Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (film)
Encyclopedia
Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is a 1990 film written and directed by Tom Stoppard
based on his play of the same name. Like the play, the film depicts two minor characters from William Shakespeare
's play Hamlet
, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
, who find themselves on the road to Elsinore Castle at the behest of the King of Denmark. They encounter a band of players
before arriving to find that they are needed to try to discern what troubles the prince Hamlet. Meanwhile, they ponder the meaning of their existence.
The film stars Gary Oldman
as Rosencrantz and Tim Roth
as Guildenstern, although a running theme throughout has many characters, themselves included, uncertain as to which is which. It also features Richard Dreyfuss
as the leading player, Iain Glen
as Prince Hamlet
, Ian Richardson
as Polonius
, Joanna Miles
as Gertrude
and Donald Sumpter
as King Claudius
. The film was shot in various locations around Yugoslavia
. This was Stoppard's debut as a film director, and to date it remains his only film directorial credit.
, focuses on Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman
) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth
) and their actions (or lack thereof) within the play of Hamlet
. The film begins as they travel on horseback to Elsinore
, contemplating fate, memory and language. Rosencrantz finds and continually flips a coin which always comes up heads, causing Guildenstern to conclude that something is wrong with reality. They meet a travelling troupe of tragedians on the way, and during their conversation with the lead Player (Richard Dreyfuss
), they are mysteriously transported into the action of Hamlet at Elsinore. They wander around the castle, trying to catch up to the action and understand what is going on by listening to other parts of the play. They are asked by the Danish royal couple to stay awhile in order to help find out the cause of, and hopefully cure, Prince Hamlet's gloomy state. They spend their time outside the scenes in Hamlet trying to figure out what is wrong with the prince and what is required of them.
The remainder of the play follows the Shakespearean drama whenever the two characters are "on stage," while the title heroes remain largely occupied with the futile hazards of daily life whenever the "main action" is elsewhere. Soon the very same theatre troupe arrives to play at court, as part of the Bard's tragedy. The Player simultaneously forbids them to stop watching their real play on the road, which cannot exist without an audience, and explains some of the plot and logic of conventional rules of plot-staging and -writing.
Ultimately, they are sent to England and outside the action of the play again. The final part takes place on the ship to England, where they read the letter they are to deliver with Hamlet – discovering that it is an order for his death. They decide to pretend they never saw it. Hamlet replaces the letter, and (as described in Shakespeare's play) escapes on an attacking pirate ship. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern worry about what they are to do now that Hamlet is gone, unaware that Hamlet has altered the letter so that it calls for their death rather than his own. The Player finishes the action by reading the letter that sentences them to death, and both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
are hanged. The film ends with the tragedians packing up their cart and continuing on their way.
) consisting of silver-coloured ball bearings suspended by nylon threads). But when he demonstrates this intriguing device to Guildenstern, he draws the end jug back too far and it merely breaks, spilling its contents. Other examples include his almost discovering the ancient Greek principle of steam power (the Hero or Heronas archetype of steam blowing against a pinwheel
), a scientific experiment in which a bowling pin falls far more quickly than a feather (Newton's law of universal gravitation
), and when he is accidentally hit on the head by a falling apple (erroneously supposed to have happened to Newton
when a child), and almost having a Eureka moment in the bath when he notices that a toy boat moves up when he displaces water in the tub, but he is distracted by the naked backside of a woman, which then turns out to be that of a man. Besides his experiments in physics, in an early scene Rosencrantz also seems to invent the hamburger
, indeed a multi-layered Big Mac
-like sandwich, when the pair stop to eat while still travelling to Elsinore; Guildenstern tells him to stop playing with his food. He also, after making a traditional paper plane
, folds one in the shape of a more modern biplane
; Guildenstern crumples it up in frustration.
. A common criticism in negative reviews was that the material is more suited to the stage than to the screen; examples include Vincent Canby
's review, in which he says, "[Stoppard] delights in sounds and meanings, in puns, in flights of words that soar and swoop as if in visual display. On the stage, this sort of thing can be great fun... In the more realistic medium of film, so many words can numb the eardrums and weigh upon the eyelids like old coins. This is the effect of 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Similarly, Roger Ebert
states that "the problem is that this material was never meant to be a film, and can hardly work as a film."
