Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested) Binding: VHS Tape EAN: 9780788815997 Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC ISBN: 0788815997 Label: Walt Disney Video Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video Number Of Items: 1 Publisher: Walt Disney Video Release Date: April 04, 2000 Running Time: 105 minutes Sales Rank: 28739 Studio: Walt Disney Video Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Amazon.com: This adaptation of a Royal Shakespeare Company production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is drenched in color: The costumes, the set, the lighting--all of them are flush with bright yellows, reds, blues, every color in the rainbow. In this classic comedy, the confused lives of four young lovers (two men who love the same woman and another woman who loves one of the men) get caught up in a fight between Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies. Oberon has his servant Puck brush Titania's eyes with a flower that will make her fall in love with the next creature she sees--who turns out to be an oafish aspiring actor named Bottom and whom Puck has magically given a donkey's head. But Puck also brushes the eyes of the young lovers, twisting their love rectangle in all directions. The RSC actors have the great virtue of British theatrical training; they understand Shakespeare's language and, for the most part, can make that understanding clear to the audience. The production carries a number of theatrical devices into the movie--some actors play more than one character; the forest of the fairies is represented by a bare and brightly painted wooden floor; doors and umbrellas appear out of nowhere, resulting in some wonderfully surreal imagery. This may be confusing at first, but over the course of the story these techniques give the play's shifting worlds a greater clarity. This unusual adaptation is a feast for the eyes and an excellent introduction to one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. --Bret Fetzer
Digital Life Reviews
Customer Reviews
Average Rating:
Rating: - Nice Production
If you choose to watch Shakespeare on Film/DVD you have to accept that it's going to move at a slower pace, more dialogue than usual will be cut and in this case an additional part not intended by the Bard will present itself. The little boy who appears throughout the play adds another (quite unnecessary) frame to a tale that is already framed. The actors however, are superb, (as they should be since they are the Royal Shakespeare Company) the casting of Bottom and Puck are spot on and the settings which move from actual stage to movie-like creations are delightful. The costuming is beautiful as well. So, if you like Shakespeare - you will enjoy this ... just try to ignore that creepy, ubiquitous silent and smiling boy.
Rating: - Ying and Yang of modern productions.
Greetings,
Right off I'll say this much: I like (Note the use of personal opinion here not global statement) this version much more than the nightmarishly Hollywoodized 2003 one with Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer.
This version is a bit of extremes. On the one hand it's an excellent portrayal of the Bards work is some ways and in others directly contradicts what many masters of his works consider paramount at times.
The Good:
Well, personally I like the colors and allusions in the motifs of light bulbs and umbrellas. The contradiction of a normal stage, set and settings in the human world and this, oh...quasi-minimalistic, surreal approach when in the woods worked, at least as far as this member of the audience is concerned. Of course there are the basic prerequisites that were matched (This IS the Royal Shakespeare company after all) of wonderful acting, ... Read More
Rating: - Stellar -- but truncated -- Dream
I saw this Royal Shakespeare Company production live and the movie captures a lot of its magic. However, excising out parts of this play diminishes it somewhat. And as others have noted, staging the play as a young boy's dream is unnecessary. It's not likely a young child could visualize the plot's intracies even in his most imaginative dreams.
Still, you aren't apt to hear Shakespeare's poetry spoken more splendidly than in this production. This is a veteran cast of top notch British actors rather than a group of movie stars doing their Shakespeare thing.
Desmond Barrit's wonderfully enunciated and acted Bottom is a real treat, and the two leads, Ken Jennings and Lindsay Duncan recreate their splendid live performances.
Rating: - Not happy with this version
I had a couple of major problems with this version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
The little boy -- Titania's changeling? -- who kept cropping up was just one of those conceits that directors and screenplay writers feel that they have to slip in there to keep the story interesting. As if the story needs to be made more interesting. *sigh*
I don't mind the representational forest and the umbrellas and all that, but PLEASE don't write parts for characters that aren't even part of the original play.
The other thing that sent me over the edge was the extremely graphic sex scene between Bottom and Titania. They weren't naked, but the sex was VERY VISUAL accompanied by moans and sighs. It was completely gratuitous and it offended the hell out of me since I was sitting there watching it with my two young daughters. What is the deal with this? It was far, far more than the bawdy talk ... Read More
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- Ying and Yang of modern productions.
- Not happy with this version
