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audience sees Pacino in a basketball park, where a boy is shooting balls, an all American pastime-This is
juxtaposed with the tolling of the bells and images old world English architecture, ie cathedrals
Our revels now are ended .Pacino substitutes our revel is now at an end
These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, (THE GREAT GLOBE ITSELF) added
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack (WISP) behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (Tempest IV.i.148–158
The following lines are read by a collection of actors from the Shakespearean play ‘twelfth night’. Depicts
are variety of interpretations.
Arise, fair sun...
...and kill the envious moon.
Like eager droppings into milk,
it doth posset and curd.
Some are born great,
some achieve greatness...
...and some have greatness
thrust upon them.
STREET PERSON 2 BLACK AMERICAN “Intelligence is hooked with language . when we speak with
no feeling we get nothing out of our society. We should speak like Shakespeare. We should introduce
Shakespeare into the academics. You know why? Because then the kids would have feelings.
PAC” that’s right!”
ST. PERSON 2 “so we have no feelings. That’s why it’s easy for us to get a gun and shoot each other.
We don’t feel for each other, but if we were taught to feel, we wouldn’t be so violent.
PAC “ Sk helps us with that?
ST PERSON 2 “ He did more than help us. He instructed us.”
PAC’(asks people on the street ) “Hi.You gonna see the play tonight
YOUNG COUPLE “How much it cost?”
PAC “It’s for free”
YOUNG COUPLE “Okay I’m going”
PAC Okay, thanks a lot. Your first Shakespeare play, you’re seeing?
YOUNG COUPLE “ yeah”
PAC ” It’ll be interesting, give it a try.”
PACINO (to person 3)“You’ve seen Shakespeare performed?
PERSON 3 “Yeah saw Hamlet’
PAC ”what? did you see it live ? how did you feel about it?”
PERSON 3“ it sucked”
PAC “It sucked??”
PERSON 3”Yeah, it sucked.”
PACINO (speaking to a young man on the street) “is there anything in Shakespeare that makes you think
it’s not close to you?” or connected to you in any way?
ST PERSON 4 “Yeah, it’s boring.”
STREET PERSON 5‘A bank in England uses Shakespeare as...
Cover my account number…… See, it's a hologram. They use it as ID to prove it's a real card.
PACINO: I see “What do you think of Shakespeare?”
ST PERSON 5 “He's a great export.”
STREET PERSON # “You know who's moving in on Shakespeare now?” The Japanese!
Because they're kicking the Americans' arse. And they're all interested in Shakespeare all of a sudden.
PAC ( to a little boy) You know Shakespeare? William Shakespeare? We're peddling him on the streets.
(Pacino back at rehearsals in contemporary surroundings with a copy of Cliff notes in his hand! PAC
EXPLAINS THE PRIOR HISTORY. Around the table during rehearsals, Pacino explains that it’s
necessary to know prior history re the war of the roses. CONSTANTLY EXPLAINS THE PLOT USING A
CONTEMPORARY DIALOGUE THROUGHOUT DOCO
PAC: Before the play Richard III starts...we gotta know a little bit about what happened before the play
starts. What happened is, we've just been through a civil war.....called the War of the Roses...in which the
Lancasters and the Yorks clashed. Two rival families ,and the Yorks won. They beat the Lancasters and
they’re now in power. Richard is a York
PAC “My brother, Edward is the king now, and my brother Clarence is not the king, and me, I’m not the
king and I want to be! It’s that simple!”
SCH.” Key word clearly is…Right from the start is discontent.”
PAC “ So Richard, in the very opening scene of the play, tells us just how badly he feels about the
peacetime world he find himself in and what he intends to do about it.
( continues recital of opening soliloquy in 20Cgarb, at the Cloisters)
“Now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer by this son of York
And all the clouds that lour’d on our house
In the deep bossum of the ocean buried”1,1,4.