The film won the Golden Lion
at the Venice Film Festival
as well as the Fantasporto
Directors' Week Award. For his work in the film, Gary Oldman was nominated for the 1991 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
In 2011, Total Film
named Oldman's portrayal of Rosencrantz as one of the "greatest moments" of his career, and wrote, "He's a blitz of brilliant comedy timing and pitch perfect line delivery. Crucially, he's also hysterical".
Tom Stoppard
Sir Tom Stoppard OM, CBE, FRSL is a British playwright, knighted in 1997. He has written prolifically for TV, radio, film and stage, finding prominence with plays such as Arcadia, The Coast of Utopia, Every Good Boy Deserves Favour, Professional Foul, The Real Thing, and Rosencrantz and...
based on his play of the same name. Like the play, the film depicts two minor characters from William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare
William Shakespeare was an English poet and playwright, widely regarded as the greatest writer in the English language and the world's pre-eminent dramatist. He is often called England's national poet and the "Bard of Avon"...
's play Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are courtiers who are set by the king to spy on Hamlet, using their claimed friendship with him to gain his confidence. The characters were revived in W. S...
, who find themselves on the road to Elsinore Castle at the behest of the King of Denmark. They encounter a band of players
Actor
An actor is a person who acts in a dramatic production and who works in film, television, theatre, or radio in that capacity...
before arriving to find that they are needed to try to discern what troubles the prince Hamlet. Meanwhile, they ponder the meaning of their existence.
The film stars Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
as Rosencrantz and Tim Roth
Tim Roth
Simon Timothy "Tim" Roth is an English film actor and director best known for his roles in the American films,Legend of 1900, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Skellig, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Rob Roy, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for...
as Guildenstern, although a running theme throughout has many characters, themselves included, uncertain as to which is which. It also features Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
as the leading player, Iain Glen
Iain Glen
Iain Glen is a Scottish film and stage actor.Iain Glen was born in Edinburgh, Scotland and trained at RADA where he won the Bancroft Gold Medal. He was married to Susannah Harker from 1993 to 2004; they have one son, Finlay...
as Prince Hamlet
Prince Hamlet
Prince Hamlet is a fictional character, the protagonist in Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. He is the Prince of Denmark, nephew to the usurping Claudius and son of the previous King of Denmark, Old Hamlet. Throughout the play he struggles with whether, and how, to avenge the murder of his father, and...
, Ian Richardson
Ian Richardson
Ian William Richardson CBE was a Scottish actor best known for his portrayal of the Machiavellian Tory politician Francis Urquhart in the BBC's House of Cards trilogy. He was also a leading Shakespearean stage actor....
as Polonius
Polonius
Polonius is a character in William Shakespeare's Hamlet. He is King Claudius's chief counsellor, and the father of Ophelia and Laertes. Polonius connives with Claudius to spy on Hamlet...
, Joanna Miles
Joanna Miles
Joanna Miles is an American actress.Miles was born in Nice, France, the daughter of Jeanne Miles, an American painter, and Johannes Schiefer, a French painter art curator. She immigrated to the United States, and was naturalized a citizen, in 1941...
as Gertrude
Gertrude (Hamlet)
In William Shakespeare's play Hamlet, Gertrude is Hamlet's mother and Queen of Denmark. Her relationship with Hamlet is somewhat turbulent, since he resents her for marrying her husband's brother Claudius after he murdered the King...
and Donald Sumpter
Donald Sumpter
Donald Sumpter is a British actor. He has appeared in film and television since the mid 1960s.-Life and work:One of his early television appearances was the 1968 Doctor Who serial The Wheel in Space with Patrick Troughton as the Doctor. He appeared in Doctor Who again in the 1972 serial The Sea...
as King Claudius
King Claudius
King Claudius is a character and the antagonist from William Shakespeare's play Hamlet. He is the brother to King Hamlet, second husband to Gertrude and uncle to Hamlet. He obtained the throne of Denmark by murdering his own brother with poison and then marrying the late king's widow...
. The film was shot in various locations around Yugoslavia
Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
The Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was the Yugoslav state that existed from the abolition of the Yugoslav monarchy until it was dissolved in 1992 amid the Yugoslav Wars. It was a socialist state and a federation made up of six socialist republics: Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia,...
. This was Stoppard's debut as a film director, and to date it remains his only film directorial credit.
Plot
The film, like the playRosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is an absurdist, existentialist tragicomedy by Tom Stoppard, first staged at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe in 1966. The play expands upon the exploits of two minor characters from Shakespeare's Hamlet, the courtiers Rosencrantz and Guildenstern...
