishment pamphlet because the war on Iraq is fought by professionals and not draftees, because there is no alternative ideology or even utopia questioning the apparent full domination of global market economy and unclear not always very decisive elections between Tweedledee or Tweedledum or maybe Tweedledum and Tweedledee. And as a matter of fact it is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern that look like these politicians who are wavering from one side to the other, from one pit to the next, from one illumination to a vision, and never coming to any kind of control over things except by tossing a coin. We are getting into a new post-postmodern period where there still is no truth, where there are still only points of view, but we now know history is not done by individuals, groups or even masses. History is beyond our grasp and understanding. We just struggle to survive, no matter what. The tragedy is then no longer for the leaders of the world, the drama for the copycat actors and the melodrama for the masses. We are just pawns on a chessboard that no one controls. So the film has aged, and the play has aged. Neither speak to us as they used to howl to our thirst and hunger for freedom.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University Paris Dauphine, University Paris 1 Pantheon Sorbonne & University Versailles Saint Quentin en Yvelines

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Rating: - Rosencrantz and Guidenstern Are Dead
Shakespeare fun? You bet it is. Tom Stoppard is here at his best. Sly, witty, full of double entendres, he built an engrossing story from two minor characters in Shakespeare's best play. Tim Roth & Gary Oldman carry the heavy & at times ackward burden of the entire story to its & their own,ultimate fates. The bantering between the two, as they ponder the meaning of life, is a verbal tennis match, here actually & ingeniously portrayed. Both show a comic timing & ability not often seen from these fine actors. Tim Roth is wonderful as the rather deeper Rosencrantz, or is he Guildenstern? The two themselves cannot decide in the play's running joke. Gary Oldman, while being the comic foil & less bright of the two still manages to discover the laws of probabilty, mass, gravity, flight, continuous motion, & steam & wind power but is never able to replicate it when Rosencrantz/Guildenstern watches. If there is a weak link, it is Richard Dreyfus who overacts & whose British accent comes, & distractingly, mostly goes. If you know Hamlet it will make it more fun. If you do not, it will make you want to see it. I would love to see Iain Glen's (Hamlet here)version as the bits you see, are very moving. Like Hamlet, this is well worth seeing again & again.

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Rating: - Maybe Death is a Boat.....!
I last saw this on TV in 1994 so I decided to buy the DVD. And I'm glad I did because this film is not be overlooked!

Gary Oldman and Tim Roth make a superb comedy double-act. Oldman in particular shows a great talent for comedy acting.

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern bemusedly exist in a world constructed by Shakespeare, not knowing why they are here or how they got here. Throughout the film they struggle to make sense of their existence and the things that go on around them. But there is no real meaning to their being, they've merely been plonked into the world to speak a few lines in Hamlet at the appropriate times.

Oldman's playful idiot and Roth's questioning mind will keep you entertained from start to finish. You'll be sorry if you miss this!

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Rating: - In a tragedy even minor characters die
The scene closes in on Rosencrantz & Guildenstern or is it Guildenstern & Rosencrantz discussing the odds of a flipped coin coming up heads. What seems to be a casual curiosity is the setting for the eventual outcome of the story. If the names sound familiar then you will recognize them from the play "Hamlet". Their story was never fully told until now.

Through out the film we get snippets of Hamlet and visions of what is to come. The real fun is in the fact that the dialog and the actors could have easily been seamlessly slipped into the original play.

Their play on words not only matches Shakespeare but a good dose of Lewis Carroll; "Toes on the other hand","Don't you mean the other foot?"

Disperses through the story Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) makes all the great discoveries from gravity to flight to steam engines and so forth. Every time he goes to show them to Guildenstern (Tim Roth) they are overlooked, or dismissed.

The only person that was a tad over the top, acting like he was acting wad Richard Dreyfuss as the leader of the acting troop. However this is one movie that you can get away with it.

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Rating: - riveting word play
What an incredibly sublime working of the classic tom stoppard play. Tim roth and Gary oldman combine in creating a fast moving and ingenious portayal of two minor chracters from shakspears hamlet, This film never ceases to amuse and delight me! Without a doubt well worth the money.