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[ Man ] Our revels now are ended.

These, our actors, as I foretold you, were all spirits...

that melted into air-- into thin air.

And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

the solemn temples,

the great globe itself,

yea, all which it inherit...

shall dissolve.

And like this insubstantial pageant faded,

leave not a wisp behind.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on,

and our little life is rounded with a sleep.

Who's gonna say "Action" around here? Should I say it, or should you say it?

You wanna say it? Anytime. You can say it.

All right. I don't want to. Just say it. You say it.

[ Man ] And action!

How do I look?

I can't see anything.

[ Whispering ] Are they out there?

This is my entrance.

Fuck!

[ Indistinct ]

[ Man ] I'm actually reading Richard III.

And I can't get on with it. I mean, I've been reading it for about six months.

You want to do it in Am-- with your American accent?

We're getting $40 a day and all the doughnuts we can eat on this project.

Shakespeare? What the fuck do you know about Shakespeare?

Arise, fair sir, and kill the envious moon!

Like eager droppings into milk, it doth posit and cur.

Some are born great, some achieve greatness,

and some have greatness thrust upon them.

[ Man ] Intelligence is spoke with language.

When we speak with no feeling, we get nothin' out of our society.

We should speak like Shakespeare.

We should introduce Shakespeare into the academic.

You know why? Because then the kids would have feelings.

[ Pacino ] That's right. We have no feeling.

That's why it's easy for us to get a gun and shoot each other.

We don't feel for each other. That's right.

But if we were taught to feel, we wouldn't be so violent and--

And you think that Shakespeare helps us with that?

He did more than help us. He instructed us.

Hi. Gonna see the play tonight?

Good to see you.

Hello. How are you?

How much it cost? It's for free.

Okay, I'll go. Okay.

Thanks a lot. It'll be your first Shakespeare play you've seen?

Yeah. It'll be interesting. Give it a try.

I saw Hamlet here recently. You saw Hamlet?

How did you feel about it? What, did you see it live? It sucked.

It's what? It sucked. I saw it live.

It sucked? Yeah.

Is there anything you can think of with Shakespeare...

that makes you think that it's not, like, close to you...

or connected to you in any way? Yeah, it's boring.

The Bank of England, the bank uses Shakespeare...

as its current bank card.

See, it's a hologram. They use it as I.D...

to prove it's a real card. I see. What do you think of Shakespeare?

He's a great export.

And who's movin' in on Shakespeare now? The Japanese!

'Cause they're kickin' the Americans' ass,

and they're all interested in Shakespeare all of the sudden.

You know Shakespeare? William Shakespeare?

We're peddling him on the streets.

I remember our English teacher sent us to see...

a local college production of King Lear.

I went with my girlfriend.

And after about 10 minutes of these people--

[ Mumbling Incoherently ] And they were doing this kind of Shakespearean acting,

and, um, I just tuned right out.

We just kind of made out in the back row and then left at the intermission.

I was brought up in a school...

where Shakespeare was taught in the first instance...

very kind of straightforwardly and dully, to be perfectly honest.

We'd read it aloud, and of course it made no sense to us,

'cause there was no kind of connection made.

My own experience...

was in the fields in Michigan when I was raised on a farm.

An uncle who was a northern guy-- a black northern guy--

came out to the field one day and started narrating Antony's speech--

the funeral oration.

From Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. Yeah.

We'd heard stuff in the Bible, but my first time as a kid,

I was hearing great words having great meaning, you know?

[ Man ] What has brought us to Montreal?

What has taken you to Paris?

What has taken you to London? What takes us into dungeons, to parapets--

To Japan next. Japan, maybe-- is a quest.

[ Pacino ] It has always been a dream of mine...

to communicate how I feel about Shakespeare to other people.

So I asked my friend Frederic Kimball,

who is an actor and a writer,

and also our colleagues Michael Hadge and James Bulleit to join me,

and by taking this one play, Richard III,

analyzing it, approaching it from different angles,

putting on costumes, playing out scenes,

we could communicate both our passion for it,

our understanding that we've come to,

and in doing that communicate a Shakespeare...

that is about how we feel and how we think today.

Now, that's the effort we're gonna give it here.

We've done Richard three times. Twice.

You did it once at the studio. We've done it in Boston, we have done it on Broadway.

At least the head start is that I've done it.

You've done it. But the problem though, Frederic, is--

The audience hasn't done it. That's who hasn't done it.

But the problem is this is a difficult play.

If someone were to ask you about the play Richard III, what would you remember?

Uh, to be honest,

I really don't remember that much, if anything at all.

Did you know that Richard III had a deformed arm and a deformed back?

No, I didn't know that. You didn't know that, did you?

The play, Richard III, about the guy with the humpback?

- No. - You got me there.

Mm-hmm. He was a humpback with one arm.

"A horse. A horse. My kingdom for a horse."

Remember that? Yes.

That comes from the king. It does, yes.

I mean, nobody knows who Richard III is. Nobody!

No wonder. It's a tough play to get.

The relationships between all those characters. Who can keep it straight?

I think we-- The question is, what is the understanding?

I mean, the understanding is simply,

can you follow the story line and the plot?

We've provided this kind of docudrama type thing...

to inform some of the scenes so you know where you are.

For instance, there's an early scene...

with the queen and her brother and her two sons...

which is outside in an anteroom...

waiting for the king to call them in, because the king is inside and he's sick.

The queen is worried because she's afraid the king is gonna die,

who is her husband.

And when he dies, the only--

the only people left to inherit the throne...

are her two young sons by the king himself.

She has two sons by a previous marriage, which are in the scene with her,

and she's afraid that...

the character I play, Richard III, Gloucester,

is going to take hold of the situation...

and, uh, somehow manipulate them into thinking...

that their, you know-- that their kids are--

I'm confused just saying it to you,

so I can imagine how you must feel hearing me talk.

It's very confusing. I don't know why we even bother doing this at all.

But, uh, we're gonna give it a little try.

Let's see what we can come up with.

First of all, let's get a smaller-- [ Kimball ] I think that--

Let's work out of a smaller book than this. This is hard to carry around.

Excuse me, but look at this. Hello? Uh, yes. It's my entrance?

Oh, I see. Uh--

It's good sometimes that you open it, and it is Richard.

It's not Hamlet.

Because sometimes in Shakespeare, there's a tendency...

to confuse the plays.

The first act is an act about a sick kid...

and about everybody maneuvering around. Sure.

I wish that this play...

could begin on the body--

on the sleeping king-- Edward IV, your brother-- in bed.

Yeah. And it pans up,

and you are standing over him looking at him.

Yeah.

Yes, but he's alive. The king is alive.

Yes, I'm alive. I would prefer--

I would prefer having him off in the distance. I'd like--

Good. You can watch him--

I'd like the walk-- Frederic, could you get the other--

Yeah. I'd like-- Hi. How are you?

[ Pacino ] So Frederic and I decided to go to the Cloisters,

a museum that has a medieval setting, which is very good for us.

Because the play Richard III takes place in this period,

we thought we might just rehearse the opening scene in this atmosphere.

We're shooting a-- I'll be with you in a minute.

If you could just wait for me out there.

So you're here. Okay. Okay.

And here we are. Okay.

Okay, now, you're Richard's brother, the sick king,

and I'm Richard.

Yes. I go this way. [ Groaning ]

You follow me.

Now--

How exciting to start a play with "Now."

Mmm! I mean, you'd wake your audience up, wouldn't you? "Now!"

Now...

is the winter of our discontent,

made glorious summer...

by this sun of York.

It's a pun. The sun of York...

is the sun in the sky over the English countryside of York.

York is also your family name,

and you are one of three sons of York.

Well, let me say it again then.

Now is the winter...

of our discontent,

made glorious summer--

[ Pacino ] I recently came out and said the opening speech...

from Richard to a group of students.

"Our discontent made glorious summer." Anybody know what that means?

Who were interested, 'cause I obviously meant something, didn't know what I meant.

"Now is the winter of our discontent." What am I saying?

He was referring to their part to the Wars of the Roses.

Before the play Richard III starts,

we gotta know a little bit about what happened before the play starts.

And what happened is, we've just been through a civil war...

called the War of the Roses,

in which the Lancasters and the Yorks...

clashed.

Two rival families, and the Yorks won.