, focuses on Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman
Gary Oldman
Gary Leonard Oldman is an English actor, voice actor, filmmaker and musician.A member of the 1980s Brit Pack, Oldman came to prominence via starring roles in British films Meantime , Sid and Nancy and Prick Up Your Ears , with his performance in the latter bringing him his first BAFTA Award...
) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth
Tim Roth
Simon Timothy "Tim" Roth is an English film actor and director best known for his roles in the American films,Legend of 1900, Reservoir Dogs, Pulp Fiction, Four Rooms, Skellig, Planet of the Apes, The Incredible Hulk and Rob Roy, receiving an Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor for...
) and their actions (or lack thereof) within the play of Hamlet
Hamlet
The Tragical History of Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, or more simply Hamlet, is a tragedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1599 and 1601...
. The film begins as they travel on horseback to Elsinore
Elsinore
Helsingør is a city and the municipal seat of Helsingør municipality on the northeast coast of the island of Zealand in eastern Denmark. Helsingør has a population of 46,279 including the southern suburbs of Snekkersten and Espergærde...
, contemplating fate, memory and language. Rosencrantz finds and continually flips a coin which always comes up heads, causing Guildenstern to conclude that something is wrong with reality. They meet a travelling troupe of tragedians on the way, and during their conversation with the lead Player (Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Dreyfuss
Richard Stephen Dreyfuss is an American actor best known for starring in a number of film, television, and theater roles since the late 1960s, including the films American Graffiti, Jaws, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, The Goodbye Girl, Whose Life Is It Anyway?, Stakeout, Always, What About...
), they are mysteriously transported into the action of Hamlet at Elsinore. They wander around the castle, trying to catch up to the action and understand what is going on by listening to other parts of the play. They are asked by the Danish royal couple to stay awhile in order to help find out the cause of, and hopefully cure, Prince Hamlet's gloomy state. They spend their time outside the scenes in Hamlet trying to figure out what is wrong with the prince and what is required of them.
The remainder of the play follows the Shakespearean drama whenever the two characters are "on stage," while the title heroes remain largely occupied with the futile hazards of daily life whenever the "main action" is elsewhere. Soon the very same theatre troupe arrives to play at court, as part of the Bard's tragedy. The Player simultaneously forbids them to stop watching their real play on the road, which cannot exist without an audience, and explains some of the plot and logic of conventional rules of plot-staging and -writing.
Ultimately, they are sent to England and outside the action of the play again. The final part takes place on the ship to England, where they read the letter they are to deliver with Hamlet – discovering that it is an order for his death. They decide to pretend they never saw it. Hamlet replaces the letter, and (as described in Shakespeare's play) escapes on an attacking pirate ship. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern worry about what they are to do now that Hamlet is gone, unaware that Hamlet has altered the letter so that it calls for their death rather than his own. The Player finishes the action by reading the letter that sentences them to death, and both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are characters in William Shakespeare's tragedy Hamlet. They are courtiers who are set by the king to spy on Hamlet, using their claimed friendship with him to gain his confidence. The characters were revived in W. S...
are hanged. The film ends with the tragedians packing up their cart and continuing on their way.
Physics
During the film, Rosencrantz has a series of amusing missed discoveries of physical principles. Examples include where he plays with a series of clay jugs hung from the ceiling and discovers that bouncing the end jug into the next one causes the jug at the opposite end to bounce (just as in the "executive toy" (Newton's CradleNewton's cradle
Newton's cradle, named after Sir Isaac Newton, is a device that demonstrates conservation of momentum and energy via a series of swinging spheres. When one on the end is lifted and released, the resulting force travels through the line and pushes the last one upward...
) consisting of silver-coloured ball bearings suspended by nylon threads). But when he demonstrates this intriguing device to Guildenstern, he draws the end jug back too far and it merely breaks, spilling its contents. Other examples include his almost discovering the ancient Greek principle of steam power (the Hero or Heronas archetype of steam blowing against a pinwheel
Aeolipile
An aeolipile , also known as a Hero engine, is a rocket style jet engine which spins when heated. In the 1st century AD, Hero of Alexandria described the device, and many sources give him the credit for its invention.The aeolipile Hero described is considered to be the first recorded steam engine...
), a scientific experiment in which a bowling pin falls far more quickly than a feather (Newton's law of universal gravitation
Newton's law of universal gravitation
Newton's law of universal gravitation states that every point mass in the universe attracts every other point mass with a force that is directly proportional to the product of their masses and inversely proportional to the square of the distance between them...
