Actors: Gary Oldman, Tim Roth, Richard Dreyfuss, Joanna Roth, Iain Glen
Review Summary and Plot Commentary about Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern (Oldman and Roth), old college buddies of Hamlet, hang out at the court of his mother and uncle and watch the proceedings. They don't understand their old friend's behavior, chalk it up to mere depression, and pass the time playing word games and discussing scientific and philosophical matters. A company of players led by a hammy Player King (Dreyfuss) provides a little comic relief, though our heroes naturally have no idea what Hamlet is up to. British playwright Tom Stoppard wrote and directed this 1990 screen adaptation of his own play about fate and how much we really understand what is going on in our lives, a quarter century after it charmed the Anglo-American world on stage. Beautifully filmed in Slovenia and Croatia (Stoppard is a native of Czechoslovakia), witty and perkily acted, the movie may not work as well as the play: dialogue is swift and hard to follow, and the average viewer may be left scratching his head.
--David Loftus, Resident Scholar
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Analysis of Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
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Ratings are on a 1-10 scale (Low to High)
Plot
Time/era of movie:
- middle ages
Inner struggle or disability
Yes
Struggle with
- (General) search for meaning/identity
Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Profession/status:
- servant
Age:
- 20's-30's
Is this an ordinary person caught up in events?
Yes
Hair color?
- brunette (Brown)
Hair type
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average
Events of movie makes character more...
- sad
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Scandinavian
How sensitive is this character?
- middling sensitive to others' feelings
Sense of humor?
- Cynical sense of humor
Intelligence
- Average intelligence
Physique
- average physique
Secondary Main Character
Identity:
- Male
Hair color
- blonde
Hair style
- (man) short/standard straight
Body type
- (man) average build
How much in movie?
- 90%-100%
Ethnicity/Nationality
- Scandinavian
Main Adversary
Identity:
- general circumstances
Setting
Europe
Yes
European country:
- Scandinavia
Misc setting
- castle
Style
Accounts of torture and death?
- generic/vague references to death/punishment
Movie makes you feel...
- challenged
Is this movie based on a
- play