FEM.SCH. (SK’S LINES ARE JUXTAPOSED WITH A CONTEMPORARY EXPLANATION OF THEIR
MEANING )” and part of the trouble is, the war of the roses, the wars of the crown are now over because
the crown has been won by the Yorks which means they can stop fighting”
PAC ( continues 1st sol in contemporary garb)
KLINE” Richard is always saying now here’s the situation, now here’s what I’m going to do , now watch
this and he does it! And they all leave and he says ‘now wasn’t that good?’, was that good or what, did
you see how I? this is fun! “
“ (shot of Edward ill, Richard with him , also shows clarence whilst. voice over reciting his lines)
RICHARD:“Plots have I laid, inductions dangerous
--------- (line omitted)
To set my brother Clarence and the king...
In deadly hate the one against the other.
And if King Edward be as true and just
As I am subtle, false and treacherous,
This day should Clarence...be mew'd up
About a prophecy,that says that G
of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be”.1,1,39
PAC (repeats last two lines in contemporary rehearsal)
About a prophecy,that says that G
KIM: right
PAC “ It says about a prophecy that ‘G’ of edward’s heirs. By G, what does that mean?
KIM “ Clarence, George, duke of Clarence, his first name is really George.”
PAC “whose first name?”
KIM “ Clarence’s, and that‘s why they call him ‘G’, I suggest that you change it to‘C”
PAC (reading lines) “about a prophecy which says that (exaggerating) that ‘C’ of Edward’s heirs the
murderer shall be” ( Pacino now repeats this line, using the substituted “C” in costume on stage. This is a
further attempt to unravel the discrepancies between the language usages which have caused the
Shakespearean language to be difficult to decipher for contemporary audiences.)
RICHARD: “Dive, thoughts, down to my soul.
Here Clarence comes.”1,1,41
PAC: cut!
PAC (around table, rehearsals in progress) “ see what we’ve gotta do what we should do, is get actors in
here, not audition them, just get them in and let them just sit around, just see and read. We’ll have
different people read different roles. Hopefully, somehow the roles and the actors will merge. The actors
will find the role. An actor will read one part, another actor reads another and hopefully the casting will
get done.
CASTING THE ACTORS
VARIOUS ACTORS AROUND THE AUDITIONING TABLE. During the process the confusion and
merriment highlights the complexity, even for seasoned actors, of understanding, casting, producing and
performing a Shakespearian production
Who's got Dorset?
How about Lord Grey?
Richard will read Dorset.
- He's gonna do Buckingham.
- I thought Jim would do it.
- He's doing Catesby.
- What do I read?
KIM ;Dorset and Grey are the same people.
PAC: Dorset and Grey are the same...?
KIM: Yes.
PAC:You two guys better sit on each other We used two actors in the same part. It'll take us four weeks of
rehearsal to figure out what parts we're playing.
PAC “In modern plays, you understand it, it’s there for you but in sk you have an entire company on the
stage good actors, not knowing where they’re going, where they are?”
PAC (in restaurant talking with Cox)“ As Americans, what is it that …that thing? That gets between us
and Shakespeare? That makes some our best actors just stop when it comes to Shakespeare?
“ the problem with being an American in Shakespeare is you approach it reverentially, we shouldn’t
but we do, we have a feeling, I think, of inferiority, to the way it has been done by the British.”
AMERICAN SCHOLAR “ I think Americans have been made to feel inhibited because they’ve been told
so long by their critics, by their scholars and by all the commentators of Shakespeare that they cannot do
Shakespeare. Therefore, they’ve got it in heads that they can’t. And you become totally self- conscious. I
think the great thing about American actors they are not self-conscious. But they are when it comes to
Shakespeare because they’ve been told they can’t do it and very foolishly they’ve believed that.
Sir John GIELGUD: ( acclaimed English Shakespearean actor) : Perhaps they don’t go to picture galleries
and read books as much as we do! Because I think it’s the effect of how everyone looked and behaved that
one got a sort of Elizabethan feeling of the period.
CONWAY (hastings) “experienced classical actors have a few things they can use at a moment’s notice,
the understanding of iambic pentameter, for one thing.”
IAMBIC PENTAMETER
PAC Everybody says, "lambic pentameter.Shakespeare iambic pentameter "What is that supposed to
mean?
FEMALE ACTOR: “Some say there are no rules.I say there are certain rules...
...like the iambic pentameter, that must be learned...and can be rejected once you’ve learnt them.