They beat the Lancasters and they're now in power,

and Richard is a York.

My brother Edward is the king now.

And my brother Clarence is not the king,

and me, I'm not the king.

I wanna be the king. It's that simple.

The key word clearly...

right from the start is "discontent."

[ Pacino ] So Richard in the very opening scene of the play...

tells us just how badly...

he feels about the peacetime world he finds himself in...

and what he intends to do about it.

Now is the winter of our discontent...

made glorious summer...

by this sun of York.

And all the clouds that lour'd on our house...

in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

And part of the trouble is that...

the Wars of the Roses, the wars for the crown,

are now over because the crown has been won by the Yorks,

which means that they can stop fighting.

Now are our brows bound...

with victorious wreaths,

our bruised arms hung up for monuments,

our stern alarum changed to merry meetings.

What do they do when the fighting stops?

Grim-visag'd war...

hath smoothed his wrinkled front.

And now, instead of mounting barbed steeds...

to fright the souls of fearful adversaries,

he capers nimbly in a lady's chamber...

to the lascivious pleasings of a lute.

[ Woman ] And you see lovemaking...

and relations with the other gender...

as what you translate your male aggressions into.

But Richard III has a little problem here.

But I...

that am not shaped for sportive tricks,

nor made to court...

an amorous looking glass--

I, that am curtailed of this fair proportion,

cheated of feature by dissembling nature,

deformed-- deformed--

- He was a hunchback. - [ Pacino, Echoing ] Deformed.

Unfinished,

sent before my time into this breathing world scarce half made up,

and that so lamely and unfashionable...

that dogs bark at me as I halt by them.

Why I, in this weak piping time of peace,

have no delight to pass away the time...

unless to see my shadow in the sun...

and descant upon my own deformity.

Shakespeare has exaggerated his deformity...

in order to body forth dramatically, visually,

metaphorically...

the corruption of his mind.

Therefore,

since I cannot prove a lover to entertain these fair, well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain...

and to hate the idle pleasures of these days.

Richard's always saying,

"Look, here's the situation, and here's what I'm gonna do. Now, watch this."

And then he does it, and then they all leave. He says,

"Now, was that good or what? Did you see how I-- This is fun."

Plots have I laid,

inductions dangerous,

to set my brother Clarence and the king...

in deadly hate the one against the other.

And if King Edward be as true and just...

as I am subtle, false and treacherous,

this day should Clarence be mew'd up...

about a prophecy that says...

that "G" of Edward's heirs...

the murderer shall be.

It's, "This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up about a prophecy which says...

that 'G' of Edward's heirs--" Right.

By "G." What does that mean?

Yes? Uh, Clarence--

George, duke of Clarence. His first name is really George.

Whose first name? Clarence's.

And that's why they call him "G."

And I suggest that you just change it to "C."

"This day should Clarence closely be mew'd up about a prophecy...

"which says that...

'C' of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be."

"C" of Edward's heirs the murderer shall be.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul.

Here Clarence comes.

Cut!

See, what we gotta do-- What we should do...

is we should get actors in here.

We should-- Not audition them.

Just get them in and let them just sit around, you know?

And just see and read.

We'll have different people read different roles.

And hopefully somehow,

the role and the actor will merge.

The actor will find the role.

An actor will read one part. Another actor will read another.

And hopefully, the casting will get done.

[ Telephone Ringing ]

[ Pacino ] Who's got Dorset?

Who's got Dorset? How about Lord Grey?

Richard will read Dorset.

He's gonna be Buckingham. It'll come in a couple of pages. I thought you were doing it.

- No, he's doing Catesby. - What am I reading?

[ Man ] Dorset and Grey are the same people.

[ Pacino ] Dorset and Grey are-- Yes.

Well, you two guys better sit on each other then.

Stanley-- Stanley-- We used two actors in the same part.

It's gonna take us four weeks rehearsal...

just to figure out what parts we're playing, and that's--

In normal or modern plays or plays we have this feeling, we understand it.

It's there for us.

But in Shakespeare, you know, you have an entire company on the stage,

good actors, not knowing where they're going, where they are!

As Americans, what is that--

that thing that gets between us and Shakespeare...

that makes some of our best actors...

sort of just stop when it comes to Shakespeare?

The problem with being an American in Shakespeare is you approach it reverentially.

We shouldn't, but we do, and we have a feeling, I think,

of inferiority to the way it has been done by the British.

I think Americans...

have been made to feel inhibited.

Because they've been told so long...

by their critics, by their scholars,

by all the commentators in Shakespeare that they cannot do Shakespeare.

Therefore, they've got it into their head that they can't.

And you become totally self-conscious.

And I think the great thing about American actors is that they're not self-conscious.

But they are when it comes to Shakespeare,

because they've been told they can't do it,

and very foolishly they believe that.

Perhaps they don't go to picture galleries...

and read books as much as we do,

because I think it's the fact of...

how everybody looked and behaved...

that one got this sort of Elizabethan feeling of period.

Experienced classical actors...

have a few things that they can use at a moment's notice.

The understanding of iambic pentameter, for one thing.

[ Pacino ] Everybody says all the time,

"Iambic pentameter. Shakespeare-- iambic pentameter."

What is that supposed to mean? Hi.

Some people say there are no rules.

I would say there are certain rules, like the iambic pentameter,

that have to be learned and then can be rejected once you've learned them.

When they say "pentameter,"

they mean "meter," and "pen" meaning "five," so there's five beats.

Which, at its worst, sounds only like--

"Why so... now have... I done... a good... day's work."

Da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da.

And "iambic" is where the accent goes.

It's da-dum, da-dum, da-dum, da-dum.

And five of them-- da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da, da-da--

make a pentameter line.

Five iams. The iam is like...

a-- an anteater.

He's very high in the back, and very short, little front legs. Da-da!

Shakespeare's poetry...

and his iambics...

floated and descended through the pentameter of the soul.

And it's the soul-- if we like, the spirit--

of real, concrete people going through hell...

and sometimes moments of great...

achievement and joy.

That is the pentameter you have to concentrate on.

And should you find that reality,

all the iambics will fall into place.

Dive, thoughts, down to my soul.

Here Clarence comes.

Brother, good day.

What means this armed guard that waits upon your grace?

His Majesty, tendering my personal safety, hath appointed this conduct...

to convey me to the tower.

- Upon what cause? - Because my name is George.

Clarence.

What is the matter, may I know?

Yea, Richard, as I know, but I protest as yet I do not.

But as I can learn,

he harkens after prophecies and dreams,

and from the cross row plucks the letter "G"...

[ No Audible Dialogue ] and says a wizard told him...

that by "G," his children disinherited should be.

And for my name of George begins with "G,"

it follows in his thought that I am he.

These, as I learn...

and such like toys as these,

hath moved His Highness to commit me now.

Why so it is when men are ruled by women.

'Tis not the king that sentenced you to the tower, Clarence.

'Tis Milady Grey, his wife.

'Tis she that tempts him to this extremity.

We are not safe, Clarence. We are not safe.

[ Pacino ] Now if Richard's brother Edward was king, right,

and then he dies,

Clarence, his other brother, is next in line, right?

No, the kids were next in line.

And after the king's kids came Clarence.

[ Pacino ] So Richard figured, "Let me get rid of Clarence,

and then I'll work out how I get rid of the kids."

Meantime, this deep disgrace...

in brotherhood touches me...

deeper than you can imagine.

I know it pleaseth neither of us well.

Your imprisonment shall not be long.

I will deliver you, else lie for you.

Meantime, have patience. [ Man ] It's time, my lord.

I must perforce. You must.

Farewell. [ Pacino ] Well, it looks like Richard's plan...

is really starting to work now.

He's gotten the king to put Clarence in the tower...

by poisoning the king's mind against him.

So now, he's got one brother locked up,

the other brother who's king is sick.

So he's in pretty good shape now.

I mean, he can move around. He can maneuver. He's got room.

[ Richard ] Go...

tread the path thou shalt never return.

Simple, plain Clarence,

I do love thee so...

that I shall shortly send thy soul to heaven.

[ Man ] Prisoner approaching.

[ Door Slams Shut ]

Who is this? The new-delivered Hastings.

Ah! Good time of day unto my gracious lord.

As much is unto my good Lord Hastings.

Well, are you welcome to this open air?

How hath your lordship brook'd imprisonment?

