Looking For Richard [HD]

Engaging and Informative
I really like looking behind the scenes of making a film - or, as in this case - putting on a play.

I've been searching for this film for quite a while, and I'm glad it is again available. It's a must-see for students of acting, Shakespeare, or both.

Al Pacino is faced with mounting a free production of Richard III in Central Park. Along the way, he has to assemble his crew of actors and actresses, coordinate the production, and try to get his arms around one of the Bard's more difficult plays.

There is a world of difference in reading Shakespeare, and watching it on stage. I think we've all done penance reading Shakespeare, with mixed results. I've found the language in the abstract (i.e. simply reading the play) to be difficult. Seeing it on stage (or screen) adds the visual element, that makes it more understandable. (After all, the plays were meant to be seen, not read.)

This is a film that will bear watching over and over again...

A great look at Shakespeare
Some reviewers have complained about this film. This is a documentary that illustrates how Shakespeare can be seen as both art and history, both as literature and as entertainment. One reviewer called it an introductory for grade school children. That's exactly the point. "looking for Richard" is an introductory to the complexities and richn ess of Shakespeare and those who act and perform his plays. Certainly the general audience at "The Rose" and "The Globe" were not scholars, teachers or students of English literature or history. Few were alive in 1600 that lived in the days of the last Plantagenet and the first Tudor. To them, history was oral and immediate. Historical accuracy is not high on the Bard's priorities or of in those of his audiences. What matters is the interplay of characters, the tone and thrust of its plot and the relevance to its audiences. Thus there is a correlation between those Renaissance English audiences and most American audiences. How many Americans even...

everyone should see this
Few people know that Al Pacino "did" Shakespeare before moving on to the big Hollywood roles we know him for. This film is intelligent, witty, and downright entertaining. In fact, there's two stories being told: in one sense, the film is an abridged version of Shakespeare's Richard III; simultaneously this is the story of the actors, directors, and producers concerns in producing a Shakespearean play. Production is interpretation, and people have made their entire careers interpreting Shakespeare in wildly abstract ways. "Looking for Richard" is far from wildly abstract. As a graduate student in literature, and specifically, Shakespeare, I can say that this film succesfully put into layman's terms many of the issues that are discussed by scholars in elitist terms. It's fun and offers a glimpse of what those wildly abstract literary scholars truly love, but not so oft express. As to another reviewer who cautioned that this play ignores the...

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