HADGE: "Pentameter" means "meter,"and "pen," meaning "five So there's five beats
BRANNAGH: Which, at its worst, sounds only like:
FEMININE SCHOLAR: "Why, so. Now have I done a good day's work."
BRANNAGH: De-da de-da de-da de-da de-da.
HADGE: And iambic is where the accent goes?
FEMALE SCHOLAR: That's de-tum de-tum de-tum de-tum.
KIMBLE: And five of them: Da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da. Make a pentameter line, five iambs. An iamb
is like an anteater. Very high in the back and very short, little front legs. Da-da!
Comparison of iambic pentameter –Kimble-“ anteater”!! (even pacino is bemused!)
METHOD ACTING AND SK’S LANGUAGE
REDGRAVE (English SK’N actress)” sk’s poetry and his iambics floated and descended through the
pentameter of the soul, and it is the soul, if we like, the spirit of real concrete people going through hell
and sometimes moments of great achievement and joy. That is the pentameter that you have to concentrate
on, and should you find that reality all the iambics will fall into place” (the stresses of iambic pentameter
annunciate the emotional vicissitudes of the character.)
PAC/ BALDWIN ( Richard in costume/on stage with Clarence) Act1,1,41…1,1,72 (the lines from sk are
recited whilst the montage of shots further clarifies what is being said)
RICHARD: Dive,thoughts, down to my soul.Here Clarence comes.
Brother, good day. What means this armed guard
That waits upon your grace?
CLARENCE: His majesty
Tendering my safety, hath appointed
This conduct to convey me to the Tower.
RICHARD: Upon what cause?
CLARENCE:Because my name is George.
RICHARD:….Clarence. What is the matter? May I know?
CLARENCE: Yea, Richard, as I know. But I protest as yet I do not. But, as I can learn
he hearkens after prophecies and dreams.
And from the cross-row plucks the letter G.
And says a wizard told him that by G...
His children disinherited should be.
And, for my name of George begins with G,
It follows in his thought that I am he.
These, as I learn,and such like toys as these...
Have moved his highness to commit me now.
RICHARD: Why, so it is, when men are ruled by women.
'Tis not the king that sends you to the Tower, Clarence.
‘Tis my Lady Grey his wife, 'tis she
That tempts him to this extremity...
We are not safe, Clarence. We are not safe.
Pacino offers a contemporary explanation of the situation for the audience
PAC: “Now if Richard’s brother Edward was king, right and then he dies. Clarence his other brother is
next in line. Right?”
PAC: “No the kids were next in line. After the king’s kids came Clarence”
PAC: “So Richard figures, “let me get rid of Clarence, and then I work out how I get rid of the kids”
RETURNS TO BAL/PAC (in costume on stage) Act 1,1,113…119
RICHARD: Meantime, this deep disgrace in brotherhood
Touches me deeper than you can imagine.
CLARENCE: I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
RICHARD: Your imprisonment shall not be long.
I will deliver you, else lie for you.
Meantime, have patience.
BRACKENBURY (GUARD) THIS LINE HAS BEEN ADDED It's time, my lord.
CLARENCE: I must perforce. Farewell.
PAC: (further explanation of plot) “well it looks like Richard’s plan is really starting to work now. He got
the king to put Clarence in the tower by poisoning the king’s mind against him. So now he’s got one
brother locked up, the other brother, who’s king, is sick. So he’s in pretty good shape now. He can move
around. He can manoeuvre. He’s got room
RETURNS TO BAL/PAC ALSO CONWAY AS HASTINGS (in costume on stage) “Act 1,1, 120…129
RICHARD: Go tread the path thou shalt ne'er return.
Simple, plain Clarence, I do love thee so
That I shall shortly send thy soul to heaven...
GUARD:Prisoner approaching. Prisoner Hastings exeunt.
RICHARD: Who is this? The new-deliver'd Hastings?
HASTINGS: Good time of day unto my gracious lord!
RICHARD: As much unto my good lord Hastings.
Well are you welcome to this open air.
How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment?
HASTINGS: With patience, noble lord,as prisoners must.