With patience, noble lord, as prisoners must.

It's interesting because you can do something from Shakespeare...

that you're feeling it or whatever you're doing, or you love it,

and you think you're communicating it,

and the person you've just said it to has not understood a word you've said,

and you can't believe that they didn't get it.

"Thou stand--" You know, just the things-- the way it's worded,

sometimes that confuses...

the people of, you know, this time period.

Shakespeare used a lot of fancy words.

You know, it's hard to understand-- to grasp those words.

Excuse me. They're not fancy words. That's where we are confused.

I think putting them-- They're poetry, though.

It's hard to grab hold of some rap slang too.

But it's hard to get hold of it until your ear gets tuned. You have to tune up.

In a contemporary play, somebody would say,

"Hey, you, go over there, get that thing and bring it back to me."

That would be the line. Shakespeare says it,

"Be Mercury. Set feathers to thy heels...

and fly like thought from them to me again."

The king is weak and sickly,

and his physicians fear him mightily.

Oh, by Saint John, that news is bad indeed.

O, he hath kept an evil diet long.

You shouldn't have to understand every single word that's said.

Why? Do you understand every-- I mean, it's just not important. That's true.

It doesn't matter. As long as you get the gist of what's going on, trust it.

You'll get it.

If he were dead, what would betide on me?

No other harm but loss of such a lord.

The loss of such a lord...

includes all harms.

[ Kimball ] They're trying to soothe her because she is an hysteric.

They've got a lady here who is way out of control.

But that's about what weakened a great deal-- the underlying reality--

No, I think it strengthens the incompetence of--

But why should they be incompetent?

Why? Why make them weaker?

Because they went to Ludlow with little training,

and got their heads cut off.

Because then, it's no great deed on his part if you make them weak.

[ Pacino ] They're not weak. I don't think that they're weak,

nor do I think that they're stupid.

And by diminishing their importance, you diminish his actions.

- It's bound to happen. - I think that it's a very human, familial thing to say,

"Calm down. It's going to be all right."

But I think underneath it that they know what the scoop is,

and I keep throwing back at them,

"Stop! You know damn well what's going on."

And that's why I'm hysterical. You know it.

If he dies, that's it.

[ Pacino ] Let's start the scene. Let's do it.

Have patience, madam. There's no doubt...

His Majesty will soon recover his accustomed health.

In that you brook it ill, it makes him worse.

Therefore, for God's sake, entertain good comfort...

and cheer his grace with quick and merry eye.

And that's the way you want me to behave? Is that it?

If he were dead, what would betide on me?

No other harm, Mother, but loss of such a lord.

The loss of such a lord...

includes all harm.

The heavens have blessed you with a goodly son...

to be your comforter when he is gone.

Ah, he is young!

His minority is put into the trust...

of Richard Gloucester.

'Tis a man that loves not me,

nor none of you!

We gotta come up with ideas, ways in, direction. We need a plan.

We've gotta start writing prefaces,

or like a little-- Right.

"Today, we're gonna do these scenes, but I want you to talk about Lady Anne...

and what happens with Lady Anne."

How are you? How you doin'?

Yeah, if you like. How do you feel about Shakespeare?

He feels good.

[ Speaking Italian ]

[ Both Speaking Italian ]

Shakespeare. William Shakespeare. William Shakespeare, right.

You like him? Of course I like him.

Tell me about it. Did you ever see Shakespeare?

I never studied. You've never seen him?

You've never seen a show? But you still like him?

Well, sometime I see something good in theater.

On TV? But Shakespeare, you don't see it much?

Not much. That's too bad.

Because there's no Shakespeare on TV.

No, no. Perfectly fine. Sometimes, it comes on.

But to be or not to be, that is the question, right?

Right. That is the question.

[ Richard ] They do me wrong, and I will not endure it!

I fear our happiness is at its height.

[ Richard ] Who is it that complains unto the king...

that I, forsooth, am stern and love them not?

Because I cannot flatter? Look fair?

Smile in men's faces?

Deceive? Cog?

Duck with French nods and apish courtesy?

I must be held a rancorous enemy.

[ Pacino ] The world that they live in,

the world that they exist in...

is privy to these kinds of--

Is internecine family quarrel.

That's right. They are clawing at each other for the throne.

Brother Gloucester,

we know your meaning.

- You envy my advancement and my friends. - Ah!

God grant...

we may never have need of you.

Meantime, God grants that I have need of you.

Our brother is imprisoned by your means.

Myself disgraced, the nobility of the house held in contempt,

while great promotions are daily given to ennoble those...

that scarce some two days since were worth a noble!

By him that raised me...

to this careful height...

from that contented hap which I enjoyed,

I never did incense His Majesty against the duke of Clarence!

What, you're gonna say to me now you are not the mean...

of my Lord Hastings late imprisonment?

[ Pacino ] You see what Richard is doing here? He's stirring the pot.

The king is dying, and because of that...

he's fearful and paranoid and sending people off left and right to jail.

Now, this is a situation Richard loves,

because he can use the fear, the general turmoil, to his advantage.

He knows these people hate each other, and he's gonna use their hatred to manipulate them.

You know, to divide, then conquer.

My lord of Gloucester, I have too long borne...

these blunt upbraidings and these bitter scoffs.

By heaven, I will acquaint His Majesty of these gross taunts.

Why, I would rather be a country servant-maid-- What?

Threat you me with telling of the king?

Tell him, and spare not!

Oh, let me put it in your minds if you forget...

what you are ere this, and what you are.

Withal what I have been, and what I am.

A murderous villain, and so still thou art.

[ Pacino ] Well, it is a complicated play too because--

And all those relationships and the wives...

and the Queen Margaret stuff is difficult.

Hear me, you wrangling pirates...

that fall out in sharing that which you have pill'd from me!

[ Pacino ] Margaret. Now, Margaret was the queen before the civil war took place.

She was a Lancaster, and she was dethroned by the Yorks.

Well, she's kind of a ghost of the past...

who haunts the Yorks with her curses.

A husband and a son--

Don't you think she rants and raves around the castle like this a lot?

No. I don't think so.

I think she just comes in this day,

because it's a crisis time and she feels it.

Give way, dull clouds, to my quick curses.

It's primordial, I think.

She brings that kind of music into this experience.

Poor, painted queen.

The day will come that thou shalt wish for me...

to help thee curse this poisonous bunch-backed toad.

[ Woman ] Reading this play as I take word by word,

everything she says happens.

Beware of yonder dog. Have not to do with him.

Beware of him. Sin, death and hell have set their marks on him,

and all their messengers are wait on him.

[ Richard ] Oh, thou hateful, withered hag have done thy charm.

And leave out thee? Stay, dog,

for thou shalt hear me.

The worm of conscience still be-knaw thy soul.

Thou elfish-marked,

abortive, rooting hog.

Live each of you...

the subject to his hate.

And he to yours, and all of you to God's!

We don't say a word. We let her go.

[ Woman ] The music. Literally, I mean, the music...

and the thoughts and the concepts...

and the feelings have not been divorced from the words.

And in England, you've had centuries in which...

word has been totally divorced from truth,

and that's a problem for us actors.

If we think words and things and we have no feelings in our words,

then we say things to each other that don't mean anything.

But if we felt what we said, we'd say less and mean more.

Spare some change?

It'd be interesting to see where he, uh--

Is that possible? Where Shakespeare was born?

I think that's Shakespeare up there in the window there.

Knock first. Knock, Frederic.

[ Pacino ] Ah. Hello. Okay.

Frederic, you've-- Where was William Shakespeare born?

There's the bed of birth.

[ Frederic ] You gotta be kidding.

[ Pacino ] Well, I wouldn't kid you about a thing like that, Fred.

It's too late.

Well-- It's a very, very small bed.

I was expecting to have an epiphany--

an outpouring of the soul upon seeing--

Well, why don't you go out and come back again.

If you're really an actor, you can come back and have an epiphany.

I did, only-- Did you have an epiphany?

But I'm not showing it. I'm not showing it.

[ Siren Wailing ] No, it's an inner one. We're not alone, you know.

Every once in a while-- There's a fire truck out there.

it seems worthwhile to pause and think... We tripped some alarm.

about what brought us to where we are.

You talk too loud, and I think it set off an alarm.

[ Man ] I've got the fire officer in here.

