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smokeybrand · 3 years

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Smokey brand Select: Violent Delights

I was waxing nostalgic the other day about the Nineties version of Romeo and Juliet, about how much i actually like certain aspects of that film and absolutely abhor others. It got me pondering how much i unabashedly enjoy Shakespeare and many of the big screen adaption of “his” work. These things run the gambit of genre and i think it’s a ripe subject to kind of pick from. I mean, there are just so many ways to adapt this cats catalog and i figure i might as well pick out my favorites.

10. Forbidden Planet

This movie ain’t great. It;s not. But love it anyway. I have a soft spot for those old timey, Fifties, monster flicks and Forbidden Planet is one of the best. It’s campy schlock, don’t misunderstand, but i used to watch this thing late night, right before regular TV went of air. It’s the worst, but i appreciate the fact that it’s true to its time and is one of the very, very, few adaptions of The Tempest. That play never gets the love it deserves.

9. Ophelia

Ophelia is Hamlet from the perspective of his wife, Ophelia. It’s an interesting take on the Hamlet narrative, not really one of would gravitate toward if not for this ridiculously stellar cast, particularly Daisy Ridley. She kills the role as Ophelia and kind of makes you want to see where this version of the story goes. I definitely prefer the tragedy of Hamlet over this take on the narrative, but Ophelia definitely stands on it’s own and is totally worth a watch.

8. She’s the Man

Listen, this is a guilty pleasure. She’s the Man ain’t great. It’s actually pretty terrible, but i love it for how earnest this film is in telling it’s story. An adaption of Shakespeare’s gender-swap farce, Twelfth Night, it’s one of the few, comedic, plays that got the big screen treatment and Amanda Bynes carries this whole goddamn movie as this version’s Viola. I actually miss when Bynes wasn’t crazy and just made funny, endearing, sh*t like this. I mean, who doesn’t love Big Fat Liar, you know?

7. Scotland, PA

This is probably the most creative take on a Shakespeare property i have ever seen in my entire life. This is MacBeth, told as black comedy a la Fargo, set in a 1975 Pennsylvania fast food restaurant. Yeah. I’m not even going to go any further into it. This was one of the most ridiculous viewing experiences i’ve ever had and i loved very second of it.

6. Hamlet

I feel like this is a cheat, like there would be something different here. I actually pondered the Lion King because, technically, that’s a Hamlet adaption but, the more i thought about it, the more this one had to go on the list. It’s just that good. The1996 version of Hamlet, directed, screenplay written by, and starring Kenneth Branagh, is a whole ass classic. It’s a straight forward interpretation of the original play only updated with a nineteenth century aesthetic, which fits the narrative surprisingly well. This version of Hamlet is high f*cking art, man. It’s gorgeous in every way. The score, the costumes, the sets, the colors; All of it is a legitimate feast for the eyes. That said, this motherf*cker is four hours long so, you know, understand that sh*t going in. It;s worth, don’t misunderstand, it’s just real long in the tooth, man.

5. My Own Private Idaho

Idaho is probably the bleakest film on this list. Gus Van Zant is pretty great at capturing the sordid, cruel, reality of the human experiences which makes his adaption of Shakespeare’s Henry tetralogy. I don’t much go for European history for reasons, but i dug this flick and how it kind of mutes all of the glamour and Victorian nonsense for a more guttural, street level, desperation. My Own Private Idaho is not an easy watch I t can be incredibly difficult to get through at times but that doesn’t mean it’s not a brilliant film. that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t take on this challenge. The performance that River Phoenix gives, alone, is enough for admission. As dope as Joaquin is at his craft, River was definitely the superior talent and that is no more apparent than in this movie.

4. 10 Things I Hate About You

The Taming of the Shrew is actually one of my favorite Shakespeare plays and this film, 10 Things I Hate About You, is one of the best versions of that narrative. This film is f*cking hilarious. It’s outstanding and unique and never strays from the heart of it’s inspiration. Plus, i mean, it’s got a young Heath Ledger just stealing all of the scenes. When you watch him in this, you know dude has all of the talent. This film is why i was completely okay with him as Joker when they announced it. Everyone else lost their sh*t but me? I remembered Ledger’s Patrick Verona and knew the role was in good hands.

3. Throne of Blood

If i had to choose a favorite Shakespeare story, it’s definitely MacBeth. I love that sh*t. There’s intrigue, betrayal, violence, lust, and even a little magic; Everything you need to build an intriguing plot. Take the basic narrative and funnel it through a true master of film like Akira Kurosawa and you get a real classic like Throne of Blood. This is an old one, it dropped back in ‘57, but it’s worth a watch. Kurosawa was a true visionary in his craft and the way he was able to, not only adapt but elevate the source material? F*cking amazing, man. Y’all should watch more Akira Kurosawa, man. He’s one of the most influential filmmakers ever to do it and it’s for good reason. Also, f*cking more MacBeth adaptions, please? There are only, like, six. The f*ck, yo?

