Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead

Plot synopsis:
The play concerns the misadventures and musings of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, two minor characters from William Shakespeare's Hamlet who are childhood friends of the prince, focusing on their actions with the events of Hamlet as background. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead is structured as the inverse of Hamlet; the title characters are the leads, not supporting players, and Hamlet himself has only a small part. The duo appears on stage here when they are off-stage in Shakespeare's play, with the exception of a few short scenes in which the dramatic events of both plays coincide. In Hamlet, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are used by the King in an attempt to discover Hamlet's motives and to plot against him. Hamlet, however, mocks them derisively and outwits them, so that they, rather than he, are executed in the end. Thus, from Rosencrantz's and Guildenstern's perspective, the action in Hamlet is largely nonsensical and comical.
After the two characters witness a performance of The Murder of Gonzago—the story within a story in the play Hamlet—they find themselves on a boat taking Prince Hamlet to England with the troupe that staged the performance. They are intended to give the English king a message telling him to kill Hamlet. Instead, Hamlet discovers this and switches the letter for another, telling the king to kill Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. During the voyage, the two are ambushed by pirates and lose their prisoner, Hamlet, before resigning themselves to their fate and presumably dying thereafter.

Tags: boring, stupid, cult, clever, absurd, humor, psychedelic

Review:
Shakespeare didn't provide any detailed character development of either Rosencrantz or Guildenstern, and as such, they are left confused as to the purpose of their own existence.The film also looks at the concept of a predetermined destiny.
This clever screenplay by Tom Stoppard challenges the viewer to listen and watch closely as the Shakespeare tragedy Hamlet is turned on its ear via taking the perspective of the oblivious rhetorics, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
This last point is comically illustrated as one of the pair (they don't know who is who) keeps `stumbling' on great ideas, which then vanish.The play (Stoppard's first) seems to have been his one excellent work, followed by the mundane.
Okay, so you may want to brush up on your knowledge of "Hamlet" before viewing "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead", Tom Stoppard's big screen adaptation of his own classic play.
based on tom stoppard's play of the same name (stoppard also directs the film), "rosencrantz and guildenstern are dead" delves into the tragicomic lives of minor characters everywhere, on-stage and off.
The dialogue is constant and highly entertaining, the meshing of Stoppard's modern day speech of the original parts of the story and Shakespeare's original Hamlet practically seamless and masterfully worked.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, minor characters in Hamlet wander into the events of the play on call for their dialogue, and in between try to figure out their existence.
Tim Roth, Gary Oldman and Richard Dreyfuss star Tom Stoppard claims that the idea behind his hit play 'Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead' was suggested to him by his agent: What happens to two small parts in Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' when they're off stage?
In this case, the characters are lost in midst of a play we all know what it is about, so, the mood is more tongue-in-cheek: the feel is much more Kafkaesque this time, when the invisible strings lead these characters to their demises, and also, it's incredible fun and witty.As a film, the only issue I can think of is sometimes the action moves rather slowly, but I think that was the idea: a surreal and dream like state, in which the characters are constantly in doubt.
Roth, Oldman and Dreyfus are brilliant in their roles, and A+ performance.Perfect score for one of my favorite movies of all time.10/10.
Rather than read Shakespeare's original she prepared for the exam by watching Laurence Olivier's film version, which was playing at her local cinema, several times.
Unfortunately, she failed to realise that Olivier had used an abridged version of the text so was quite unable to answer a question about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, who do not appear in the film.I mention this anecdote because Tom Stoppard's play "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" revolves around the idea of taking these two minor characters, so minor that Olivier could afford to omit them altogether, and making them his protagonists.
Another minor figure, the Player King, plays an important role, but some of Shakespeare's major characters, such as Hamlet himself, Gertrude, Claudius and Polonius, become minor ones in Stoppard's play.
Stoppard's idea was to use Rosencrantz and Guildenstern as examples of the "little men" of history, playing a minor role on the fringe of great events while failing to comprehend their significance, and thereby to raise questions about the nature of reality and of human existence.I saw Stoppard's play in the theatre during my university days and was enthralled by it.
The plot parallels that of "Hamlet" itself, but with the action seen from a different viewpoint, and includes lengthy scenes in which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern speculate on what is going on around them or try to pass the time (by, for example, playing Questions) while waiting for their brief moment in the spotlight.
Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz and Tim Roth as Guildenstern both try hard to overcome the difficulties caused by the cinematic medium; I don't think they succeed, but they do enough to suggest they could have been very good in a stage production.The film rights to the play were originally bought by MGM in 1968, only a year after its first theatrical production.
As such, it is nothing less than a delightfully ingenious decision on writer/director Tom Stoppard's part to re- examine Hamlet from the perspective of the two characters who seldom play any part in it, and in between question their purpose, their reason for being there, what they are attempting to accomplish and their inability to remember anything before being brought into the story.
Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are perfectly cast as the consistently bewildered titular duo, and their quirky chemistry and impeccable comedic timing makes for some of the most enjoyable back and forth routines in recent memory (the verbal tennis match is an abiding classic, but is only a fraction of the comedic brilliance the two muster up) - an absurdist Abbot and Costello if you will, with Oldman's loopy Rosencrantz making a ideal foil for Roth's curt straight man Guildenstern.