I think we've upset a fire--

There's a fireman. Uh-huh. Hello.

Unfortunately, the sensor head is here.

There. That's going to be the problem.

Yeah. What is it? Is it--

That's a real bummer. We come 6,000 miles to see where Shakespeare was born--

[ Woman ] It's the greatest period in British arts, you know.

This extraordinary development and maturing and depth of drama.

In 20 years Shakespeare's over, and you've got the greatest drama we've got.

And Shakespeare learns incredibly fast,

and already in this very early play...

he's thinking about human beings as actors and about the stage...

and the imagination as a bit of life.

Hey, Jimmy?

How's the sandwich?

What we're saying is that we're gonna bite the bullet...

and gonna do act two of the play.

No, no, no. What we said was we're gonna shoot the death of Richard,

the murder of Clarence, and that's it.

No, the king makes peace-- What are you saying, Mike?

We got the end of a movie to shoot.

"A horse, a horse. My kingdom for a horse."

Hey, fellas, the cops are here. The police say we need a permit. What do you mean?

What, I need a permit? Why do I need a permit?

- Talk to Louie. - We have to give up a meal like this.

You have to go, guys. You have to go. I'm not leaving.

Hope you like turkey.

[ Laughing ] So we are gonna gather...

a young-- a young Lady Anne--

Well, I wanna cast somebody very young.

Very young. How young?

As young as you can get and be able to do Shakespeare and understand the scenes.

Someone young enough to believe... in Richard's rap.

The only problem is, we have to find someone...

who's gonna be able to speak the part,

which is part of the reason you always have an older actress.

Well, you know, we don't have to have-- It takes maturity.

The problem of projecting the role won't be there,

because it's a film.

So we won't have the need for the actor to project.

That's right. So we need a film actress.

Great. Great.

Someone like, uh--

We'll think of someone.

Well--

[ Richard ] I will marry the beautiful Lady Anne.

What, though I killed...

her husband and his father?

The readiest way to make the wench amends...

is to become her husband and her father.

[ Man ] This language is the language of thoughts.

In a theater, to do this you have to speak loud,

and there are very few actors who can speak loud...

and still be truthful.

That's the actor's problem. Every actor knows...

that the quieter he speaks, the closer he can be to himself.

Now, when you play Shakespeare...

in close-up in a film...

and have a mike and can really speak the verse as quietly as this,

you're not going against the nature of verse.

You're going in the right direction,

because you're really allowing the verse...

to be a man speaking his inner world.

[ Chuckling ]

Set down, set down your honorable load.

If honor may be shrouded in a hearse--

[ Richard ] Was ever woman in this humor woo'd?

Was ever woman in this humor won?

- I'll have her. - I'll have her.

But I will not keep her long.

He says he'll have her, but he will not keep her long. Okay.

What are you asking? Why does he want her?

Well, I think it's clear. He's out to get this girl.

To take her...

in her heart's extremist hate.

[ Spits ] [ Groans ]

He's killed her husband in the civil war.

Tears in her eyes!

And murdered her father-in-law.

The bleeding witness of my hatred by.

- He's out to get her. - To win her!

Hot.

[ Sniffles ] I pour the helpless balm of my poor eyes.

Her mourning is genuine, because she loved him.

[ Kimball ] She goes out on the street, and is it an accident that she meets Richard--

the man who killed this man and her husband?

Is it not possible that...

she not have any idea that if she went out with a corpse...

making frequent stops--

Does anybody have a better thing than Frederic on this?

You just said that you were-- that we didn't answer the question--

what was motivating-- [ Pacino ] Did that upset you?

[ Ryder Laughs ] No, you-- No. Then what did you say?

You said that you were gonna find a scholar from somewhere...

who was gonna speak directly into the camera and explain...

what really went down with Richard and Anne. Oh, yeah.

And I am telling you that that is absolutely ridiculous--

that you know more about Richard III...

Oh, Fred. than any fucking scholar at Columbia or Harvard!

Fred. This is ridiculous,

because you're making this entire documentary...

in order to show that actors truly are the possession.

They're the possessors of a tradition--

the proud inheritors of the understanding of Shakespeare, for Christ sake!

And then you turn around and say,

"I'm gonna go get a scholar to explain it to you."

This is ridiculous! I hereby knight you, Frederic--

Ph.D. Ph.D. of the realm.

Oh, God! Ridiculous!

No, but the point is this, Frederic. Listen to me. Yeah, yeah.

A person has an opinion. It's only an opinion. Right. It's only an opinion.

It's never a question of someone being right or wrong. There's no right or wrong.

It's an opinion, and a scholar has a right to an opinion as any of us.

Wouldn't you say? But why does he get to speak directly to the camera?

[ Laughter ] Oh, that.

I don't really know why he needed to marry her historically.

I simply don't know.

Um, it's--

[ Richard ] Stay, you that bear the corse.

Set it down. Villains, set down the corse,

or by Saint Paul, I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.

My lord, stand back and let the coffin pass.

Unmannered dog, stand thou while I command!

Advance thy halberd higher than my breast,

or by Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot!

Spurn upon thee, beggar, for thy boldness.

[ Pacino ] Now, Richard needs Anne...

because he wants to be king, right?

So he needs a queen. Now, Lady Anne is perfect for the job.

Also, she needs protection.

She needs protection because she was on the losing side of the War of the Roses.

She's young. She has no husband. Basically, she has no future.

Now, for Richard, she's someone who would represent the other side--

the Lancasters-- coming on over to his side.

It would say to the public that Lady Anne has forgiven him for murdering her husband,

and therefore exonerating him from his crime.

And thou unfit for any place but hell.

Yes, one place else,

if you'll hear me name it.

Some dungeon.

Your bedchamber.

[ Scoffs ]

[ Spits ] [ Groans ]

I'll have her.

Gentle Lady Anne, to leave this keen encounter of our wits...

and to fall something into a slower method.

Was not the causer of the timeless deaths...

of these two men, Henry and Edward,

as blameful as the executioner?

Thou was the cause and the accursed affect.

Thy beauty was the cause...

of that affect.

Thy beauty...

that did haunt me in my sleep...

to undertake the death of all the world...

that I might live one hour in your sweet bosom.

Teach not thy lip such scorn.

It was made for kissing, Lady,

not for such contempt.

[ Groans ]

If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive,

lo here-- here.

I lend thee this sharp-pointed dagger.

If thou wish to hide in this pure breast...

and let forth the soul that adoreth thee,

I lay it naked to the deadly stroke,

and I humbly beg the death upon my knee.

And do not pause,

for I did kill King Henry,

but 'twas thy beauty that provoked me.

Nay, now dispatch, 'twas I stabbed Edward,

but 'twas thy heavenly face that set me on.

Take up the sword again, or take up me.

Though I wish thy death, I will not be thy executioner.

Bid me kill myself. I'll do it. I have already.

That was in thy rage.

Speak it again,

and even with the word,

this hand,

which for thy love did kill thy love,

will for thy love kill a far truer love.

I would I knew thy heart.

My heart is figured in my tongue.

Well, put up your sword.

Say, then, my peace is made.

That shalt thou know hereafter.

[ Drops Dagger ]

Shall I live in hope? All men, I hope, live so.

Vouchsafe to wear this ring.

To take is not to give.

Look how my ring encompasseth thy finger.

Even so...

thy breast encloseth my poor heart,

wear both of them,

for both of them are thine.

Leave these sad designs...

to him that hath most cause to be a mourner.

With all of my heart.

And much it joys me too to see you have become so penitent.

Ha!

Tressel and Berkeley, go along with me.

Bid me farewell.

Since you teach me how to flatter you,

imagine that I will say farewell again.

[ Richard ] Was ever woman...

in this humor... woo'd?

Was ever woman in this humor won?

[ Sighs ]

I'll have her.

[ Sinister Laughter ]

But I will not keep her long.

We're never gonna finish this movie.

It's organic. It's got to be what is it.

How much more are we gonna shoot? It's becoming a movie about a play.

We're making a documentary about making Shakespeare a little bit more accessible to people.

Those people out there, the people on the street,

they're not gonna get Richard III.

I can't even get Richard III. It's too complicated.

Michael, why is it Shakespeare's most popular play?

Why is it performed more than any other play by Shakespeare?

I didn't get that last thing you said. Who said it's the most popular?

