Shakespeare\'s Richard and Al Pacino Essay Tables YR 12 PDF

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A table of my essay - scored 17/20. quite rough but a good idea...

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Introduction Through textual conversations, William Shakespeare’s tragic history King Richard III (1592) and , Al Pacino’s 1996 documentary Looking for Richard explore context and values crucial to the time of texts, significantly enhancing the appreciation of timeless values. Shakespeare’s play focuses on the religious dissent from the pre-determined order, reflecting the dominant religious values within the Elizabethan Era, following the journey of King Richard in his unforgiving pursuit of power. Contrasted to Al Pacino’s Looking For Richard combines techniques of documentary and narrative feature film to produce a hybrid film intended to “communicate [his] feelings about Shakespeare” to a secular audience, harnessing Shakespeare’s play to demonstrate how ideas transcend through time. Consider what?

Virtue of Truth Truth is manipulated by Richard, whose deceptive characterisation by both Shakespeare and Al Pacino, is used to focus on the characters intention to pursue and achieve power. Both King Richard III and Looking For Richard explore how truth can be shaped into a malleable concept to appeal to those he desires, highlighting the resonant values between the two texts, despie their vastly different contexts.

Shakespear

In King Richard III, Shakespeare expresses truth as a dynamic value, that is enhanced

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through word play, exhibited in the wooing of Anne scene. Richard maintains the power of a stichomythic exchange between the two “Say that I slew them not/Then say they were not slain” as alternating lines portray Richard as yearning for Anne’s love, which is a façade to further benefit his goal to seize power, redefining truth and the malleability of reality. Richard’s own demise is fuelled by his perception of truth, established by the visiting of the ghosts scene, where his guilty conscience is exposed; “I am not a villain. Yet I lie, I am not”. The reluctant tone and conflicting statements further illustrate his own confusion into what is truth and false as his two worlds collide, creating shortcomings to which his character is unable to recover from. Richard maintains his integrity as he is the villain he promised to prove himself to be when he introduced himself to the audience in the opening scene “I am a villain”. He is aware of his own moral depravity as his conscience is again exposed in his dying scenes “My conscience condemns me as a villain”, as his virtue of truth becomes lost in his destructive nature of ambition in his relentless pursuit of power.

Al Pacino

This value of truth is resonant in Looking For Richard, however approaches the idea from a perspective of a secular world. Pacino himself manipulates the audience in order to appeal to them as a relatable American who knows little about Shakespeare “I’m confused just saying it to you… it’s confusing.. I don’t know why we even bother”. In this, Pacino directly addresses the audience, purportedly to reveal his true intentions, being ironic as he is actually deceiving the audience in downplaying his own experience, as pointed out by fellow collaborator, Frederic Kimball “We’ve done Richard three times. Twice… I’ve done it. You’ve done it”. This attempt at playing the naïf redefines truth as Pacino avoids telling the audience of his scholarly knowledge, further highlighted as Pacino casts himself to be an anxious stage actor who cannot perform, which alternately establishes and subverts Pacino’s authority. A second calculate move occurs when Pacino asks a British literature scholar a historical question, making Pacino seem thoughtful, however asking an experienced director of Shakespeare would have dined his authority, selectively deciding on aspects to reveal to audiences, manipulating them.

Truth for both texts, is examined as a metaphor for the character of Richard, twisting truth to what is required to align with goals. The resonant nature of the malleability of truth is explored by both Shakespeare and Pacino, as Richard uses this to benefit himself in his pursuit to power.

Exploitation of females Both Richard and Pacino exploit the female role during their dominance of power, reinforcing contextual understanding of women as the perspective of characters change over time to reflect altered values. Although Margaret, Elizabeth and the Duchess of York are some of the most politically powerless people, they continue to remind Richard of his crimes and address through their moral prophecies what he fears most; the loss if his power. Richard retaliates with the suppression of the women’s voices through Richard’s dehumanising language “hateful bitter hag” in response to Margaret’s “a murderous villain” reflecting a patriarchal era where women are taunted and belittled into little importance. His initial exploitation of females begins as his character is morally and physically unnatural. Richard blames his mother, claiming she delivered him “deform’d, Unfinish’d” to pity him and hate her. This depiction is furthered in the wooing of Anne scene through the anaphora “was ever woman in this humour? Was ever woman in this humour won?” convincing Anne, the grieving wife of a murder husband at the hands of Richard, to submit to him, reinforcing his Machiavellian characterisation and reiterating the male dominance within the Elizabethan era. Pacino’s reimagining of the wooing of Anne scene is dissonant to that of Shakespeare, with the stichomythic remarks “But I know none, and therefore am no beast” to Anne’s reply “Oh, wonderful, when devils tell the truth”, highlighting her strong willed characterisation and defiance of the suppression of her voice, completely disregarded. The focus is reduced to the spectacle of how Richard seduces Anne, not why. Thus, Pacino has chosen to focus on “I’ll have her but not keep her for long”, repeating this line are intercut with the performance to accentuate Richard’s deviousness as the focus on character and authority has removed the scenes context. This, coupled with the juxtaposition of long shots of Anne crying and close up shot of Richard’s remorselessness emotion, not only reinforces the gender imbalance, but furthers the image create of weak and fragile women. . Hence, the reconstruction of Richard III to create LFR enables Pacino to engage in a textual conversation reiterating the gender imbalance and perception of fragile women, shaped through the differing contexts, however little variation to meaning has transcended through time, suggested by Pacino’s reimagination.

Humanism v Determinism Through the contradictory forces of humanism and determinism this forms a connecting point of intrigue common to Shakespeare’s King Richard III and Pacino’s Looking For Richard that is influenced by shifting components of cultural and historical contexts. A dissonance between the two texts is created, as cultural Renaissance influenced Shakespeare, however, a deviation from intense religious beliefs influences the postmodern creation of LFR. In King Richard III opening soliloquy, Richard reveals “since I cannot prove a lover… I am determined to prove a villain”, highlighting his pre-determined fate as his inability to love due to him being “ rudely stamp’d” and “deform’d, unfinish’d”. The connotations of “determined” as well as his symbolic deformity suggest his acceptance of his fate that has been put before him and his reluctancy to change and rather embrace his villainy to fulfil his pre-determined fate in life, reflecting the contextual values of Shakespeare. Richard rationalized his behaviour “but I am so far in blood that sin will pluck on sin” meaning his initial sins have set off a chain reaction of other unjustified murders, but sees no problem in it as his lack of moral compass is due to his justification that his actions are pre-determined, so therefore cannot be his fault. However, a shift in both cultural and historical context allows Pacino to echo some aspects of the original narrative while omitting altered ideas about determinism to humanism to better appeal to a postmodern audience, enhancing one’s appreciation. Pacino’s “A person has an opinion. It’s only an opinion. It’s never a question of right or wrong”, expressed through dialogue, the irrelevance of providentialism to a secular audience, due to the shift in values over time away from this crafting opposing view to that of Shakespeare. Pacino’s perspective provides the audience with a lens that highlights the ability to determine one’s fate “never a question of right or wrong” with the freedom of choice individuals have opposes that of Shakespeare. His use of Vox-Populi interviews, prioritises the voices of individuals, by asking “Do you know who Richard is?”, enabling influence on Pacino’s characterisation of Richard, to best appeal to a secular audience and conforming to the determinist values. Pacino’s focus on humanism to engage a secular audience clashes with that of Shakespeare’s providential context, highlighting the influential context surrounding these texts and their dissonant values. Leading responders to consider...