LANGUAGE
AGAIN IT IS STRESSED THAT THE DIFFICULTY OF UNDERSTANDING SHAKESPEARE IS DUE TO
THE COMPLEXITY OF THE LANGUAGE. PACINO HAS SUBSTITUTED A NUMBER OF THE WORDS
IN THE PREVIOUS EXCHANGE TO SYMPLIFY MEANING.
PAC: (speaking to Harris, a literary scholar) It’s interesting you can do something from Shakespeare,
think that you’re feeling it or whatever. You love it and you think you’re communicating it and the person
you said it to has not understood a word you said and you can’t believe that they didn’t get it”
VOX POP : ( young black American) “thoust and you know, just the way it’s worded, sometimes that
confuses the people of, you know people of this time period.”
PACINO USES THE CONTEMPORARY COMPARISON OF RAP MUSIC TO EXPLAIN THE
COMPLEXITY OF SK’S LANGUAGE. THAT EXPRESSION IS TRANSITORY, IT CHANGES
OVER TIME.
Pacino compares Sk’s language with rap music.
HADGE: “Shakespeare used a lot of fancy words. You know. And it’s hard to understand, grasp those
words”
PAC “Excuse me. They’re not fancy words. That’s where we get confused. But they’re poetry. It’s hard to
grab hold of some rap slang too. It’s hard to get hold of it until your ear gets tuned. You have to tune up.”
CONWAY: “In a contemporary play someone would say “Hey you go over and get that thing and bring it
back to me” That would be the line. When Shakespeare says it “Be mercury, set feathers to thy heels and
fly like thought from them to me again”
PACINO/CONWAY (RICHARD/HASTINGS in costume) Act 1,1,139..This is a further occasion when
Pacino substitutes a contemporary word whilst reading sk’s text. Line 1,1,139…142 changed from
“melancholy” to “sickly”
Shakespeare’s version in italics
HASTINGS (CONWAY) The King is weak and sickly...
HASTINGS: The King is sickly, weak and melancholy
and his physicians fear him mightily.
(Now) By Saint John (Paul), that news is bad indeed.
O, he hath kept an evil diet long.
and later in doco“Warwick’s youngest daughter” to “young Anne” 1,1,156
Richard “For then I’ll marry young Anne”
Richard “For then I’ll marry Warwick’s youngest daughter”
PAC: “You shouldn’t have to understand every single word that’s said. Why? Why? Do understand every-
I mean it’s not important. It doesn’t matter. As long as you get the gist of what’s going on. Just trust it
you’ll get it.
ROLE OF WOMEN and METHOD ACTING
ALLEN (with DORSET/RIVERS and GREY in costume Act 1,3,6..1,3,8 (Elizabeth commenting on her
perilous position if king Edward should die, the men trying to soothe her. She seems to be more astute to
her perilous situation)
Q.Elizabeth: “And if he were dead what would betide on me?”
RIVERS: “No other harm but loss of such a lord.”
Q. ELIZABETH: The loss of such a lord includes all harms.
(Around the table during rehearsals, Allen (Q. Elizabeth) is the only female actress. Kimble trying to
explain Elizabeth’s disturbed state. A contemporary and feminist analysis of Elizabeth’s strength and
foresight is argued by Allen. Her passion in argument typifies how she too has consumed her character’s
role, as in method acting )
KIMBLE “they’re trying to soothe her because she is an hysteric. They’ve got a lady here who is way out
of control”
ALLEN: “But doesn’t that weaken …? But doesn’t that weaken the reality , the underlying reality of
what’s happening?
KIMBLE: It strengthens the incompetence of others
ALLEN: But why make them incompetent? Why make them weak?
KIMBLE (forcefully) Because they went to Ludlow with little train and got their heads cut off
ALLEN: But then it’s no great deed on his part if you make them weak.
PACINO: “ they’re not weak’
ALLEN: No, I don’t think that they’re weak, nor do I think that they’re stupid. I think
by diminishing their importance , you diminish his actions. It’s bound to happen. It’s a very familial thing
to say: “calm down it’s going to be alright”, but underneath they know what the scoop is, and I keep
throwing it back at them; “Stop! you know damn well what’s going on. And that’s why I’m hysterical!
