Al PACINO tries to bring William Shakespeare's plays to the masses and inevitably fails. As one would expect, his take on Richard 3 is exceptionally good and successfully breathes life into a character who can so easily degenerate into a third-rate Laurence Olivier impersonation.
However, the answer to the question of why so few love Shakespeare with the passion shown here, by an excellent cast, is never given nor explored. This is a far too cliquey world where performance is more important than meaning so, inevitably, Shakespeare touches few ordinary people. The actors are more concerned to show their actorial prowess than to communicate Shakespeare's meaning; meaning which they only half-grasp themselves.
On hand are British actors to show the Yanks how it should be done. Yet their over-reverence for the text - as against communicating meaning - also inhibits Shakespeare's accessibility; that and their quintessential snobbery.
One has to wonder what has happened in 400 years to make such a once-popular playwright into a niche entertainer: When he was alive, his genius did not preclude him from being enjoyed by the then ryot, but it does today.
Shakespeare's ghost makes a brief appearance shaking his head at the entire proceedings – an admission on the part of the director (PACINO) that he may not fully comprehend the great writer's nuance and subtlety.
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