Documentary Movie Reviews

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Looking for Richard (1996)

Rate: 6
Viewed: 2/25

LookingR
2/25: Looking for Richard is confusing and weird.

Tony Montana as Richard III? I don't think so. Al Pacino asked, "Then why is it Shakespeare's most popular play?" No way. That'll be Romeo and Juliet. If not, then Hamlet. Surprisingly, after looking up the correct answer on the internet, it turns out to be A Midsummer Night's Dream while the other two are back and forth for 2nd place. Richard III? It's not even in the top ten.

That being said, I don't really care about it. It's not even universal or relevant. This historical stuff happened almost 600 years ago. Who cares? Move on. If you don't believe me, then we can look at only two films. Ian McKellen was the last one to do it in 1995, and nobody cared, resulting in box office of $2.7 million. Before him was Laurence Olivier, and again, nobody cared, hence $2.6 million in box office which pretty much ended his directorial career of Shakespearean films.

"We're making a documentary about making Shakespeare accessible to people." That's funny, but nobody wants to see Shakespeare anything. Too boring and too hard to get into. One said, "You shouldn't have to understand every single word. It doesn't matter. As long as you get the gist of it." Yeah, wow...I suppose I'll just look at the book jacket and get the gist of the play without ever reading the entire thing. Plus, it's been done to death. How many versions in however many mediums must we endure?

Oh, yeah...did the play ever get produced? Nope. It was going to be done on film, but Al Pacino decided not to because he found Laurence Olivier's Richard III hard to beat. Of course, and I thought the whole time, "Why not look to it as the source if he's confused about anything?" No matter how impressive the cast was (Al Pacino, Alec Baldwin, Kevin Spacey, Harris Yulin, Winona Ryder, Paul Guilfoyle, Kevin Conway, and so on), I wouldn't be breathless in wanting to see it.

All in all, the best part is when somebody asked at the end of Looking for Richard, "Is this it?" and the guy next to him said, "I hope so."