CommentsXp
Best movie ever!
Twilightfa
Watch something else. There are very few redeeming qualities to this film.
Grimossfer
Clever and entertaining enough to recommend even to members of the 1%
Staci Frederick
Blistering performances.
blanche-2
"Looking for Richard" has Al Pacino, over a four-year period while he filmed various other things, delving into Shakespeare's Richard III with a cast of wonderful actors.The premise is that American actors approach Shakespeare too reverentially. Pacino gathers various actors, using places such as the Cloisters and St. John the Divine Church, to analyze, rehearse, and perform Richard III. Pacino amassed something like 80 hours, cut down to two.There are interviews with stars such as Kevin Kline, Vanessa Redgrave, F. Murray Abraham, Viveka Lindfors, Kenneth Branagh, Kevin Kline, John Gielgud, Peter Brook, and many others, including the man on the street. The final players include Kevin Conway, Kevin Spacey, Winona Ryder, Harris Yulin, Alec Baldwin, Estelle Parsons, Aiden Quinn and others.Scenes from the play are interspersed with discussion and rehearsal. Pacino's Richard emerges as raw, tough, and manipulative, whereas Olivier's was a complete slimeball. Both approaches work.This is an excellent film to show to high school students learning Shakespeare as Pacino takes some of the language apart -- the film makes the language and the human feelings and motivations behind the words very accessible.Truly excellent.
brice-18
Having lately seen Kevin Spacey's marvellous 'King Richard III' at London's Old Vic (on Broadway in a month or two) I had to see again this splendid exploration of Shakespeare, Richard and the wariness by the American public of WS and the phobic approach to his work of some actors. Yet years ago Brando joined John Gielgud and James Mason to play a thrilling Mark Antony in Mankiewicz's 'Julius Caesar', and here an American cast show themselves fine Shakespearean actors. Spacey (young and handsome!) is most enjoyable as Richard's conniving spin=doctor, Buckingham, and in his inevitably fragmented portrayal Pacino shows what a dark, deadly and witty Crookback he would be - on film or stage.
Andres Salama
Pacino's directing debut is a (sort of) documentary of him as he prepares to film Shakespeare's Richard III (with him on the title role, of course). We see him researching the material, going to Shakespeare's house in England, rehearsing with the actors, interviewing people on the street about Shakespeare, interviewing scholars. As the film progresses, we actually see him performing (parts) of the play with the actors (including Alec Baldwin and Winona Ryder, among others). Its enjoyable and informative, though it is sometimes irritating when Pacino asks questions to the scholars he already knows the answer to. It's a bit self-indulgent, also, though Pacino does come as a likable person. But his unpretentiousness seems a bit too studied, too labored (hey, Shakespeare is for normal people too, he seems to say, a little too many times).
FrZeile
Al Pacino, tough guy- just the one you want to do Shakespeare, right? You bet! He did a great job in Merchant of Venice, and this project- "Looking for Richard"- makes me long to see the whole play. I enjoyed the discussions with various actors analyzing their respective characters and their transformation into those characters. Kevin Spacey, for example, was a very enjoyable as Buckingham; Kevin Conway, whom I enjoyed as the Irish sergeant in Gettysburg, played a terrific (emphasis on terror) Hastings whose betrayal by Richard and destruction at the council table leaves him dumbfounded.This film is billed as an introduction for those unfamiliar with Shakespeare, but as one who has seen three different movie productions of Richard III, I was engaged from the first, and watched it a second time with my wife and a third time because the performances, particularly by the well-known actors/actresses were so enjoyable. What could be better? Seeing the whole play! Why isn't that available?