It is. It is. It's performed more than Hamlet. So what?

I run before my horse to market.

Clarence still lives and breathes.

Edward still reigns.

When they are gone,

then must I count my gains.

[ Richard ] But soft, here come my executioners.

Are you going to dispatch this thing?

We are, my lord, and come to have the warrant...

that we may be admitted to where he is.

Well thought upon. I have it here about me.

But, sirs, be sudden in your execution.

Do not hear him plead,

for Clarence is well-spoken and may move your hearts to pity if you mark him.

Be assured, we go to use our hands, not our tongues.

I like you, lads. About your business straight.

We will, my noble lord.

Go, go. Dispatch.

Here's a place for the Clarence scene.

Just get Clarence very tight in here.

You have all of the dead pigeon feathers...

and the grotto and the texture...

of the wall.

Just imagine that you're pushed in.

It doesn't work. It just doesn't work.

It's not just the pigeon stuff. It doesn't work. It has no sense of--

What are you-- When do we-- No enclosure.

Frederic, it's pointless.

Frederic, you need something that looks like a--

a place where, uh, Clarence would be held prisoner.

Yeah. It's gotta be-- It's a prison.

Aha! See the tower?

It's going to be in the chamber...

where the-- where the bell-ringing unit is.

Oh, my God! It's a really beautiful space.

And it's got this shaft of white light coming down from the top.

This would replace that. This is nice. Nice light.

You would stab him as he sleeps?

No. He'll say it was done cowardly when he wakes.

He shall never wake until the great judgment day.

Faith, some certain dregs of conscience are yet within me.

Remember our reward when the deed is done.

Come he die.

Where's that conscience now? In the Duke of Gloucester's purse.

When he opens his purse to give us thy reward, thy conscience flies out.

'Tis no matter. Let it go. There's few or none will entertain it.

What if it come to thee again?

I'll not meddle with it. It makes a man a coward.

A man cannot steal, but it accuseth him.

A man cannot lie, but it checks him.

A man cannot lie with his neighbor's wife, but it detects him.

And any man that means to live well...

endeavors to trust to himself...

and live without it.

Come. Shall we fall to work?

[ Pacino ] Now, while this horror is going on with Clarence,

his brother, the king, is in one of the rooms in the castle...

trying to make peace with everybody.

[ Kimball ] They have all been summoned for the atonement meeting.

That is why everybody is in the castle...

making peace.

The king's family...

are in incredible conflict.

He dares not die until he knows that they aren't going...

to pull the whole thing apart as soon as he's dead.

I every day expect an embassage from my redeemer to redeem me hence.

[ Pacino ] You see, the king really wants this peace to happen,

because he wants to make sure that after he's gone,

his two children will continue the reign.

He and his wife must hope...

that they will.

We know that you have another agenda.

Strike!

No. We'll reason with him first.

Where art thou, keeper? Give me a cup of wine.

You shall have wine enough, my lord, anon.

In God's name, what art thou?

A man, as you are.

- But not as I am royal. - Nor you as we are loyal.

Who sent you hither? Wherefore do you come?

To--

To--

- To murder me? - Aye. - Aye.

Wherein, my friends, have I offended you?

Offended us you have not, but the king.

I shall be reconciled to him again.

Never, my lord. Therefore,

prepare to die.

Hastings, Rivers,

take each other's hand.

Dissemble not your hatred.

Swear your love.

So prosper I,

as I swear perfect love.

And so swear I.

Madam, yourself is not exempt from this.

Wife of Lord Hastings,

let him kiss your hand.

There, Hastings.

I nevermore shall remember our former hatred,

so thrive I and mine.

[ Woman ] Do they really believe all this?

Do they really believe all this when you say, "Take their hand"?

[ Pacino ] It's a vow-- [ Kimball ] A solemn vow.

It's a solemn vow. In this time, that was a very solemn thing.

I mean, only people who wanna go to hell...

were willing to make vows and not keep 'em.

If you are hired for meed,

then go back again and I will send you to my brother Richard,

who shall reward you better for my life...

than Edward will for tidings of my death.

You deceive yourself.

'Tis he that sends us to destroy you here.

It cannot be,

for he bewept my fortune...

and swore with sobs that he would labor my delivery.

And so he doth...

when he delivers you from this earth's thraldom to the joys of heaven.

[ Murderer #2 ] Make peace with God,

for you must die, my lord.

Have you that holy feeling in your soul...

to counsel me to make my peace with God?

And are you yet to your own souls so blind...

that you would war with God by murdering me?

O, sirs, consider those...

that set you on to do this deed...

will hate you for the deed.

What should we do?

Relent,

and save your souls.

Relent? No! 'Tis cowardly and womanish!

Not to relent is prudish,

savage, devilish.

My friend, I spy some pity in thy looks.

Oh, if thine eye be not a flatterer, come thou on my side...

and entreat for me as you would beg were you in my distress.

A begging prince what beggar pities not?

Look behind you, my lord.

Is Clarence dead? [ Queen Elizabeth ] Oh, no.

The order was reversed?

But he, poor man, by your first order died.

[ King Edward ] Have I a tongue to doom my brother's death?

My brother killed no man.

His fault was thought.

And yet his punishment was bitter death.

Who sued to me for him?

Who kneeled at my feet and in my wrath...

bid me be advised?

Who spoke of brotherhood? Who spoke of love?

The proudest of you all have been beholding to him in his life.

Yet not one of you...

would once beg for his life.

O God, I fear thy justice will take hold on me...

and you and mine and yours for this!

Come, Hastings. Help me to my closet.

[ People Chattering ]

[ Woman ] What is it in theater? Why do we wanna do theater?

We wanna do theater because of that personal presence.

West Germany gave a billion dollars a year-- a billion-- to the arts.

I gave up a TV movie in France to do Richard III in Milwaukee.

[ Grunting ] I talked to my teacher and he said, "You will benefit."

Kevin Costner did that TV show.

You lost out. Look at the career Kevin has had.

He's afraid to do Shakespeare. He's not. He's in the other room practicing.

[ Groaning ]

The "Anointed" Shakespeare.

[ Woman ] Annotated. Annotated, yeah.

It's got beautiful pictures.

It's got beautiful pictures.

That's what I like about Shakespeare-- the pictures. I love the pictures.

** [ Choir Singing Indistinctly ]

He's dead. Okay.

Okay.

Well, what are we gonna do? Uh--

I like it.

What next? What do you mean you like it?

[ Man ] What time is it? 3:30.

What are they doing? Do you know?

Freddy said something about burying the king.

Is that in the play?

[ Woman Sobbing ]

[ Pacino ] Well, here it goes now. This is it.

[ Kimball ] This is the crutch. Now we could say...

Richard is the most powerful man at this point,

uh, alive.

All of us have cause to wail the dimming of our shining star.

The crisis is are they going to live...

by the words that they spoke to the king, or are they not?

Is the peace going to hold?

I hope the king made peace with all of us,

and that compact is firm and true in me.

- And so in me. - And so say I.

Then go we to determine who they shall be that straight shall post to Ludlow.

Who is going to go to Ludlow...

to get the young prince and bring him back to the king?

Who's gonna do it?

And Buckingham says, whoever does do it,

we go along too.

[ Buckingham ] Whoever journeys to the prince, for God's sake, let not us two stay at home.

[ Spacey ] Buckingham decides politically to align himself with Richard.

And he does everything in the world for him in order to help him.

Obviously, you know, wanting to help himself.

When I am king,

claim thou of me the earldom of Hereford...

and to all the moveables where the king, my brother, was possess'd.

[ Spacey ] Buckingham is sort of like the secretary of state.

This guy who went off like these guys who did the Iran-Contra stuff...

and did all the dirty work and propped up the king.

Well, without Buckingham, there is no Richard as king.

That's right. He couldn't do it alone. Mm-hmm.

But, you know, then they never can.

Shakespeare saw Richard Gloucester and Buckingham as gangsters. They were thugs.

High-class, upper-class thugs.

There's been no influence here, has there? No influence.

What is thy news?

- Lord Rivers and Lord Grey are sent to Pomfret. - [ Gasps ]

And with them Sir Thomas Vaughan.

Prisoners.

Who hath committed them? The mighty dukes, Gloucester and Buckingham!

You're a pretty smart guy.

I can see it. I see the ruin of my house.

