Product Details

• Directors: Hank Rogerson
• Producers: Hank Rogerson, Jilann Spitzmiller
• Format: Closed-captioned, Color, DVD, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 2.0)
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Shout Factory Theatr
• DVD Release Date: July 18, 2006
• Run Time: 93 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (17 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000EQ5UV4
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #36,004 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Shakespeare Behind Bars" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

The plays of Shakespeare are rife with brutes and murderers--why shouldn't they be played by brutes and murderers? In the Shakespeare Behind Bars program at Luther Luckett Prison in Kentucky, the actors are convicted felons who murdered their wives and abused children--but the documentary Shakespeare Behind Bars, like Shakespeare himself, sees these men in three dimensions, taking the time to explore the complex mixture of remorse, anger, and yearning that consumes their lives. The production of The Tempest, a play explicitly about forgiveness, is only the frame for an examination of how these men struggle to forgive themselves. That may sound sentimental and bleeding-heart on the surface, but watch the movie: There's nothing sappy about staring into the face of a child molester as he articulates, with sad but clear and undeluded eyes, his forlorn hope that his life might be remembered for something more than the worst things he did. The actual performance of the play is less important than watching these men connect with Shakespeare's characters, from the villainous Antonio (two actors cast in this role end up dropping out because they're put in solitary confinement) to the virtuous 15 year old Miranda. Shakespeare Behind Bars captures, with almost disturbing intimacy, the humanity of men that most of society would like to dismiss as monsters. A remarkable documentary. --Bret Fetzer

Product Description

Shakespeare Behind Bars is a film that follows an all-male Shakespearean theater company composed of convicted felons. For one year, while incarcerated at Kentucky's Luther Luckett prison, the cast rehearse and perform a full production of Shakespeare's great last play, The Tempest.

The prisoners cast themselves in roles reflecting their life experiences, including the crimes for which they were convicted. As they struggle to understand the characters they are playing, they uncover startling and moving truths about themselves.

The Tempest’s underlying theme of forgiveness is at the heart of this incredible documentary. Through their creative journey, these "murderers, fugitives and thieves" reveal kindness, generosity and faith. And we are left wrestling with the notions of transformation and redemption.

• Official Selection - Sundance Film Festival 2005
• Official Selection - Edinburgh Int’l Film Festival 2005
• Special Jury Prize - Independent Film Festival of Boston 2005
• Best In Show - Bendfilm Festival 2005
• Crystal Heart Award - Heartland Film Festival 2005

Special Features

• Prisoner Commentaries
• Filmmaker Commentary
• Deleted Scenes
• Bonus Performance Footage
• Troupe Update

See all Editorial Reviews

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Former Member of Shakespeare Behind Bars, August 3, 2006

By	Mark Hourigan (Louisville, KY USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Although I am not in this documentery, I was a prisoner at Luther Luckett Correctional Complex in LaGrange, Kentucky during filming. It's almost hard for me to praise the film because I have a biased opinion. I know every one of the guys in this film personally and have experienced much of what they have. This film is about searching yourself, searching for the truth of who you really are inside. No other prison program helped me more than Shakespeare Behind Bars because for the first time in my life, I took a look at the real me. As the men in this film allow you to take a look at who they are, I challenge you to face your own personal truth just as I did while I was a member of Shakespeare Behind Bars. In the words of William Shakespeare, "To thine own self be true"!!!

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars a rare experience, September 11, 2006

By	J. Anderson (Monterey, CA USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

This film has rightly been feted generously with accolades and prizes - it's a brilliant Idea, and a deeply affecting, memorable experience. Others here have shared the general premise of the film. I suggest wholeheartedly that it be required viewing for every living educator, it contains life-giving helpings of both seeds and fruit of the vast and intimate fields of purpose educators face every day in myriad ways. Tenderly directed by Hank Rogerson, copiously rich with a story of human beings finding redemption through Shakespeare's eternal art, Shakespeare Behind Bars is a one-of-a-kind jewel. By film's end, the 'bars' melt away in an ineffacable lesson about FREEDOM, miraculously enough, and very real human suffering finds a resonant voice in these prisoners who have never had one, a voice that shouts with hope. It is, simply, a film of joy in the divine power of human art. I've not encountered another like it - it sticks to your ribs and cleanses your mind. Don't delay the experience! Check it out - you'll be awfully glad you did.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars One of the best films of 2005, August 9, 2006

By	Paul M. Moore "paul@spout" (Grand Rapids, MI United States) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

Shakespeare Behind Bars (dir. Hank Rogerson) cracks open the hardened shell of an audience and makes us look at the true human soul inside characters who are otherwise dismissible as "monsters." There is nobody I wouldn't recommend it to. So I have to limit the focus here to what was most important to me about the film and why I walked out knowing that my life is better for watching it.

Curt Tofteland has been volunteering on a weekly basis with prisoners in Kentucky for ten years now to direct the Shakespeare Behind Bars program: 30 inmates who rehearse nine months to perform one show. Through a friend I was given the opportunity to have breakfast with Curt Tofteland and Hank Rogerson, director of the documentary. As I tried to hang words on what the documentary meant to me, Curt just nodded with a knowing smile. He told me that Shakespeare isn't just a literary icon, but the writer who captured raw humanity better than anyone ever has. Which is why he brought Shakespeare to the prisoners.

24 hours a day, 7 days a week, year after year these inmates wear a hardened mask, a false-self who feels no pain. It's survival of the fittest and softness is not rewarded in prison. But for the 30 inmates involved with the Shakespeare productions, honesty is a mandate. They are cast by their peers in roles that fit their background and their crime. In their rehearsals they push each other to go deep, to find honesty, to not act but really wear their character, which for a lot of them means wearing their own skin for the first time. From the screen, their souls became palpable during rehearsals. I watched them discover for the first time the true man behind the label "prisoner," "deviant," "convict."

The film is breathtaking. I laughed and I cried. Then I left the theater chewing on the fact I just just laughed and cried through the struggles of men society has deemed unsafe to enjoy the freedoms I enjoy. That's a sure sign of great filmmaking.