Firefly, ala Shakespeare.....

POSTED BY: JRC
UPDATED: Friday, April 25, 2008 12:51
VIEWED: 6226
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TRAVELER

Friday, April 25, 2008 12:35 AM

Quote:
Originally posted by Agatsu:
Quote:
Originally posted by traveler:
My all time favorite is "Much Ado About Nothing".

Good humor and still very dramatic with a bittersweet ending.

I like the movie as well - even better than the read, imho. And yes, I DID read it, but Brannagh really knows his Shakespeare and translates it to the screen beautifully.

I caught things in the movie that I had missed in reading it. They did a fine job of this play.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

AGATSU

Friday, April 25, 2008 12:53 AM

I especially liked Michael Keaton as Dogberry. SO much funnier than just reading it.

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"Dude, you never wanna f*ck with a Browncoat, man." - Kevin Smith

TRAVELER

Friday, April 25, 2008 1:12 AM

There were times I swear I could feel the spit on my face as Keaton spoke. I am not an expert on Shakespeare, but I read through his plays again and again so my understanding of what is happening becomes more clear. Seeing them actually performed is the best. I had seen Much Ado performed by others, but this version was better and they really expressed their feelings well. I have this play on VHS so I am able to see it again and again. I never get tired of it.

http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=28764731
Traveler

VETERAN

Friday, April 25, 2008 2:39 AM

Right, when he's answering the door and rambling about answering the gates of hell to how drink will "add to the desire while taking away from the means."

But I thought that Shakespeare usually wrote commoner's lines in prose.

HUGHFF

Friday, April 25, 2008 3:39 AM

"it promotes the desire, but takes away the performance"

It's not for common folk exclusively or even particularly. He uses prose for vulgar matters, mundane matters, humour; anything that is lowly is likely to be in prose. Therefore Lady McB's sleepwalking soliloquy is in prose because, despite being a queen and not even slightly common, she's been stripped of all dignity and is shambling pathetically toward her death. Mercutio gets verse for his sexual jokes because they are clever puns and the Elizabethan/Jacobian audience felt puns were a sign of great wit.

Still on the Scottish play, the witches lines are often in trochaic tetrameter to make them seem more menacing and otherworldly.

www.cpfc.org - my life

MOJAVE

Friday, April 25, 2008 5:43 AM

JRC, that was awesome and thank you for posting it. There has to be a way to get Nathan to put up an mp3 of his best reading. Hugh, thanks for the Romeo and Juliet analysis. If you ever want to list the Shakespearean references in Firefly, it's a post I'd read.

CYBERSNARK

Friday, April 25, 2008 12:51 PM

*finally has time to read this*

Huge Shakespeare fan here, though I'll be the first to agree that he was a shameless hack; the Michael Bay of his era. That's exactly why I love him. If he was alive today, he'd probably be hard at work on Snakes on a Plane II.

Everything he wrote was stolen from pre-existing sources and rewritten to pander to his audience (for a paycheque). That fact that he did it so beautifully (and is now held up as this Patron Deity of The Arts) is like some cosmic joke on those who go on about how Art justifies itself and should be unburdened by practical needs and uses.

I really want to see Gonzo's Romeo X Juliet adaptation licensed. Yeah, it's completely different from Shakespeare, but given his own tendencies to rewriting (and Gonzo's demonstrated skill with reimaginings), I think the Bard would've enjoyed seeing it.

And yes, he certainly would've been a Browncoat. Favourite character would probably have been Jayne.

For more Shakespeare-on-TV goodness, check out the Doctor Who episode "The Shakespeare Code" for my favourite onscreen portrayal of him. You'll also want to check out Disney's Gargoyles, which has some of the best "modern Shakespearean" verse anywhere.

"Isle of towers of glass and stone,
The Lady waits for him alone.
Ebon glass in emerald frame,
Pure white lilies speak her name.
Blood's red bane in dragon stone,
Excalibur waits for him alone."

"Avalon's Lord, be thou enchained,
Thy power to child's strength restrained.
'Til hunt be done and issue known,
This contest win by craft alone."

Plus, the Gargoyles version of Macbeth's story is (aside from the Gargs themselves) more historically-accurate than what Shakey wrote.

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We applied the cortical electrodes but were unable to get a neural reaction from either patient.

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