2. Romeo + Juliet

I’ve already spoken about my love for this decidedly Nineties take on that classic, uncomfortably problematic, laughably toxic, romance that’s just rife with all of the tragedy and tropes. Why the double-dip? Because i love it THAT much! Tybalt, Mercutio, the aesthetic, that soundtrack; F*cking chef kiss, bro! If you’ve never seen this version of Romeo and Juliet, you don't love yourself enough.

1. Ex Machina

Yeah, that’s right, this f*cking masterpiece of existential, cyberpunk dread, is based on Shakespeare, too! Motherf*ckers wouldn’t know because it’s kind of a deep cut but a lot of the themes from The Tempest, actually my second favorite Shakespeare outing, ring true to Garland’s narrative. I mean, do i really have to explain why i love this movie so much? Actually, i have. Repeatedly. My praise for this movie is rife throughout the backlog of this blog. This thing has made multiple of the Select lists because it’s so f*cking great. Obviously, it’s my favorite adaption but, more than that, like Throne of Blood, it’s just a great f*cking film by itself.

Honorable Mentions: The Lion King, Titus (1999), A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999), Men of Respect, Richard III (1995), Much Ado About Nothing (1993), Ran, MacBeth (2015), Coriolanus (2011), Get Over It

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schmergo · 6 years

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What Your Favorite Shakespeare Character Says About You

I was sending these individually to people’s inboxes but then tumblr got weird about it and started thinking I was a robot because I was sending too many messages, so I made this instead:

Hamlet: You've been going through a PRETTY DANG WEIRD COUPLE OF YEARS. You've either taken at least one philosophy class or you've written/made/performed something inspired by your feelings about your parents.

Ophelia from Hamlet: You're depressed but have a top-notch aesthetic. You are constantly amazed by how much the people around you can let you down.

Horatio from Hamlet: You’re a very good listener but people rarely listen to you.

Beatrice from Much Ado: You use humor and irony to cope with virtually any situation unless it involves one of your friends getting hurt. Then you are in Mama Bear attack mode.

Benedick from Much Ado: You either love Kenneth Branagh or are a Nerdfighter or both.

Macbeth: You either really love your significant other or really love Fight Club.

Lady Macbeth: You either went through a goth phase or you have really strong opinions about classic Hollywood divas/ aging female Broadway stars/ modern pop stars.

Richard III: You either love edgy memes or you're the kind of person who really likes Loki and Kylo Ren. Or you absolutely hate the fact that Shakespeare portrayed him as a villain, which means that your favorite Shakespeare character is not Richard III at all, you just have a favorite historical figure.

Queen Margaret: You either own multiple pieces of merchandise with feminist slogans on them or you have very strong opinions about Game of Thrones.

Juliet: You are NOT getting along great with your parents right now. You have a favorite Disney princess and it's not because of how she looks but what she's been through.

Romeo: If you're not an Instagram poet, you should be.

Mercutio: You like to make jokes while watching movies with your friends. Your friends probably don't enjoy this as much as you do. You probably either really like The Joker or Deadpool.

Prince Hal: You, who most loves Prince Hal, are also more judgmental of his choices than anyone else. You're the kind of person who puts together really intricate, detailed plans for upcoming events or projects and devotes yourself totally singlemindedly to them while acting like you are under no stress and having a good time, sending out lots of friendly and chill sounding reminders like, "Hey guys! Things are moving along! Just a few updates!" You lie awake all night in a panic about these things.

Hotspur: You would think that people who love Hotspur are also jocks, but in fact, they are actually enthusiastic nerds who are always up to argue relentlessly about their favorite topics.

Falstaffs: You are either someone who has played Falstaff, wants to play Falstaff, have seen a favorite actor or loved one play Falstaff, or are leading literary critic and Yale professor Harold Bloom.

Richard II: You either have a very detailed pinterest, instagram, or tumblr devoted to your personal aesthetic. You tend to self-sabotage. If you ever get married, you will be WEIRD about your wedding. Also, you are probably not heterosexual, let's be honest.

Rosalind from As You Like It: You have probably wished you could give lessons to a previous partner of yours of how to be a less sucky boyfriend/girlfriend. You have had at least one controversial haircut among your friend group.

Viola from Twelfth Night: Same as the above, but also people constantly guessed incorrectly about your sexual orientation growing up. And also, you still sometimes think wistfully of your high school crush.

Malvolio from Twelfth Night: You are smart, but you often do stupid things. You like to watch 'cringe compilations' or follow humorous fail/shaming blogs, but you also constantly worry you will find yourself on them.