I am not going to run you through the entire movie, as that has been done several times on here already, but I would like to clear up a few misunderstandings and harsh words that I have read in previous comments.First and foremost, I have not seen or read the play (although I am looking forward to it) and I was perfectly able to understand all of the so-called "high-brow" concepts like fate, time, freewill, self-awareness, and the light peppering of existential musings (my favorite of which is the "...well at least I'm not dead." speech).
But once you realize that the lead player is fully self-aware, has been through these scenarios (the play "Hamlet") several times with a full consciousness and memory of the events (demonstrated rather obviously by his full knowledge of future events, the play that his troupe rehearses in front of R&G wich is an exact copy of "Hamlet", etc.) it makes for a wonderful metaphor demonstrating what has happened to the original play (Hamlet) now that some of its more flat characters are starting to think outside the script, so to speak, and become a bit more round.Well, I could go on forever about this masterpiece, and maybe I will at a later date, but for now I just wanted you know that this film is anything but simple.
I plan to find more such characters from Oldman - certainly one of the most sublime and delightful performances of all time!Funny note: If "The Lion King" is childishly derivative of "Hamlet", "The Lion King 1½" is a total f*cking rip-off of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead".Also - "R & G Are Dead" is frequently compared to Beckett's "Waiting For Godot" (which should never be filmed!) as dealing equally with man's insubstantial grasp of his fate and the routines/shtick that passes the time before death.
I don't like Shakespeare and I only watched this by accident, I flicked on to the opening scene with the coin toss and was hooked.This has great dialogue with lots of wit and charm and the idea of the characters being confused by the very fact that they are confused is great to watch.I was relieved that they use modern English during all the scenes that aren't from Hamlet and they don't restrict themselves to the same style or time.Oldman is superb a the dimmer of the two and the physics jokes were especially surprising and well done.
Both leads display excellent comic timing.This is an idea I wouldn't have expected to work but with a excellent cast and great writing it is a really enjoyable film, there are a lot of big laughs but even better than that is the fact that you are kept continuously amused by small things..
Tom Stoppard's "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" is a brilliant existential twist on a classic story (Shakespeare's "Hamlet") and classic storytelling.
It's the struggle of all stage-to-screen adaptations, but where others have succeeded in shedding new light through that transition, Stoppard's re- imagining of his own work lacks a visual edge, perhaps explain why he never took up the director's chair again.The story follows "Hamlet" characters Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth), two remarkably unimportant characters from the play who are part of the tragedy's final body count for no reason other than being at the wrong place at the wrong time.
Stoppard uses these examples and a fitting opening bit about the probability of a coin flip to suggest the conflict between randomness and order in life and nature.Also significant is the group of traveling tragedians led by Richard Dreyfuss, who end up being the ones to put on the play that Hamlet uses to catch his Uncle Claudius realizing his sin.
But nothing about the way he films this story enhances the existential dialogue between characters as well as between film and audience.Having never seen the play, "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" was an enjoyable, thought-provoking film experience, but I would imagine having already been exposed to its meta-exploratory ingenuity, those coming to the film with previous exposure might not feel anything more fulfilling than simply seeing it in a three-dimensional world.~Steven CVisit my site at http://moviemusereviews.blogspot.com.
"R and G" is one of Tom Stoppard's greatest plays, and the movie is a fun and great adaptation.
Like others have said on this forum this movie seems to be saying to itself over and over again, "My goodness, look how _clever_ I am!" While the dialogue is, indeed, clever it's hard for me to imagine even the two most foppish Shakespearian characters conceivable acting the way R & G did in this film.
It is inspired literature that translates into a beautiful story.With an exemplary supporting cast of Medieval players led by American actor Richard Dreyfuss and a ridiculously talented group of actors as the "real" Hamlet characters, this story plays with the English language as though the audience is intelligent and following the leads to their inevitable end.
It is a shame that the interweaving with the Hamlet narrative doesn't work better because the original scenes have a delicious playful tone to them in regards language and the nature of minor characters; I found these specific scenes to be fun and engaging and only wished the film could have maintained this energy and approach.A big part of these scenes working is down to the delivery and both Oldman and Roth are really good not only with the fast pace of the dialogue but with the "out of it" attitude and sense of detached bewilderment that they need to carry for the majority.
It is telling that their scenes are by far the strongest and the supporting cast are not as good in Glen, Roth, Sumpter etc, although I did enjoy Dreyfuss' turn in it.An interesting movie with some great dialogue driven scenes that gives the viewer a lot of fun with language and character.
Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth) are two minor characters in William Shakespeare's play Hamlet.
The two are really peripheral to the main action of the play, and none of the major characters pays them much attention.Tom Stoppard, who is an absolute genius in his mastery of language, turns the play on its head and puts Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at the center of the plot, with Hamlet, the King and Queen, Ophelia, and all the rest at the periphery.
