Review of Rosencrantz And Guildenstern Are Dead

Introduction

Tom Stoppard, writer of Brazil and the Oscar-winning Shakespeare in Love, makes his directorial debut directing his own Tony-award winning play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead. Stoppard takes two minor characters from Shakespeare’s Hamlet, confused by goings-on and oblivious to the fate that awaits them, and builds a comedy around them.

Video

The film is presented in anamorphic widescreen in its original aspect ratio. This is by no means the best picture you will see on DVD – there is dust and grain present throughout the movie, and the colours appear washed out. However the film remains very watchable as the image is sharp enough to compensate for these defects.

Audio

The stereo soundtrack is appropriate for this purely dialogue-based film, and it delivers clear sounding speech and music.

Features

The disc is completely bare bones – not even a trailer. A Stoppard commentary would have been a fantastic addition, but alas ‘twas not to be.

Conclusion

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead is an ingenious piece of writing that is also immensely funny and entertaining provided you are familiar with Hamlet. Gary Oldman and Tim Roth have great chemistry onscreen. The scenes of Hamlet in which Rosencrantz and Guildenstern appear have been added to the film over the original play, and to my surprise the actors who play the other Shakespearean characters are on the whole very good – I especially enjoyed Iain Glen’s performance. This DVD release is a little disappointingly very bare with not much effort put in to make this format’s edition far superior to the VHS release, but the picture is still good so if you’re able to pick this up cheaply then it is a recommended purchase.