Olivia from Twelfth Night: You have had a string of BAD RELATIONSHIPS and are DONE right now, but that doesn't mean that you're not extremely committed to STYLE, because you are.

Paulina from The Winter's Tale: You HATE your boss.

Shylock: You constantly feel the need to tell people that he is NOT a villain and everyone else in that play is terrible. You can't even enjoy The Merchant of Venice, but you keep going to see productions of it anyway.

Iago: You constantly feel the need to tell people that you're not actually racist, but you just think he's a FASCINATING VILLAIN.

Othello: You weep when certain songs come on the radio.

Prospero: You are writer who often complains about how HARD it is to be a writer despite getting very little done.

Caliban: You actually like A Tempest better than The Tempest.

Ariel: See PUCK below, except you're less annoying.

Puck: You used to do gymnastics, martial arts, or some other kind of sport or dance because your family hoped that would help you get some of your energy out and you'd be less hyperactive, destructive, and disruptive. You have a bad habit of accidentally breaking things.

Helena: You had really bad self-esteem in high school and still have really bad luck in relationships.

Titania: You used to have Lisa Frank everything in elementary school.

Oberon: You really like Renaissance faires

Brutus: You have always been either an overachiever perfectionist or someone who habitually bites off way way way way way more than you can chew and makes a mess of it despite trying really hard. You remind people to bring an extra sweater to events because it might get chilly.

Cassius: You are extremely smart and yet you're also an impulsive mess who does weird things like start painting your entire bedroom at 2 AM. You feel like you somehow have the sworst luck in the world and that if you had more opportunities, things would be better. You have a grudge against specific celebrities.

King Lear: You have a favorite elderly British actor.

Cleopatra: You secretly consider the Kardashians or other similarly luxuriously-living reality stars an extremely guilty pleasure. You also may have gone through a strong Ancient Egypt phase in elementary school.

Coriolanus: The Prince of Egypt made a big impression on you even if you're not religious. You are quiet and reserved but swear like a sailor. You either have a huge crush on Tom Hiddleston or have a favorite Civil War battle.

Katherina from Taming of the Shrew: Either you don't actually like Taming of The Shrew or you've never actually seen/read Taming of the Shrew.

Anyone else: You're just Too Cool For School, aren't you?

#shakespeare #literature #theatre

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nick33304 · 5 years

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550 Blog Post #2: Blackadder

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Full disclosure: I am unfamiliar with Blackadder, and I have never seen the film Blackadder: Back & Forth (1999) where this clip is from, but what I can gather from the clip is that Rowan Atkinson’s character is from the present and has traveled back in time. While in the past, he bumps into William Shakespeare (played by Colin Firth, who also played the antagonist of Shakespeare in Love), gets his autograph, and then proceeds to beat Shakespeare for children who had to “suffer” his plays in schools for centuries as well as Kenneth Branagh’s “endless, uncut, four hour version of Hamlet,” much to Shakespeare’s confusion.

Blackadder presents Shakespeare much like a writer, director, or some other creator of media in contemporary times. When Atkinson’s character inquires if Shakespeare is who he is, Shakespeare responds, “Don’t say it! I know, you hated Two Gentlemen of Verona. This one’s [Macbeth] is much better.” The way he says this makes it seem that Shakespeare is accustomed to getting criticisms of The Two Gentlemen of Verona, as he should. This is very similar to how a fandom may react when something is done within that subject that they think is bad: They heavily criticize the creator, often to the creator’s annoyance at best. Saying that Macbeth “is much better” is correct to someone he thinks is a fan indicates that he is trying to appease his fan base.

The clip has criticisms of Shakespeare. Atkinson’s character embodies what many who are not fans of Shakespeare feel about his work: disdain. He laments that Shakespeare is hard to read and understand, and that children for centuries have struggled to understand him. He also seems to have similar disdain for and makes fun of those who are fans of Shakespeare such as Kenneth Branagh. When Shakespeare asks who Branagh is, Atkinson’s character responds, “I’ll tell him you said that, and I think he’ll be very hurt,” with some sense of satisfaction.

At the same time, Atkinson’s character does recognize Shakespeare’s reputation and status in the present: before beating him, Atkinson’s character asks Shakespeare for an autograph, presumably for some sort of monetary or societal gain. The clip recognizes why some modern audiences may hate Shakespeare, as well as his high status.

In class today, we discussed how Shakespeare presented history on stage. Richard III is not necessarily historically accurate, given that Richard died over a century before Shakespeare was writing, but it does reflect Shakespeare’s time. He was presenting his play to an audience who were under a Tudor monarch. It makes since that Shakespeare would have Richard represent evil incarnate given that the Tudors overthrew him. Similarly, Blackadder’s Shakespeare reflects the time when Blackadder: Back & Forth was released. Shakespeare is very much a modern creator in that film, one who has to deal with fan backlash. Also, while his high status is noted, it presents Shakespeare has a reviled figure forced upon others which many schoolchildren and others apparently feel about Shakespeare. Whether it be the 1590s or the 1990s, history in the arts reflects the present.