), and when he is accidentally hit on the head by a falling apple (erroneously supposed to have happened to Newton
Isaac Newton
Sir Isaac Newton PRS was an English physicist, mathematician, astronomer, natural philosopher, alchemist, and theologian, who has been "considered by many to be the greatest and most influential scientist who ever lived."...
when a child), and almost having a Eureka moment in the bath when he notices that a toy boat moves up when he displaces water in the tub, but he is distracted by the naked backside of a woman, which then turns out to be that of a man. Besides his experiments in physics, in an early scene Rosencrantz also seems to invent the hamburger
Hamburger
A hamburger is a sandwich consisting of a cooked patty of ground meat usually placed inside a sliced bread roll...
, indeed a multi-layered Big Mac
Big Mac
The Big Mac is a hamburger sold by McDonald's, an international fast food restaurant chain. It is one of the company's signature products...
-like sandwich, when the pair stop to eat while still travelling to Elsinore; Guildenstern tells him to stop playing with his food. He also, after making a traditional paper plane
Paper plane
A paper plane, paper aeroplane , paper airplane , paper glider, paper dart or dart is a toy aircraft, usually a glider made out of paper or paperboard; the practice of constructing paper planes is sometimes referred to as aerogami , after origami, the Japanese art of paper folding.-History:The...
, folds one in the shape of a more modern biplane
Biplane
A biplane is a fixed-wing aircraft with two superimposed main wings. The Wright brothers' Wright Flyer used a biplane design, as did most aircraft in the early years of aviation. While a biplane wing structure has a structural advantage, it produces more drag than a similar monoplane wing...
; Guildenstern crumples it up in frustration.
Free will
As in the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are expressed as not having control over their circumstances. They are consistently taken from place to place or put in situations without their control and occasionally even without their knowledge (the boat scene). Similarly, they are unable to control where their lives are taking them, specifically towards their deaths.Reception
Critical reaction for the film tended towards the positive, with an overall rating of 69% on review aggregator Rotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes
Rotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. A common criticism in negative reviews was that the material is more suited to the stage than to the screen; examples include Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby
Vincent Canby was an American film critic who became the chief film critic for The New York Times in 1969 and reviewed more than 1000 films during his tenure there.-Life and career:...
's review, in which he says, "[Stoppard] delights in sounds and meanings, in puns, in flights of words that soar and swoop as if in visual display. On the stage, this sort of thing can be great fun... In the more realistic medium of film, so many words can numb the eardrums and weigh upon the eyelids like old coins. This is the effect of 'Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. Similarly, Roger Ebert
Roger Ebert
Roger Joseph Ebert is an American film critic and screenwriter. He is the first film critic to win a Pulitzer Prize for Criticism.Ebert is known for his film review column and for the television programs Sneak Previews, At the Movies with Gene Siskel and Roger Ebert, and Siskel and Ebert and The...
states that "the problem is that this material was never meant to be a film, and can hardly work as a film."
The film won the Golden Lion
Golden Lion
Il Leone d’Oro is the highest prize given to a film at the Venice Film Festival. The prize was introduced in 1949 by the organizing committee and is now regarded as one of the film industry's most distinguished prizes...
at the Venice Film Festival
Venice Film Festival
The Venice International Film Festival is the oldest international film festival in the world. Founded by Count Giuseppe Volpi in 1932 as the "Esposizione Internazionale d'Arte Cinematografica", the festival has since taken place every year in late August or early September on the island of the...
as well as the Fantasporto
Fantasporto
Fantasporto, also known as Fantas, is an international film festival, annually organized since 1981 in Porto, Portugal. Giving screen space to commercial feature films, auteur films and experimental projects from all over the world, Fantasporto has created enthusiastic audiences, ranging from...
Directors' Week Award. For his work in the film, Gary Oldman was nominated for the 1991 Independent Spirit Award for Best Male Lead.
In 2011, Total Film
Total Film
Total Film is a British film magazine published 13 times a year by Future Publishing. The magazine was launched in 1997 and offers film, DVD and Blu-ray news, reviews and features...
named Oldman's portrayal of Rosencrantz as one of the "greatest moments" of his career, and wrote, "He's a blitz of brilliant comedy timing and pitch perfect line delivery. Crucially, he's also hysterical".