Ros and Guil, represent us, the everyday people, and their bumbling journey is both humorous and witty.Stoppard deliberately highlights the function of the stage play as a place to investigate the human condition, with hilarious dialogue such as when Ros asks what it would feel like being a 'spectator.' The film does a great job of merging "hamlet" and "Ros and Guil are Dead" scenes together and Gary Oldman and his costars are terrific.
Tom Stoppard's beautifully twisted sense of humour, which led "Shakespeare in Love" to several Oscars, including "Best Movie", is in top form in this play-turned-movie, which essentially put him on the map.Gary Oldman & Tim Roth are appropriately vapid & confused as their lives take on a surrealistic quality behind the scenes of "Hamlet".
When the play's action resumes, all seems to be right with the world, yet when the primary characters exit to continue the rest of the play, all reason flies out the window.The rest of the "minor" characters are convincing enough, & whenever onscreen, Richard Dreyfuss keeps things moving along at breakneck pace (no pun intended).This movie is not quite as audience friendly as "Shakespeare in Love", but anyone with a reasonable sense of intelligence & humour (as well as a working knowledge of "Hamlet") should be able to follow along fairly easily..
Surreal yet profound, FUNNY as all get-out (little visual gags run the duration, just little things that Gary Oldman is doing that aren't in the play-- he discovers all sorts of scientific principles while also looking overwhelmingly sexy and confused)-- not to mention beautifully acted, gorgeously filmed, with exceptional art direction and costuming.
What surprised me most, as a long-time fan of Stoppard's writing, is that the rest of the film lived up to, or surpassed, the original play script!!!
Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, two great actors, are great in this funny, interesting and very intelligent movie.It's about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern who are traveling around in a bizarre world, full of mysteries and mind-bending unrealities, all while their philosophical discussions about different scientifical issues continues.It's a great script, great performances and a dazzling movie that any developed movie-mind has to like!It's hard to describe this masterpiece so I have one advice for you and that is to go see it!.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are very underdeveloped characters in Hamlet, and the freedom to come up with a lot of new traits for them is both a convenience and a burden, as you would want to honour Shakespeare's work, but also add new layers to the two that has never been seen before, once again, I think it did so quite well.
Humorous and very well acted, Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead is worth the watch for anyone looking for a good comedy, and to any fans of Hamlet.
Two minor characters (Tim Roth and Gary Oldman) from the play "Hamlet" stumble around unaware of their scripted lives and unable to deviate from them.Hamlet has been told time and time again, in countless films, television adaptations, theater performances.
Gary Oldman and Tim Roth do a great job as the title characters and Richard Dreyfuss is at his (very different) best as the leader of the players.
In what has to be one of the cleverest, most unusual movies of all time, two characters from "Hamlet" wander into the play and try to figure out what to do.
These guys are clearly having a great time with the material, and the movie affirms Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss as some of the greatest actors of our time.
I should admit that I've never seen any version of "Hamlet" the whole way through - except a really terrible German TV version that appeared on "Mystery Science Theater 3000" - so I don't actually know the characters' roles in that play, but I still enjoyed this movie 100%.
Tom Stoppard is a brilliant master of the word in the film version of his play, "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead." Using the techniques of absurd and traditional theater, it is a play within a play within a play, the format of Hamlet transformed in the actions of the two minor characters, who are mere walk on parts, now central to all actions and seen through their eyes.
Gary Oldman and Tim Roth are mad-funny individually and together, at times reminiscent of Laurel and Hardy or even Abbot and Costello.The play-within-a-play device (used in "Hamlet") can be confusing, but the game of questions (played during tennis) and the play between theater and reality in "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" can be hard to wrap your head around.
Both the play and film "Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead" (written and directed by the famous playwright Tom Stoppard) retell what is perhaps THE most famous play ("Hamlet") by THE most famous playwright (Shakespeare).
Gary Oldman and Tim Roth (Rosencrantz and Guildenstern in the movie) began their careers in the theater.
this film does take a bit more work than most but it is well worth the effort.gary oldman and tim roth have never and likely will never (although they are both brilliant so they may well outdue themselves here) be better.
The writing was the best part of the film, as it felt like an extended series of in-jokes for the viewer, who would only understand the movie if they had read the play, Hamlet.
It was a brilliant idea: to give two minor characters from Shakespeare's 'Hamlet' a life independent of the play, but Tom Stoppard's debut as a film director presents a near-textbook example of how not to adapt a work of theatre for the screen.
Other than the actor who plays Hamlet (mediocre - at best), I thought the rest of the cast was excellent, the story was intriguing, and the interaction between Oldman, Roth, and Dreyfuss was the stuff of good comedy.
Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, and Richard Dreyfuss have great comic timing, and it's a joy to watch them.
This is one incredible movie and you don't have to know a thing about Shakespeare or Hamlet to enjoy the wordplay between Gary Oldman and Tim Roth, the two title characters.
While the casting isn't as good as Branagh's Hamlet, 90% of the movie centers around Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, played by Roth and Oldman, who both do excellent jobs.
In the play Hamlet, I didn't like Rosencrantz and Guildenstern.
I would recommend reading the play, or at least know the story line before watching the movie.
While not as good as the play, ROSENCRANTZ AND GUILDENSTERN ARE DEAD still ranks as one of the fifty best films I have seen.