Directed by John Madden ’’Shakespeare in Love’’ was the winner of 7 academy awards including Best Picture, Best atcress, and Best supporting actress.
This was a great film. The sets were good, the budget obviously was big, the acting was great by Fiennes, Paltrow, Rush and others and it was very entertaining. However the movie does have many flaws though most of which were revealed on Special Edition DVD and by simple facts of history on Shakespeare himself.
For instance on DVD Director John Madden does mention that he takes
liberties with the film, including the depiction of future playwright John Webster as a street beggar, who gets turned by William Shakespeare. In fact, half of the film takes many liberties which scholars will debate as untrue.
For one is the depiction in which Christopher Marlowe (Rupert Everette) seems to be the one that gives Will, all the ideas to write ’’Romeo and Juliet’’, including the characer of Mercutio and Romeo. I asked this to my English teacher who is a big Shakespeare buff and researched this and could find no proof that Marlowe even met with Shakespeare. So these events in the film stretched the truth.
The other liberty the film takes is depicting Shakespeare as a heterosexual , who loves women, when in fact, the real Shakespeare loved not only women, but young boys. Shakespeare was a bisexual but you research his background, you’ll see that he is actually more gay than anything else. Shakespeare like many scholars will point out was very much gay, even going to the point of writing his Sonnets, for an unknown young man.
The good points of the film is that several depictions of Elizabethan life are factual.
Throughout the 13 to 1600’s, the plays written by Shakespeare and Marlowe were largely unknown. Since, the Bubonic Plague was rampant this also
posed a problem for potential audiences.
Elizabethan theatres, like Shakespeare, chronically were unsactioned and held gambling and prostitution in between and after plays.
There is also the debate of Viola De Lesseps(Gwenyth Paltrow’s character) who falls in love with Shakespeare. In fact my English colleagues, told me, that there is no proof that Viola ever existed.
Shakespeare in Love is about young William Shakespeare (Joseph Fiennes) who is struggling to make his new play (which would end to be ’’Romeo and Juliet’’) to make ends meet.
His friend and business partner Philip Henslowe (Geoffrey Rush) is literally almost killed for the debts he owes , along with the fact that the theather he manages has failed to show a profit. Shakespeare, then with a little help from Chris Marlowe, (Scholars say that Shakespeare didn’t even know Marlowe) gets the idea to make ’’Romeo and Juliet’’ (his most famous love tragedy).
Everything from the beginning goes wrong to make the play until Shakespeare finds a good actor named Thomas kent who is really a woman played named Viola De Lesseps (Gwenyth Paltrow).
Shakespeare at first doesn’t know that Kent is a woman, but when he does, is when the funny action starts. However, all is not well, as Viola is in love a loveless engagement with another man Lord Wesses (Colin Firth).
The famous playwright then must know find a way to finish his play and not lets his feelings get in the way for Viola, because it could mean the end of his life.
As I said the movie takes many liberties with the ’’facts’’ of Shakespeare, and more than half of the movie is filled with uncomfirmed, evidence on Shakespeare.
As I said, Shakespeare had an incredible desire for young boys, and it’s illogical that Shakespeare would have fallen for this woman Viola so rapidly in the film.
In fact, there is part of the film that does show some of Shakespeare, homosexuality. The film also inaccurately says that Chris Marlowe and Shakespeare well old friends, but against there is no evidence showing that.
Despite that, ’’Shakespeare in Love’’ is a pretty entertaining film that showcases what life was like during Shakespeare’s time.
The DVD for the film comes with many extras including:
Commentary from the Director.
A special section showing a couple of facts on the real Shakespeare and much more.
So if you haven’t seen the movie check it out and check out the DVD too.