Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by Mart on April 24, 2000 at 02:17:55:

In Reply to: Re: Is it just me or ... posted by edta on April 23, 2000 at 19:17:53:

Yes, it's available on VHS but I was watching on LD. The acting & staging was rivotingly epic. The music is a tad over bearing but setting my preamp's dynamic compressor on low was sufficient to hear the dialog under all circumstances & still be swept away by the sound.

Chalton Heston plays on one the actors of the play within the play. He has a speach that completely steals the scene. I don't remember if it's in the original play but in that scene there's a beautifully crafted shot at Hollywood made with surgical precision. The haunting part is that this is supposedly Shakespeare's entire text (uncut & unabridged).

It is indeed Shakespeare cast in late 1800's (I believe soley for the pagentry) but still in the original tongue. This is keeper!!! It's a much more serious piece of work than Mel Gibson's version. Kenneth must've horned his actors to rapier edge. Even, Jack Lemmon pulled off a credible performance (It was still not upto the task but he didn't trash it either).

Please bear in mind reguarding Keneth Branaugh's work, that while I adored "Much Ado About Nothing", I hated "Othello". I even found Orson Welles more believable than Laurence Fishburne as a discriminated black. Go figure. So, I'm not Shakespear-a-holic. This was just a fantastic flick worthy of Cecil B. Demille. Only this wasn't about effects, it was about depicting the story in a majestic style worth of the name Will Shakespeare.