1998--Shakespeare In Love, John Madden

 

1998--Shakespeare in Love, John Madden

Nominated: Elizabeth, Life is Beautiful, Saving Private Ryan, The Thin Red Line

Should have won: Saving Private Ryan

Be sure to see: The Big Lebowski, The Newton Boys, There's Something About Mary, The Truman Show, Wild Things

"Pay attention and you will see how genius creates a legend,"--Ned Alleyn

     It is World War II and an army captain has been assigned to lead a unit into France to locate a soldier whose three brothers had been killed in combat. But when...wait, what was that? Saving Private Ryan didn't win best picture? What did? Shakespeare in What???

     When looking at the list of winners since the Oscars began, there have been some bad movies take the prize. 1998 marks the year when, though the winner was a pretty good movie (not bad at all), a massive “You have to be kidding me!” sentiment was yelled at television screens all over the world. 2005's Crash is generally considered the worst winner in history; Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan along with The English Patient stealing the Oscar from Fargo and Annie Hall ripping off Star Wars have all been accepted as huge upsets.

     It is 1593 London and the play write William Shakespeare is suffering from writer's block. He has been trying to write a play called “Romeo and Ethel, the Pirate's Daughter” and becomes inspired when he meets the lovely Viola de Lesseps. They fall in love but Viola is promised to the Earl of Wessex who intends on marrying her and taking her to America. Viola dreams of acting but, because women were forbidden to act on stage in those times, she poses as a man to rehearse. Her costume, hair, and fake facial hair serve as a sort of Clark Kent to Superman effect as William doesn't recognize her. There is a scene where they dance (she, as a woman of course) and then she flees to go home. He follows her and talks to her from the courtyard to her window echoing Cyrano de Bergerac only without the hidden person. Eventually, they fall in love and various scenes shuffle between the romance and the play. Viola continues to keep her gender hidden so she can continue to act. Then she has her revealing moment to William. By the time the play comes around, naturally the boy playing Juliet—er, Ethel—can't go on. Luckily Viola knows the part. But a woman on stage?! Here, in my mind, lies the true story of the movie though I'm willing to bet the romance between 

William and Viola were the filmmaker's view of the main theme. After all, check the title.

     This was all fine. I get it; it is a lovely romance and a movie based on Shakespeare that I would guess keeps even non-fans of such material interested. Adding Queen Elizabeth I into the mix was a good choice too. She had some great scenes and a memorable line about how play writes depict love. Judy Dench played her well and won the Oscar for supporting actress which is interesting because the Queen gets only eight minutes of screen time, the second shortest amount of time for any winner in history (Beatrice Straight has less time in Network). My favorite scene is when a rehearsal is disrupted and a sword fight breaks out. Usually I'm not big on comic relief. If something is supposed to be tense then keep it tense but this was an exception. As the fight ensues,the play's director is looking curiously at his script to find what page a fight is supposed to break out. It reminded me of the parade scene in Ferris Bueller's Day Off when Ferris takes over a float and the directors of the parade are checking their schedules.

     Some scenes stand out like when the play finally does go on and how the audience reacts to a woman acting the part, and the redirection of a scene in rehearsal when it is suggested a woman is in their midst. My emotions ran from “Oh no!” to “Ha ha!” to “Awww.” 

     In all, I do recommend the movie. It was decent and if you are in the mood for a romance this should do the trick. The everlasting debate over Shakespeare in Love beating Saving Private Ryan will never die. I found it interesting that of the five nominees, two depicted Queen Elizabeth and the actress playing the part in the movie that actually depicted her life (Elizabeth) did not beat the one where she was on screen for eight minutes. I also noticed that three of the nominees were war movies. I find that odd because two of the movies are similar, the remaining three are similar to each other, and yet the major debate of the year is how dissimilar the two leading contenders are. I also found it halarious it was directed by John Madden. I wanted to say “Boom!” and circle some of the actors.     

     Had the movie not won and someone asked me if I'd recommend it I'd say yes. It is a pretty good movie for what it is. But because it beat one of the best war movies ever made it developed a reputation of being lousy. It isn't lousy, it was just a lousy choice by the Academy.