Customer Reviews

William Shakespeare - His Life & Times [VHS]

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(2)

 

 

Tim Curry is truly wonderful in his portrayal of William Shakespeare. The 6 tape set focuses on the life of Shakespeare, from his humble beginning being from a poor family in Stratford Upon Avon; to going to London (and seems to be hiding from his wife and children), to a talented playwrite. On his way to being famous, he is befriended by the Earl of Southampton, lives through the black plague, some personal tragedies, and writes some of the best plays and poems of all time. Tim does age in this from a handsome young and middle age Shakespeare to the balding Shakespeare that we have all seen depicted in our English Literature books in High School.

This movie is extremely hard to find and quite expensive, but well worth the time put into finding it and the money spent to buy it.

This production is a masterpiece, and Tim Curry is as good an actor as ... well... Tim Curry can only be!

Brilliantly written and acted, with marvelous costumes, this is a must for any lover of history, the stage ... and, in case I didn't mention -- Tim Curry!

This 6 part video set is truly a master peice! Tim Curry in the role of a young Shakespeare (he does age in this, by the way) is magnificent. The scenery and a co-actors are wonderful and truly real life. I highly recommend buying this, though it is expensive . . . :( Ah well, 6 tapes, each an hour long full of Tim and everything is grand!

Perhaps my lowered expectations helped here, but I enjoyed this a great deal. It may be speculative fiction of a sort, but it's based on premises all Shakespeare fans have thought about at length. The first tape was good, but by the end of the third tape, it had me completely. VHS quality bothered me far more than the made-for-tv production values. MANY good performances in this, IMHO. BTW, I'm not a Curry zealot, I've never even seen Rocky Horror.

For this 1978 miniseries, writer John Mortimer fashioned a dramatic biography of Shakespeare's time in London. So little factual evidence is available, that I suppose Mortimer can be forgiven for inventing some romantic, sometimes swashbuckling, fiction. If you're expecting something polished and modern, this DVD is not for you, its 1970's production values sadly in evidence. Actually, this presentation comes across as more of a stage play than a movie, but since WS made his living as a playwright, that struck me as more than fitting. Tim Curry did a creditable job with Will, as did Nicholas Clay with his Earl of Southampton and Ian McShane as Kit Marlowe. (It's a treat to see the youthfulness of the actors, many of whom are now playing the older men that they've become.) Fiction it may be, but Mortimer came up with a plausible picture of the relationship between Shakespeare and Southampton, as well as his muse in the dark lady sonnets. It's also satisfying to see WS in his role as father. But where this production shines brightest is in its depiction of life in Elizabethan London - the costumes and sets, the ever present threat of disease, the gap between peasant and aristocrat, and, above all, the smells and sounds of the city and its people. Almost as good as a time machine; better, perhaps, because we needn't fear the plague!

I too had modest expectations, but we enjoyed this miniseries quite a lot. Well, of course no one really knows details of Shakespeare's life, but it's at least plausible, and does a nice job of putting the man in historical and cultural context. As noted in other reviews, the theater lore is fun as well. It's a bit episodic, true; well, it's a TV thing in six episodes.

Down side: ghastly blaring music. Also: no subtitles, which I need when negotiating those Brit accents. Especially with the damned music competing at 95 decibels.

As a moderately-severe sucker for Shakesperiana, I say try it. It's not dreadfully expensive.

Shortly before creating his most famous character, Rumpole of the Bailey, the late Sir John Mortimer penned the scripts for this imagined biopic of Shakespeare--imagined because verifiable facts about the Bard's life are all but non-existant. Sir John was a life-long fan of Shakespeare and loved to put the man's words into Rumpole's mouth a good deal. This, then, was a labo(u)r of love, but the results were a bit spotty.

The scripts deal only with Shakespeare's time in the London theatre world. Tim Curry makes out fairly well in the title role. Ian McShane, despite prominent billing on the packaging--no doubt intended to cash in on his Deadwood fame, appears as Philip Marlowe only in the first episode (no getting around the poet's untimely death.) In the remaining five episodes the late Nicholas Clay co-stars as Shakespeare's patron the Earl of Southampton.

To enjoy this series, one must enter into the spirit of the project: set aside disbelief and hop on an imagined romp through Shakespeare's world. The depiction of Elizabethan theatre life is probably the best attribute of the series. Oddly, though, the wigs worn by the characters in the plays that are depicted are far superior to those worn by the "real" characters in the show.

Well, with all due respect to the brilliant actors associated with this production I must heartily disagree with the previous good reviews, evidently penned by rabid Tim Curry fans, of this disenchanting mini-series. I felt Ian McShane, in particular, was totally wasted in his role and although Tim Curry did the best that could be done, with the sub par material, he was altogether forgettable in the lead. The ambling, misguided, largely fictional account of William Shakespeare's life was aided somewhat by adequate production values, but was not worthy of being aired on primetime TV, in the US. In fact the ABC network considered showing it, at one time, but was rightfully disappointed with its clumsy, substandard contents. View it if you must, Tim Curry aficionados, but everyone else, I just thought you should be warned...

This 5-hour-and-change miniseries is proof positive, as if any were needed, that Tim Curry is one of the greatest actors alive. His presence alone elevates this single-camera biopic from complete mediocrity to something approaching supreme quality.

Most of the series is strangely cast and over-acted, but Tim Curry's portrayal of Shakespeare is effortless, nuanced, and bubbling with precarious undercurrents of sadness, frustration, and the inevitable tortured confusion that is to be expected of an artist like William Shakespeare. It is well worth trudging through the few scenes which do not prominently feature Curry to see him play his part with such mastery.

Elizabethan aficionados will be delighted with the costumes, which seem richly and accurately imagined and gorgeously executed. It's a shame, however, given the excellence of the costumes, the ambiance of the natural lighting, the beautiful sets and Tim's perfect performance, that the single-camera format somewhat cheapens the aesthetic.

This DVD is a must-have for any Tim Curry fan or those who love all things Shakespeare. Those outside those two demographics will probably not enjoy it. I, however, did, very much. 4 out 5 stars, mostly on the strength of Tim Curry's performance.

I'm a big Tim Curry fan, so it was nice to watch him in all his youthful gorgeousness. That being said, the writing was cliche', heavy-handed, awkward, and embarrassing. Real people don't talk like that now, and they didn't talk like that back in those days. The acting was as good as it gets when you've got a dog of a script to work with.