You know it! If he dies that’s it!”
(During this heated exchange the other men/actors around the table have been listening in stunned
silence. Also the camera cuts to the rehearsal, in costume, of the scene that they are discussing.
Immediately after Kimble states that Elizabeth is “an hysteric” there is a long shot of allen/eliz with her
hands thrown in the air as if she is hysterical ..(method acting style) …A correct feminine argument by
Allen?..OR correct assessment of the situation by Kimble…OR a further example method acting?
PAC: (defusing the discussion) Let’s start the scene. (the same scene is rehearsed from the beginning
Act1,3,1,1..1,3,13., but now still around the table. Allen/Eliz, Dorset/rivers and Grey go through their
lines, with Allen even more passionate in the recital of her line, she even includes a line for more
emphasis. In comparison, the men’s responses sound weak and feeble.
RIVERS: Have patience, madam. There's no doubt his majesty
will soon recover his accustom'd health.
GRAY: In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse
Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort.
And cheer his grace with quick and merry...
ELIZABETH(And that's the way you want me to behave, is that it?)—(added line by Allen
to Shakespeare’s script for effect/point of argument to Kimble)Rivers throws his arms
up in frustration)
If he were dead, what would betide on me?
RIVERS: No other harm, (Mother,) but loss of such a lord.
ELIZABETH: The loss of such a lord includes all harm.
GRAY: The heavens have bless'd you with a goodly son
to be your comforter when he's gone.
ELIZ: Ah, he is young His minority
is put into the trust of Richard Gloucester.
A man that loves not me......nor none of you. 1,3,13
Allen’s inclusion of the line into Shakespeare’s script reinforces both her belief of the strength of women
in Shakespeare’s play and her absorption of the character through method acting
PAC:You see what Richard is doing here? He's stirring the pot.The king is dying, so he's fearful and
paranoid...and sending people off left and right to jail. This is a situation Richard loves. He can use the
fear, the general turmoil to his advantage. He knows these people hate each other. He'll use their hatred to
manipulate them. You know, to divide, then conquer.
RETURNS TO THE STAGE REHEARSAL BUT IT BECOMES VOICEOVER AS WE SEE THE
DYING KING EDWARD LISTENING TO THE QUARREL.
ELIZABETH (ALLEN): My Lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne...
these blunt upbraidings and these bitter scoffs.
By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty
of these gross taunts.---
I'd rather be a country servant...
-----LINES OMMITTED
RICHARD What! Threat you me with telling of the king?
Tell him, and spare not. 1,3,114
-----LINES OMMITTED
Let me put it in your minds,if you forget...
what you are ere this, and what you are.
Withal, what I have been,
and what I am. 1,3,133
MARGARET: (ASIDE) A murderous villain, and so still thou art.
PAC: Well, it is a complicated play too.
GIELGUD: All those relationships and the wives, the Queen Margaret stuff is difficult.
MARGARET: (ON STAGE)Hear me, you wrangling pirates,
that fall out in sharing that which
you have pill'd from me! 1,3. 159
PACINO GIVES COMMENTORY ON THE IMPORTANCE OF MARGARET.
MARGARET
PAC: Now Margaret was the queen before the Civil war took place. She was a Lancaster, and she was
dethroned by the Yorks. She's a kind of ghost from the past, who haunts the Yorks with her curses.
MARG(PARSON) (ON STAGE) A husband and a son...
ALLEN (AROUND THE TABLE DISCUSSING MARGARET’S ROLE) Don't you think she rants and
raves around the castle like this a lot?
PARSON: No!
ALLEN No?
PARSON: I don't think so. I think she just comes in this day .because it's a crisis time. She feels it.
MARG: Give way, dull clouds,
to my quick curses!
ALLEN: It's primordial I think. She brings that kind of music into this experience.
MARG: Poor painted queen...1,3 239
----------LINES OMMITTED
The day will come that thou shalt wish for me to help thee...
curse this poisonous bunchback'd toad.2,3, 244
LINDFORS: Reading this play, as I take word by word everything she says happens.
CUT TO STAGE REHERSAL
MARG:Beware of yonder dog!