Insulting tyranny begins to jut upon the innocent and aweless throne.

I can see it...

as in a map-- the end of all.

[ Pacino ] Now what's happened here is you see Richard and Buckingham...

have betrayed everybody, right?

They lied. They went to Ludlow to pick up this prince.

And they were supposed to be peaceful with everybody.

What they did is they forced him out from under his uncle's arms.

And they've stolen this kid. [ Kimball ] They're bringing him back.

And what they have really got there is the throne of England in their arms.

They got the future. They got it.

* He's got the whole world in his hands *

[ Together ] * He's got the whole wide world in his hands *

* He's got the whole world in his hands *

* He's got the whole world in his hands *

* He's got you and me brother * * In his hands *

* He's got you and me sister * * In his hands **

Welcome... to London.

We're now having the first opportunity since the 1640s...

to actually get a feel of what Shakespeare's Globe Theater was like.

This is the very theater where Shakespeare wrote his plays,

where Shakespeare acted-- the theater that Shakespeare owned.

So this is the, uh-- this is the spot?

You say if you stand in the middle of it, what happens?

It's like a sounding board. It's like a resonating chamber.

You can hear how wonderful the acoustics are. I hear it already.

[ Pacino ] Now is the winter of our discontent...

made glorious summer...

by this sun of York,

and all the clouds that lour'd on our house...

in the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Hi. You working on this thing here? Yes, I am.

I've been recording it since 1980.

You've been recording this since 1980? Yeah.

The whole shebang. Really?

Yes. And who is this young man?

This is the son of one of the builders.

[ Richard ] Welcome, sweet prince, to London.

My thoughts sovereign.

The weary way hath made you melancholy.

- I want more uncles here to welcome me. - Sweet prince.

Those uncles which you want were dangerous.

Your grace attended to their sugared words,

but looked not on the poison of their hearts.

God keep you from such false friends.

God keep me from false friends, but they were none.

Oh, the mayor of London comes to greet you.

[ Pacino ] Okay. Now they got the kids.

They got the young prince who's gonna be king, they got his brother.

[ Kimball ] Uncle Richard has one big happy family. Yeah. Somebody's gotta go.

My lord, will it please you pass along myself and my good cousin Buckingham...

will to your mother to entreat her to come and welcome you at the tower?

What, will you go unto the tower, my lord?

What should you fear at the tower? Nothing.

[ Pacino ] Why has Richard put them in the tower?

Because he is going to kill them.

See, in the tower is where they execute. They chop people's heads off.

But there's a lot of rooms up there.

So it can also go for meetings and different places like that.

But there is one specific spot up there where they--

where they--

they do, you know-- do the thing.

The one person who is in line is a child.

What a wonderful opportunity for all of us to get what we want.

Sure. Of course.

In fact, I'll basically be running the country--

[ Pacino ] Now one person's standing in their way.

That's Lord Hastings.

Hastings loves this kid, the prince.

And he really wants him to be the next king.

Even though the kid's in the tower right now, he believes he will be.

[ Kimball ] He's tough. He's a tough guy.

He was the former king's closest friend.

They even shared the same mistress-- Mistress Shore.

Who is Mistress Shore? She's Shakespeare's device...

to connect Hastings and the king together.

They share the same woman. Good idea.

Hastings is really a great threat to Richard and Buckingham.

He can stop them, so they have to stop him. Yep.

What shall we do...

if we perceive Lord Hastings will not yield to our complots?

Chop off his head.

[ Conway ] What are you talking about? Richard?

You mean Richard wear the crown?

I think it's the only way.

[ Bryggman ] Think about it. Let me tell you something.

I'll have this crown-- this crown--

ripped off and shoved into a cow's belly...

before I would allow that scum... [ Laughing ]

to defile the crown by putting it on his head.

[ Man ] The text is a means of expressing what's behind the text.

So that if you get obsessed with the text--

This is a great barrier to American actors...

who get obsessed with the British way of regarding a text.

That isn't what matters. What matters is that you have to,

one way or the other, penetrate into what at every moment it's about.

So at this point, Hastings does not...

take the threat of Richard seriously?

[ Kimball ] Absolutely not.

Anything can go on. You really think that this guy--

[ Pacino ] So now we got Stanley-- Lord Stanley--

He's a close friend of Hastings and he's trying to convince Hastings...

that they should both get out of the country...

because Richard is planning some kind of takeover, some treachery,

and it's gonna happen at the council meeting which has been set up...

to pick a date of coronation for the young prince.

Now, my noble lords, the cause why we are met...

is to determine of the coronation.

In God's name, speak. When is the royal day?

Is all things ready for the royal time?

It is, and wants but nomination.

But tomorrow then I judge a happy day.

Tomorrow has been prepared as a great, great feast day of coronation...

and requires only that we at this table say yes.

[ Kimball ] Now we think that we have been brought together in this room...

just to rubber stamp the little prince.

[ Pacino ] It's a fait accompli. The young prince is gonna be king.

They're just there to decide the date of the crowning.

[ Buckingham ] Who knows Richard's mind in all of this?

Who is most inward with the noble duke?

On the duke's behalf, I'll give my voice,

which I presume he'll take in gentle part.

In happy time, here comes the gentle duke.

My noble lords and cousins all, good morrow.

I have been long a sleeper, but I trust...

my absence doth neglect no great design which by my presence might have been concluded.

Had you not come upon your cue, my lord, William Lord Hastings...

had pronounced your part.

I mean, your voice...

for crowning of the king.

Then no man might be bolder. His lordship knows me well and loves me well.

My lord of Ely,

when last I was in Holborn, I saw good strawberries in your garden there.

I do beseech you, send for some of them.

[ Bishop Of Ely ] Marry and will, my lord, with all my heart.

Cousin of Buckingham, a word with you.

[ Conway ] You remember we talked the other day about...

a gathering of dons, in a way.

There's a lot of suspicion in this room.

I think there's a slight danger to be in this room.

All of us in one spot. It's like somebody says, "Wait in this room. I'll be back."

Or, "Wait in this room."

And it's been like, "What's going on?"

[ Pacino ] See, what's going on is simple. They have to cut out Hastings.

Get rid of him. And Richard is the only man around who has the power to do it.

He's royal. He's a York. Only he's gotta move fast because this is his last chance...

to stop Hastings from making the young prince king.

[ Kimball ] They're going to suck in Hastings by using his mistress Shore as bait.

Provoke him to say the wrong thing, and nail him.

[ Pacino ] Then everyone in the room is gonna have to make a choice--

either Richard or Hastings.

Where is my lord, the duke of Gloucester? I've sent for these strawberries.

His grace looks cheerfully and smooth this morning.

There's some conceit or other likes him well...

with that he bids good morrow with such spirit.

I think there was never a man in Christendom could less or hide...

his love or hate than he.

For by his face, straight shall you know his heart.

What of his heart perceive you in his face by any livelihood he showed today?

Marry, that with no man here he is offended.

For if he were, you would have seen it in his looks.

I pray you all,

tell me what they deserve...

that do conspire my death...

with devilish plots...

of damned witchcraft...

and that have prevailed upon my body...

with their hellish charms?

The tender love, I bear your grace, my lord,

makes me most forward in this princely presence...

to doom the offenders whosoe'er they be.

I say, my lord, they have deserved death.

Then be your eyes...

the witness of their evil.

Look...

how I am bewitched.

Behold mine arm...

like a blasted sapling withered up.

And this is Edward's wife,

that monstrous witch, consorted with the harlot...

strumpet Shore...

that by their witchcraft...

thus have marked me.

- If they have done this deed-- - [ Shouting ] "If"?

"If"?

Thou protector of this damned strumpet!

Talks not to me of "ifs"!

Off with his head.

- [ Gasps ] - Now by Saint Paul,

I swear I will not dine till I see the same!

Lovel and Ratcliff, look that it be done.

The rest that loved me, rise and follow me!

No.

Stanley.

Stanley.

Stanley.

Woe for England.

Not a whit for me.

For I, too fond, might have prevented this.

Come, dispatch. 'Tis bootless to exclaim.

Bloody Richard!

[ Pacino ] He was the one fly in the ointment, Hastings.

So now the path is clear for Buckingham and Richard.

They got the inner circle. All the dukes and earls,

they managed to intimidate them.

So now, all that's left is winning the people.

