Quote:
Originally Posted by octothorp
Are you saying you like the way Shakespeare's impressive diction feels on your tongue?
You know, the worst Shakespeare-related film I've ever seen was this Al Pacino version of Richard II; it's actually more of a critical look at staging the play as opposed to a film adaptation, and they spend about half an hour talking about the first soliloquy, and then rush through the rest of the play in record time (pausing to argue about whether they should cast Winona Ryder in it). It's exactly what you're talking about, if you over-analyze the text, you ruin its ability to tell a story; Shakespeare is a lot of fun because you can plunge into his work at incredible depth and still find new layers of subtext, but typically the strength of his plays is how they work as complete stories, and you can't appreciate that if you just dive right into analyzing and dissecting every word.
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Pacino's version of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice was amazing though.