Shakespeare and the Movies Essay Example For Students

Shakespeare and the Movies Essay Shakespeare and the MoviesWhat is it about the works of William Shakespeare that appeal to us today? Is it the poetry, the violence, the humor, or the romance? Is it because all of these things relate to our times? No. These aspects of Shakespeares plays have always appealed to audiences. Shakespeares plays are timeless, and due to this enduring significance, the Bards works have easily translated to film. Scarcely a Shakespearean play has not been made and remade numerous times into to a movie, and more often than not the film is either a hit at the box office or critically acclaimed. There is something about Shakespeare that has continued to capture the attention of audiences for the past four hundred years. In our present age of short-attention spans and exploding graphics, it is difficult to imagine that literature and poetry could attract people to the movies, but it seems that film has become the best medium for Shakespeare. All that the stage once limited can now be seen at th e movies in its full glory; what the Bard wrote for everybody may now be known visually and in total splendor. In Taming of the Shrew, we are presented with the story of a very independent woman and a very controlling man in an Elizabethan Battle of the Sexes. Appropriately, the female submits to the male and all is happy and well. For many, this is certainly not the best story to update to the present era of liberated women. On the contrary, Taming of the Shrew is an ideal film to update to our time.In 1967, Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton starred in Franco Zeffirellis version of Taming. For those familiar with the history of the 20th century, you may recall that the 1960s are somewhat notable for the womens liberation movement. Zeffirelli directed a film that, on the surface, advocates female obedience to males. Upon careful inspection, however, it can be seen that submission was not the message at all. When Shakespeare wrote Taming, Queen Elizabeth I sat on the throne of England. Elizabeth was a famous shrew who ruled alone without the aid of a man. Such autonomy by females was not com monplace and certainly not appreciated. So when this playwright named William Shakespeare came out with this story of a strong-willed woman being tamed by a brutish man, many felt it was a commentary on Elizabeth and an appropriate way for a woman to behave. Shakespeare may have had another message to send. The shrew Katrina is starved and sleep deprived before she submits to her husband Petruchio. Was Shakespeare saying that a woman must be beaten down before she gives in? Or perhaps that the only thing that defeats a strong female spirit is madness?Either way, it is obvious that Shakespeare was making a statement about appropriate behavior for men and women of his world. Zeffirelli took this statement, and using the Bards own words, made a statement for his own time. Was Zeffirelli saying that women should obey men? This was probably not his message. In the final scene where Katrina gives her speech on the duty of the obedient wife, Shakespeare had written that both Petruchio and Katrina exit together. Zeffirelli gave his ending a slight but poignant twist, this being that Katrina leaves on her own while Petruchio, oblivious, delivers his triumphal speech of having subdued his wife. The director seems to indicate that Petruchio has not tamed Katrina at all, but rather has gotten what she wanted (food, sleep, etc.) by giving her husband a false sense of dominance. When considering the context in which this film was made, the message appears entirely fitting. Other aspects of Zeffirellis Taming were designed to appeal to his audience. Aside from the technical differences from Shakespeares original staging, like the use of real women and the ability to film in an analogous setting, the 1960s Taming offered more physical comedy, more sexiness (i.e., the almost sex-scene between Petruchio and Katrina), and more of the story relied on action versus Shakespeares poetry. The words of the play seemed a bit downplayed to allow for what audiences love sex and comedy. Not to say that the Elizabethan audience didnt want sex and comedy, but they certainly did not have a Three Stooges mindset for what was funny. The modern viewers often require an emphasis of the visual comedy to be entertained and Zeffirelli satisfied that requirement in his translation of the play. In our present cultural context, there are a few problems of Taming of the Shrew. Obviously, a wifes submission to her husband is not presently considered acceptable. Also, a man like Petruchio would not be admired based on his taming skills but would rather be more likely