[ Spacey ] Every time there's an election in this country,

whether it's for mayor or whether it's for president or city council,

it's always the fact the people are tired of the way it's been and they just want a change.

How now! How now! What say the citizens?

Now by the holy mother of our Lord, the citizens are mum.

[ Spacey ] I expected their reaction to be boisterous,

and that they would come and we'd rally.

And did they, sir? No.

So God help me, they spake not a word.

But like dumb statues or breathing stones,

stared each other on and looked deadly pale.

And did they, sir? No.

[ Laughing ] What, are you deaf?

But I'm saying, whatever their reaction, it didn't matter.

We had this planned. We still had this planned.

So they're being told that here, right before your very eyes,

is the man who's gonna make it better.

And see, a book of prayer in his hand.

True ornaments to know a holy man.

Irony is really only hypocrisy with style.

Here again, we love Richard's irony in a way.

And the fact that we know he's as hard as nails...

and that he's only pretending to be religious.

[ Pacino ] They saw the canvas like politicians.

Complete with lies and innuendoes,

they managed to malign this young prince...

who is indeed the rightful heir to the throne.

And they know it.

Infer the bastard thee of Edward's children.

[ Pacino ] And they say he was a bastard.

That his father was a bastard, Richard's brother.

And it's, uh-- it's an act.

And these people buy it. It's a complete lie.

[ Buckingham ] We heartily solicit your gracious self...

to take on you the charge and kingly government of this, your land,

not as protector, steward, substitute,

or lowly factor for another's gain,

but as successively from blood to blood.

Your right of birth, your empery, your own.

Since you will buckle fortune on my back,

to bear her burden, whether I will or no,

I must have patience to endure the load.

Long live King Richard, England's royal king!

Long live King Richard!

In the midst of these noble concerts and these treaties...

and these diplomatic pacts, he was saying,

the truth beneath all this is absolutely the opposite.

The truth is that those in power...

have total contempt for everything they promise,

everything they pledge.

And that's really what Shakespeare's great play's about.

The reason why Shakespeare is really important...

is because in the--

I've taken Lady Macbeth and put her in a rock and roll context...

where she's singing the blues.

Which is really a yin and yang.

Hamlet's like every kid who's freaked out--

his parents, his mother his father--

The way that you relive is to hold...

both points of you at the same time.

I have them singing the blues, doing the beat, doing their thing.

But an American audience gets intimidated.

They hear Hamlet. They hear Shakespeare. It's like--

You must-- You must get me out of this.

Get me out of this. [ Chuckles ]

I'm sorry. Coming here was a bad idea. It's gone too far.

Take you away from all this?

I wanna-- I wanna go--

I wanna be the king already.

I wanna be king, Frederic. Make me king.

Yeah. Yeah.

** [ Choir Singing Indistinctly ]

[ Kimball ] As soon as he gets what he wants,

as soon as he gets Lady Anne, as soon as he gets the crown,

then the whole thing-- The emptiness of it.

Cousin of Buckingham.

My gracious sovereign. Give me thy hand.

Thus high, by thy advice and thy assistance...

is King Richard seated.

But shall we wear these glories for a day?

Or shall they last, and we rejoice in them?

Still they live and forever may they last.

Ah. Buckingham, now do I play the touch.

Young Edward lives.

Think now what I wouldst speak.

Say on, my loving lord.

Shall I be plain?

I wish the bastards dead.

[ Spacey ] Why is it necessary now to kill them? You're king.

What difference, you know? Mm-hmm.

It's, uh-- But as long as they live--

What sayest thou now?

Speak suddenly. Be brief.

You grace may do his pleasure.

Tsk, tsk, tsk, tsk.

Thou art all ice, thy kindness freezes.

[ Woman ] Everybody may have a price,

but for a lot of people, there is a fundamental decency.

It takes quite a long time for them to reach that point.

The action of the play, the sense of exciting movement...

is Richard's finding out the point beyond which people won't go.

Say then that I have...

thy consent that they shall die?

It's an interesting question about where Buckingham is--

how far he's willing to go, where he's willing to draw the line, you know.

It's almost as if everything that Buckingham does in the play...

somehow manages to keep the blood off his hands. Mm-hmm.

Give me some little breath,

some pause, dear my lord,

before I speak positively on this.

I shall resolve you herein presently.

The king is angry.

None are for me...

that look into me with considerate eyes.

He is bound to be left alone...

because nobody can love the king...

beyond the degree of their own egoism,

or perhaps their own goodness.

There's going to be a point. He has reached Buckingham's point.

The deep-revolving, witty Buckingham...

shall no longer be neighbor to my counsels.

But hath he held out with me...

so long untired,

and stops he now for breath?

Well, so be it.

When he went away, did he agree to do it?

Or was he gonna come back and say I can't, but give me what you've promised me?

I have a feeling that he comes back and says,

"Okay. We have to do it.

Let's bite the bullet. Let's do it." But he's too late.

My lord, I have considered in my mind the late request that you did sound me.

Well, let that rest.

Dorset has fled to Richmond. I hear the news, my lord.

Stanley? [ Stanley ] Yes, my sovereign.

Richmond is your wife's son.

Look to it.

My lord.

I claim the gift,

my due of promise,

for which your honor and your faith is pawned.

The earldom of Hereford and the moveables which you have promised I shall possess.

Stanley?

Look to your wife...

if she convey letters to Richmond,

you shall answer.

- What says your highness to my request? - Richmond. I do remember me--

Henry VI did prophecy...

when Richmond was just a little boy...

that Richmond would be king.

Perhaps. Perhaps.

My lord, earldom of Hereford-- Richmond!

When last I was in Exeter,

the mayor in courtesy showed me the castle there,

and called it Rugemount.

[ Laughing ]

At which name I started because a bard of Ireland told me once...

that I should not live long after I saw Richmond.

- My lord. - Aye, what's o'clock?

My lord, I am thus bold to put your grace in mind of what you promised me.

Aye, but what's o'clock?

Upon the stroke of 10:00.

Let it strike. Why let it strike?

Because that, like a jack,

thou keep'st the stroke...

[ Imitating Clock Ticking ]

betwixt your begging and my meditation.

[ Ticking Continues ]

I am not in the giving vein today.

May it please your grace...

to resolve me in my suit.

Thou troublest me.

I am not in the vein!

Thou disown me for my general counsel...

and soothe the devil that I warm thee from.

Oh! Remember this another day...

when he shall split thy very heart with sorrow.

And say, "Poor Margaret...

was a prophetess."

And thus be it so.

Repays me my deep service with such contempt?

Made I him king for this?

Oh, let me think on Hastings and be gone.

To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on.

You stand on brittle ground. That's right.

Will it last, or is somebody next week gonna say,

"Hey, they got a bum rap"?

Let's push the case of the kids.

The kids have got to go.

Is thy name Tyrrel?

James Tyrrel.

Your most obedient subject.

Darest thou resolve to kill a friend of mine? Please you.

But I had rather kill two enemies. Ah.

Thou hast it.

Two deep enemies. Foes to my rest...

and sweet sleep disturbers are they that I would have thee deal upon.

Tyrrel.

I mean those bastards in the tower.

Let me have open means to come to them,

and soon I'll rid you from the fear of them.

Say it is done, and I will love thee and prefer thee for it.

I will dispatch it straight.

I am so far in blood...

that sin will pluck on sin.

Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.

Any production of Richard III I've ever seen,

like the last act of it starts to really dribble out for me.

I'm gone. [ Pacino ] For me, the last act,

Richard, to me, is the most accessible...

because it's clear that Richard has attained this power now.

He's king, and he's on the decline...

because as soon as he becomes king, right away they're coming at him from all sides.

Richmond is attacking.

This guy Richmond, his family were the losers in the War of the Roses in the civil war.

He had fled to France, and he was there raising an army...

to come back and get the throne back for his family, the house of Lancaster.

[ Man ] My gracious sovereign!

Now in Devonshire, as I by friends am well advertised,

in Kent, my liege, the Guildfords are in arms.

With every hour, more competitors flock to the rebels.

Their power grows strong. [ Man #2 ] My lord.

Sir Thomas Lovel and Lord Marquis Dorset in Yorkshire are in arms.

Idiots!

Nothing but songs of death?

Take that, until thou brings better news!