Look...Have not to do with him, beware of him.
Sin, death, and hell have set their marks on him...
and all their messengers await on him.
RICHARD: Thou hateful wither'd hag,have done thy charm.
MARG: And leave out thee? Stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me
The worm of conscience still begnaw thy soul.1,3,218
.-----------OMMITTED LINES
Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive,rooting hog.
Live each of you the subjects to his hate...
and he to yours,and all of you to God's! 1,3,300
CUTS TO ROUND THE TABLE REHEARSAL
CONWAY: We don't say a word. We let her go.
LANGUAGE AND ACTING, DECEIT: (voice over Whilst camera scans contemporary view of actors
who are playing the parts of those cursed by sk’s marg.)
REDGRAVE (famous English Shakespearean actress)“The music, literally, I mean the music and the
thoughts and the concepts and the feelings have not been divorced from the words, and in England you’ve
had centuries in which word has been totally divorced from truth and that’s a problem for us actors.”
The scene cuts to further vox pops, the same black American homeless street person is shown eloquently
explaining the beauty and depth that lies in Shakepeare’s language. He is representative that erudition
when it comes to Shakespeare is not confined to the academic thespians
BLACK MAN –VOX POP: If we think words are things and we have no feelings in our words and then
we say things to each other that don’t mean anything. But if we felt what we said, we’d say less and mean
more.-----(moves on) -Spare some change” ON TWO SEPARATE OCCASIONS IT HAS BEEN THIS
PERSON, ALTHOUGH HE APPEARS TO BE HOMELESS, WHO HAS BEEN THE MOST ERUDITE
WITH HIS VIEWS ON SK. SUGGESTING THAT IT IS POSSIBLE FOR THE EVERYMAN TO
HAVE A COMPREHENSIVE, INSIGHTFUL UNDERSTASNDING OF SK.
THE BIRTH PLACE OF SHAKESPEARE (rather farsical look at the beginnings of Shakespeare)
PAC: It'd be interesting to see where he...Is that possibly...?
KIM: Where Shakespeare was born.
PAC:I think that's Shakespeare up there in the window.
PAC: Knock first. Knock, Frederic. Hello. Frederic, you've...
KIM: Okay. Where was William Shakespeare born?
PAC There's the bed of birth.
KIM: You gotta be kidding.
PAC: I wouldn't kid about a thing like that. It's too late.
KIM: It's a very, very small bed I was expecting to have an epiphany...an outpouring of the soul upon
seeing...
PAC: Well why don’t you Go out and come in again.
KIM: Where he was born.
PAC: If you're really an actor, you can come back and have an epiphany. I did. Only...
KIM: Did you have an epiphany? I did not see it.
PAC: I'm not showing it. It's an inner one. We're not alone.
HEARS FIRE SIRENS
KIM: Every once in a while...
PAC: There's a fire truck out there. I think we tripped an alarm.
KIM: We should pause and think what brought us to where we are
PAC: You talked too loud and it set off an alarm.
GUIDE :Fire alarm. I got the fire officer.
KIM: We set it off.
PAC: There's a fireman. Oh, yes. Hello.
GUIDE: Unfortunately, the sensor head is here. There. That's going to be the problem.
PAC: Yeah? What is it? Is it...?
KIM: That's a real bummer. We come 6000 miles to see where Shakespeare was born...
FEMININE SCHOLAR: “It’s the greatest period in British arts you know,. This extraordinary
development and maturing and death of drama. In 20 years sk’s over. You’ve got our greatest british
drama and sk learns incredibly fast and already, in this early play, he’s thinking about human beings as
actors and about the stage and the imagination as a bit of life.”
Cuts back to scene of atonement, switches from stage to around the table
EDWARD 1V: Hastings. Rivers, take each other's hand.
Dissemble not your hatred…..swear your love.
HASTINGS: So prosper I...as I swear perfect love!
RIVERS: And so swear I.
EDWARD 1V: Madam, yourself is not exempt from this.
Wife, love Lord Hastings..let him kiss your hand.
ELIZABETH: There, Hastings. I never more shall remember
our former hatred...so thrive I and mine. 2,1,24
LINDFORS: Do they really believe all this? Do they really believe it when you say, "Take their hand"?
