Richard III the Play, Richard Term Paper

This version is different from the first two interpretations in that Al Pacino and his actors needed to break down the barriers, which render Shakespeare's history complicated and intimidating. Al Pacino allows his viewer to go behind the scenes and witness the actual process of acting. The heavier aspects of the play are made mild by informal shots of actors dealing with their roles in either a comic or heated forum. Al Pacino's methods of analysis are insightful, amusing and engrossing. He transcends the barrier between actors and their audience as he stands in London's legendary Globe Theater and the halls of New York City's Cloisters Museum (Richard III Society).

It illustrates how the actors move in and out of character through their struggles, debates and revelations about the play (Richard III Society 1996). At the same time, Al Pacino also acquires and measures public opinion about Richard III through the streets of New York. Some did not know Richard III at all, but some said that Al Pacino helped them get instructed in the art of feeling blending the day-to-day life of his actors with ordinary people, thus achieving a very different Shakespeare. The main goal of the project is to reach an audience, which will not normally participate in this kind of language or world. It took many years to complete the film. The creator and director remained focused to the extent of a failure to work on other movies. In venturing into this movie version, Pacino first realized that Shakespeare could actually be de-constructed. He and his observer are afforded the work's historical background, the methods used by Shakespeare to develop that portrait of a tyrant and a clarification into the true definition of "iambic pentameter." He and his observer or audience can involve themselves in a part without completely "demystifying" it by presenting the play itself and in a period costume of the time of one of England's most notorious kings (Richard III Society).In his lifetime, Richard III's reputation was quite high as the loyal brother of Edward IV who administered the north end of the realm and defended England against the Scots (Moorhen 2006). It was only with the premature death of the ailing king that led to a national crisis, which culminated into the crowning of Richard as king. Historians gave the fateful events since 1483 with the dark shades of Richard being a shrewd usurper of power and tyrant. These contemporary criticisms, rumors and suspicions were inevitable on account of his high profile. Decisive arrests, such as that of Rivers, appear pre-emptive in order to gain control of the under-aged Edward V. Re-evaluating the reputation of Richard III requires the arduous task of examining primary and Tudor sources and his actions as duke and king against the background of his times, his contemporaries, predecessors and successors. The rhetoric of his great critic, Sir Thomas More, has popularly been used to interpret his actions, such as his 1484 legislation, which has been described as either as enlightened or divisive only according to the writer's orientation. Aside from that, there has been no clear evidence that Richard was either guilty or innocent of the crimes imputed to him. Historians need to work with information from sources and works, which present a balanced view of the controversial figure in history (Moorhen).

Bibliography

1. Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication Data. (2000). The Tragedy of Richard III by William Shakespeare (c 1591-3). Oxford University Press.

2. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios. (2006). Richard III. Metro Goldwyn Mayer Studios, Inc. http://www.mgm.com/title_title_do-title_star=RICHARD3

3. Moorhen, W.E.A. (2006). Richard III. Society Research Office, Society of Antiquaries. http://www.richardIII.net

4. Richard III Society, American branch. (1996). Looking for Richard by Al Pacino. http://www.r3.org/pacino

5. Wikipedia. (2006). Richard III of England. Media Wiki. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_of_England

6. -. Richard III. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_(play).....