to be featured on an episode of Cops. One critic has claimed that the play enacts the defeat of the threat of a womans revolt (Petruchios Horse, website). What was considered appropriate male and female behavior in Shakespeares time has not survived into the 20th century. Melting Pot By Dudley Randall EssayWhen discussing matters that are out of our hands, the fateful story of Romeo and Juliet comes to mind. Shakespeare made the leap from arranged marriage to the emphasis on romantic love in this tragedy. The lives of the most famous star crossd lovers have been immortalized in nearly every form and fashion imaginable. Their destiny is known the entire world over and has been translated into a variety of mediums; they have been sung of by the band Blue Oyster Cult (Dont Fear the Reaper), they have been portrayed as ethnic youths in New York (West Side Story), and have been modernized into the children of American crime families (Romeo + Juliet). In 1996, music-video director Baz Luhrmann made Romeo + Juliet, a renovated version of Shakespeares first tragedy. Keeping quite true to the original text (like in Hamlet 2000,some verbal parts were deleted and explained visually), Luhrmann created a teenager-oriented film set in the fictional city Verona Be ach. At this Miami-like local Luhrmann gave his audience a magnified adaptation of the original. Perhaps to retain the interest of his attention-deficient viewers, all of the plays violence, blood, and debauchery were puffed up. There was also no absence of partial nudity and reference to drugs (Mercutios Queen Maub speech), two factors that are often necessary to make an interesting film in modern times. Something worthy of noting is that these things were just as interesting to Shakespeares original audience only Luhrmann has added some pizzazz to it all. Lots of guns, lots of glitter and glamour are found in the update. A curious element that was emphasized in Romeo + Juliet was religion. In todays world it is well known that religion is not as central to the lives of individuals as it once was in Shakespeares day. Luhrmann tossed religion into every scene of the film, contemporizing everything from neon crucifixes, Sacred Heart tattoos, and religious figurines on every corner. O ne would think that such aspects would be downplayed in a modern translation, but Luhrmann successfully pulled it off. One reason why Romeo and Juliet can be successfully translated into our present day (Romeo + Juliet was one of the biggest hits of 1996) is because the core values are hardly unchanged. As stated earlier, Romeo and Juliet emphasizes romantic love versus the arranged marriages that were prevalent in Elizabethan times. Today, arranged marriages are no longer a feature in Western culture and romantic love is the norm. One of the more obscure messages of Romeo and Juliet is that maybe acting upon young and passionate emotions may not be such a good idea. Is this a statement about the pitfalls of romantic love? We do have a 50% divorce rate in the United States, a country with love-based marriages. Romeo + Juliet could serve as a sermon on the impetuousness of youth. Other values relatable to today include the belief that if you die believing in something good, then your life has not been spent in vain. Romeo and Juliet died for love; also, they died in a failed (and unintentional) attemp t to unite their feuding families.We still hang on to those lofty ideas of honor and purpose in our daily lives. Romeo and Juliet has become a template for what love should be even though those lovers lives ended in woe. Since Shakespeare first began recording the human record with his own brand of poetry, people have been captivated by his ability to capture the essence of being human. His words present a model for not only some of the best stories told in the Western world, but also for how we should live. In other words, Shakespeare has provided us with the insight on what makes humans so intriguing passion, deceit, individuality, and so on. We are still drawn to the Bard hundreds of years after his death because of the timelessness he gave to his language. We understand Shakespeare because the emotion he supplies has endured human history for as long as we have had a history. His stories are timeless because they capture the essence of our way of life. Works Cited? Bohannan, L. Shakespeare in the Bush. From Natural History, August/ September, 1966. ? Mr. Brown. All-Reviews.com? Petruchios Horse: Equine and Household Mismangement in Taming of the Shrew. http://purl.oclc.org/emls/04-1/heanshak.html? Hamlet 2000. Directed by Michael Almereyda, 2000. ? Taming of the Shrew. Directed by Franco Zeffirelli, 1967. ? William Shakespeares Romeo and Juliet. Directed by Baz Luhrmann, 1996.