PAC: It's a vow.
KIM: A solemn vow. In this time, that's a solemn thing. Only people who want to go to hell would be
willing to make vows and not keep them.
Cuts back to scene of Clarence’s murder.
CLAR: If you are hired for meed...go back again,
and I will send you to my brother Richard...
who shall reward you better for my life...
than Edward will for tidings of my death.
M2:Come, you deceive yourself.
M1'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.
CLAR: It cannot be..for he bewept my fortune...
and swore, with sobs, that he would labor my delivery.
RICH: ( repeated from earlier scene)Touches me deeper than you can imagine.
M1:So he doth..when he delivers you from this earth's
thraldom to the joys of heaven.
M2:Make peace with God...for you must die, my lord.
CLAR: Have you that holy feeling in your soul...
to counsel me to make my peace with God?
And are you yet to your own souls...
so blind, that you wilt war with God by murdering me?
O sirs...consider, those that set you on to do this deed...
will hate you for the deed.
M2:What shall we do?
CLAR:Relent...and save your souls.
M1: Relent! No. 'Tis cowardly and womanish.
CLAR:Not to relent is brutish...savage...devilish.
My friend...I spy some pity in thy looks.
O, if thine eye be not a flatterer, come
thou on my side, and entreat for me...
as you would beg, were you in my distress.
A begging prince what beggar pities not?
M2: Look behind you, my lord. 1,4,263
Cuts to scene of the atonement—news of Clarence’s death
EDWARD: (YULIN) Is Clarence dead? The order was reversed.
RICHARD: But he, poor man, by your first order died.
EDWARD: Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death?
My brother killed no man.His fault was thought...
and yet his punishment was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him? Who kneel'd at my feet,
and in my wrath, bid me be advised?
Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?
The proudest of you all...have been beholding to him
in his life. Yet not one of you would once beg for his life.
O God, I fear thy justice will take hold on me, and you...
and mine, and yours for this!
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet. 2,1,134
Cuts to a montage of shots at a production party with medieval instruments playing. Discussion on the
value of Shakespeare, actors, the arts.
Woman1: What is it in theatre? Why do we want to do it? We want to do theatre
because of that personal presence.
Mac DONALD: West Germany gave a billion dollars a year, a billion to the arts.
COX: I gave up a TV movie in France to do Richard III in Milwaukee. I was talking to my teacher, and
she said, "You will benefit."
PAC: Kevin Costner did that TV show. You lost out. Look at his career.
COX: He's afraid to do Shakespeare.
PAC: No he’s not, he's in the other room practicing.
CAMERA KEEPS CUTING TO EDWARD DYING ALONE WITHOUT ASSISTANCE
SHOT OF A LARGE VOLUME OF SHAKESPEARE’S WORKS (Pacino is frivolous whilst Yulin,
playing Edward is dying, shows similar compassion that Richard would for Edward.)
PAC; The Anointed Shakespeare.(is he making the fau par on purpose??)
WOMAN: "Annotated."
PAC: It's got beautiful pictures.
WOMAN: It's got beautiful pictures
PAC: That's what I like about Shakespeare, the pictures., I love pictures!
ALLURE OF EVIL/ LUST FOR POWER ALSO METHOD ACTING
CUTS TO SCENE OF EDWARD DEAD, ELIZABETH DISTRESSED
After the scene where Edward dies, his face shown through the camera lens with coins on his eyes
HADGE “he’s dead! Okay! Okay!
PAC (appearing agitated) “Well what are we gonna do?” Uh? Okay? (questioning the effectiveness of
the scene/ or his/Richard’s next move?..)
KIMBLE “ I Like it.
HADGE “what’s next?”
PAC (ignoring hadge, addressing kimble aggressively) “what do you mean “I like it!?” Pacino appears
equally as agitated/ exuberant as sk’s Richard would be at this point in his process to be king .he has
overcome his major obstacles. To exaggerate this, the scene switches to show Pac and crew trudging
through a forest in search of a suitable burial spot in order to dispose of King Edward’s body. Through
the guise of method acting pacino relates his character’s, richard’s lust for the throne, in a sense merging
the two identities
MAN 1.“what time is it? 3.30? What are they doing, do you know?”