[ Pacino ] He suspects all the people around him. He has no friends.

I'm listening. I'm listening.

March!

[ Richmond ] Those in arms and my most loving friends,

thus far into the bowels of a land have we marched on without impediment.

And here receive we from our father Stanley...

lines of fair comfort and encouragement.

Mr. Pacino. Ah!

[ Richmond ] The wretched bloody and usurping bore...

the spoiled your summer fields and fruitful vines,

this foul swine...

is now even in the center of this isle.

- [ Cheering ] - Every man's conscience is a thousand men...

to fight against this guilty homicide.

Then in God's name march.

True hope is swift and flies with swallow's wings.

Kings it makes gods,

and meaner creatures kings. [ Cheering ]

[ Coughing ]

Am I dying? That's what I wanna know. Am I dying?

When are we gonna kill Richard?

I have a worse question. Excuse me.

I have a feeling that-- that your Richard will have earned his gaff.

And we really ought to begin to think about some way to do it.

[ Coughing ]

C-C-Close-- Close the-- Close the door.

You're 98.6. No, no, no.

Put it under your tongue. Then it doesn't click. If I'm 98.6,

then you're a Shakespearean actor.

"On the 22nd of August, 1485,

"there was a battle fought for the crown of England.

"A short battle ending in a decisive victory.

"In that field, a crowned king manfully fighting in the middle of his enemies,

was slain and brought to his death."

[ Animal Howling ]

[ Richard ] Pitch our tent here, even here in Bosworth Field.

I think what is fascinating when you come to the last act,

to the battle of Bosworth,

the battle itself goes for very little.

Apart from the, "My horse. My horse. My kingdom for a horse"--

apart from that, it seems to me that the battle is really the ghost scene.

The ghost scene is the battle.

[ Pacino ] Richard is visited in his sleep by the ghosts of all the people he's murdered.

Give me another horse, or bind up my wounds.

[ Pacino ] So Frederic and I decided to go to the actual theater...

where this play, Richard III, was performed some 300 years ago.

And this ghost scene was actually acted on the stage right here in London.

And we thought we'd rehearse, and maybe in a rehearsal...

we could get a sense of those old spirits.

You know, method acting type stuff.

I always had trouble with this speech.

It shows it's good when an actor has trouble with a speech...

and he just goes in there and tries to do it.

Well, I've heard you talking about Richard...

as a man who cannot find love.

And a person who finally in the last scenes knows...

that he does not have his own humanity-- that he's lost it.

[ Woman ] Tormenting dreams!

That he has let the pursuit of power totally corrupt him,

and that he is alienated from his own body and his own self.

[ Richard ] Dream on bloody deeds of death.

Where are my children? Toad!

[ Richard ] Despair. Despairing. Death.

- Give me another horse. - Where is thy brother Clarence?

- [ Queen Elizabeth ] When didst thou sleep? - Give me a horse!

- Give me a horse! - [ Queen Elizabeth ] But thou didst kill my children.

- Despair. - Remember.

- Bind up my wounds! - Bloody Richard!

[ Gasping ]

Soft. I did but dream.

Soft.

I did but dream.

O coward conscience,

how does thou afflict me.

The lights burn blue. It is now...

dead midnight.

Cold fearful drops stand on thy trembling flesh.

[ Sighs ]

Richard. Richard.

What do I fear?

Myself?

There is none else by.

Is there a murderer here? No.

Yes, I am.

Then fly.

From myself? No.

No.

I love myself.

Alas,

I hate myself...

for hateful deeds...

- Guilty. Guilty. - committed by myself.

Guilty.

I am a villain.

I am a villain.

Yet I lie. I am not.

Fool, of thyself speak well. Fool.

Do not flatter.

I shall despair.

There is no creature loves me.

When I die,

no soul shall pity me.

Wherefore should they--

Since that I myself...

find in myself...

no pity to myself.

[ Ratcliff ] My lord. Who's there?

Ratcliff, my lord. 'Tis I.

Well, get out of here. I'm working. [ Coughing ]

You got it. Well, let's try it one more time.

Catesby, my lord. 'Tis I.

Catesby.

The early village cock hath twice done salutation to the morn.

Your friends are up, and buckle on their armor.

Oh, Catesby.

I've had a fearful dream.

Catesby, I fear. Nay, nay, good my lord.

Be not afraid of shadows.

By the apostle Paul,

shadows tonight have struck more terror in the soul of Richard...

then can the substance of 10,000 soldiers armed to proof...

and led by shallow Richmond.

Come. Come with me.

The silent hours steal on and flaky darkness breaks within the east.

[ Richard ] Stanley, look to your wife.

If she convey letters to Richmond, you shall answer it.

Prepare thy battle early in the morning...

and put thy fortune to the test of bloody strokes and mortal-staring war.

You have to give a speech in half an hour. Yeah.

Maybe we should-- No. I got the general gist.

Oh, thou, whose captain I account myself,

look on my forces with a gracious eye.

Put in their hands thy bruising irons of wrath...

that they may crush down with a heavy fall...

the usurping helmets of our adversaries.

What shall I say more than I have inferred?

Remember whom you are to deal withal,

a sort of vagabonds,

rascals and runaways.

A scum of Bretons and base-lackey peasants...

whom their o'er-cloyed country vomits forth...

to desperate adventures and assured destruction.

Make us thy ministers of chastisement.

You, sleeping safe, they bring to you unrest...

you having lands and blessed with beauteous wives,

they will restrain the one, disdain the other.

And who doth lead them but a paltry fellow.

To thee I do commend my watchful soul.

Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes.

A milksop,

one that never in his life felt so much cold...

as over shoes and snow!

O defend me still.

Let's whip these stragglers over the seas again!

Lash hence these overweening rags of France!

These famished beggars, weary of their lives!

If we be conquered,

let men conquer us,

not these bastard Bretons!

Shall these enjoy our lands?

Lie with our wives?

Ravish our daughters?

Hark! I hear their drums!

Fight, gentlemen of England!

Fight, bold yeomen!

Draw, archers.

Draw your arrows to the head!

Spur your proud horses hard...

and ride in blood!

Amaze the welkin with your broken staves!

[ Groaning ]

My horse!

My horse!

[ Hastings ] And in a bloody battle, end thy days.

Despair and die.

[ Grunting, Shouting ]

- [ Man ] Rescue! Rescue! - They've withdrawn.

See? They're deserting.

- A horse. A horse. My kingdom for a horse. - My lord!

Withdraw, my lord. Withdraw. I'll help you to a horse. Slave!

I've set my life upon a cast! I'll stand the hazard of the die.

There be six Richmonds in the field. Five have I slain today.

My lord! [ Screaming ]

[ Older Woman ] Although he's frightfully clever,

he is at the same time like a kind of boar...

who has subsumed into himself.

All these frightful animal images.

And all that all the rest have got to do is to hunt the boar.

And that's what they do. And they get him.

A horse!

A horse!

My kingdom for a horse!

He was a hearty dude.

Like in the end, you know, he's surrounded.

He just goes he'll give up anything for a horse.

I mean, this guy's rich. He's a king and he needs a horse.

My kingdom for a horse.

[ Arrow Pierces Flesh ] [ Groans ]

[ Grunting Softly ]

[ Screaming ]

[ Sighs ]

I didn't mean it. I love you, Freddy.

I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it. [ Laughing ]

[ Pacino ] He didn't mean it. And you kill me after all I did for you?

Richard's dead. Richard is--

At last, we can rest.

God and your arms be praised, victorious friends.

The day is ours. The bloody dog is dead!

[ Shouting ]

Is this it? I hope so.

Are we done? Are we finished? This is it?

If I told him about that other ten rolls of film, he'd wanna use it.

I love the silence.

I love the silence.

After silence, what else is there? What's the line?

We missed the silence. The silence is--

Whatever I'm saying, I know Shakespeare said it.

[ Kimball ] Our revels now are ended.

These, our actors, as I foretold you...

were all spirits that melted into air--

into thin air.

And like the baseless fabric of this vision,

the cloud-capped towers, the gorgeous palaces,

the solemn temples,

yea, all which it inherit...

shall dissolve.

And like this insubstantial pageant faded,

leave not a wisp behind.

We are such stuff as dreams are made on.

And our little life is rounded with a sleep.

** [ Choir Singing Indistinctly ]

** [ Continues ]