MAN2. “I don’t know. Freddie said something about burying the king.’
MAN1.” Is that in the play?”
THE SCENE OF THE BATTLE IS BATHED IN RED (Amidst violent fighting Richard is thrown from
his horse.)
RICHARD: My horse! My horse!
HASTINGS: (voice over) And in a bloody battle end thy days!
Despair and die! 5,3,152
This scene is set outside on the plains, the scene for the battle. The various actors are at the top of the hill
watching the ensuing battle offering commentary as if they were part of an audience/on lookers
commenting on the battle’s process.
ALLEN (as Elizabeth) “They withdraw”
KIMBLE (in costume) “the ranks are breaking !”
ALLEN “see! they’re deserting him!!”
The scene switches down onto the battle field in costume 5,4,7-13
RICH:A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!
CATESBY: Withdraw, my lord, withdraw...
RICHARD: Slave, I set my life upon a cast,
I'll stand the hazard of the die.
There be six Richmonds in the field.
Five have I slain to-day.
CATESBY: My lord!
FEMALE SCHOLAR “ although he’s frightfully clever, he is, at the same time, like a kind of boar who
has subsumed into himself all these frightful animal images and all that all the rest have to do is hunt the
boar. And that‘s what they do and they get him!”
RICHARD: A horse! A horse!
My kingdom...for a horse! 5,4,13
STREET PERSON (VOX POP) “he’s a hearty dude, and in the end he’s surrounded, and he just goes ,
you know, he’ll give up anything for a horse. You know this guy’s rich, a king and he needs a horse. You
know.”
RICHARD: My kingdom...for a horse! 5,4,13
Pacino portrays his character’s death with a certain heroism. He fights Richmond, on his knees with two
arrows in him and with only one strong arm!! ( no need for political bias here!). Rather, Pacino is
determined to portray the character he has become, through the process of absorption of the character,
method acting , with a certain stoic honour right to the end. 5,5,1. Compare with Shakespeare’s stage
directions of the battle, which are simply “They fight Richard is slain
Cuts immediately to, Pacino who acts out the death scene,, as if he has been stabbed, with kimble ,in 20Cgarb,
on the stairs outside a 20C building, with background bells chiming. Pac is lying on kimble’s lap.
KIM “ I didn’t mean it . I didn’t mean it”
PAC” I love you Frederic “
KIM” “ I didn’t mean it.”
PAC (looking at the camera laughing) “he didn’t mean it??” and you kill me after all I did for you.”
Cuts back to the original shot of the actor playing Shakespeare, in the earlier audition, who looks away in
disdain. Shaking his head
KIM” Richard’s dead. At last we can rest!”
RICHMOND: God and your arms be praised, victorious friends,
the day is ours...the bloody dog is dead. 5,5,2
SOLDIERS: Dead!
Scene switches to the battle scene where Richard is shown dead again
Hadge and Bullet after watching the end scenes seeming exasperated.
HADGE” is this it? Is this it?
BUL “ I hope so!”
HAD” are we done? This is it”
HAD “ you know, if I told him about the other 10 rolls of film, he’d want to use them!”
Cuts to a still shot of Richard dead, holds, no sound
PAC “ I love the silence, I love the silence. After silence, what else is there? What’s the line?”
GIELGUD (iconic sk’n actor) “the rest is silence “ (Hamlet act 5)
PAC” “silence. Whatever I’m saying , I know Shakespeare said it!”
Pacino ends the documentary as he begins it, with a quote from Shakespeare’s The Tempest 4,1, 148-158.
Metaphorically, referring to Pacino, himself and as an actor, and his ‘dream’, intentions in the doco.
Richard is dead there is no more! Scenes show Richmond in glory, actors in procession. Then returns to
the opening scene, the basketball court with the boy throwing baskets.
Our revels now are ended .Pacino substitutes our revel is now at an end
These our actors,
As I foretold you, were all spirits, and
Are melted into air, into thin air;
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve;
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,
Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff
As dreams are made on, and our little life
Is rounded with a sleep. (IV.i.148–158)