#shakespeare

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smokeybrandreviews · 3 years

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Smokey brand Select: Violent Delights

10. Forbidden Planet

9. Ophelia

8. She’s the Man

Listen, this is a guilty pleasure. She’s the Man ain’t great. It;s actually pretty terrible, but i love it for how earnest this film is in telling it’s story. An adaption of Shakespeare’s gender-swap farce, Twelfth Night, it’s one of the few, comedic, plays that got the big screen treatment and Amanda Bynes carries this whole goddamn movie as this version’s Viola. I actually miss when Bynes wasn’t crazy and just made funny, endearing, sh*t like this. I mean, who doesn’t love Big Fat Liar, you know?

7. Scotland, PA

6. Hamlet

I feel like this is a cheat, like there would be something different here. I actually pondered the Lion King because, technically, that’s a Hamlet adaption but, the more i thought about it, the more this one had to go on the list. It’s just that good. The 1996 version of Hamlet, directed, screenplay written by, and starring Kenneth Branagh, is a whole ass classic. It’s a straight forward interpretation of the original play only updated with a nineteenth century aesthetic, which fits the narrative surprisingly well. This version of Hamlet is high f*cking art, man. It’s gorgeous in every way. The score, the costumes, the sets, the colors; All of it is a legitimate feast for the eyes. That said, this motherf*cker is four hours long so, you know, understand that sh*t going in. It;s worth, don’t misunderstand, it’s just real long in the tooth, man.

5. My Own Private Idaho

4. 10 Things I Hate About You

3. Throne of Blood

2. Romeo + Juliet

1. Ex Machina

#Smokey brand Select #Shakespeare

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iuniverseblog · 6 years

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iUniverse’s Guy Franks tells us about new book, “A Midsummer Madness”

Veteran author Guy Franks discusses his new book, A Midsummer Madness, along with his literary interests, writing approach, and passion for baseball!

A Midsummer Madness was born out of my love for William Shakespeare and baseball. To me, the music of Shakespeare’s metered verse, his cutting wit, his insight into the human soul, pairs nicely with the perfect distances of baseball, with its theatrics and homespun wisdom. When I listen to Giants manager Bruce Bochy I hear Prospero. When Coriolanus offers his services to his enemy Aufidius it reminds me of Jeff Kent, the great Giants second baseman, choosing to sign with their archrival the Dodgers. The famous actress Tallulah Bankhead understood the parallel when she said, “There have only been two geniuses in the world — Willie Mays and Willie Shakespeare.”

When I watch a game of baseball, preferably with a cold beer and a bag of salted peanuts, I see a Shakespearean play unfold before me. There is a beginning, a middle and an end, and it’s filled with great characters, surprises, and twists of fate. It can be a thrilling triumph like Henry the Fifth, a Comedy of Errors, or, depending on one’s fortunes in the bottom of the ninth, a tragedy like Julius Caesar. But comedy or tragedy, all the ingredients of any one of the Bard’s plays are there to enjoy on a baseball diamond. It was the great baseball writer Roger Kahn who first drew the analogy between a minor league ball club and an Elizabethan acting troupe traveling from town to town plying their trade. In A Midsummer Madness, I’ve attempted to take the great themes and elegant poetry of Shakespeare and blend them with the dirt and grass of baseball to make a savory tragic-comic stew spiced with music and wordplay.

My stage is set in 1986 Connecticut during the great renaissance of minor league baseball, and my acting troupe is the New Britain Kingsmen of the Double-A Eastern League. The Kingsmen are managed by Shakespeare Louis Glover. “Shake” Glover is my focal point. As the Bard-quoting skipper of the Kingsmen, he is meant to embody the harmony that is Shakespeare and baseball. He’s an ex-ball player turned successful minor league manager, but he’s also Leontes in A Winter’s Tale, as well as Henry the Fourth with a little bit of Prospero thrown in from The Tempest. The story follows the Kingsmen from opening day to the championship game, and along the way I’ve woven in characters and subplots from such Shakespeare plays as Hamlet, Othello, Henry IV, Much Ado About Nothing, Cymbeline, Twelfth Night, and As You Like It.

I’ve been a baseball fan all my life. My dad took me to my first game when I was a boy to see the San Francisco Giants play at Candlestick Park. Some of the greatest players of all time where there—Willie Mays, Juan Marichal, Willie McCovey—and I’ve been hooked ever since. It’s the finest game ever invented, and the fact that it has remained relatively unchanged for a hundred and fifty years and has survived the vagaries of time gives me solace. The poet Sharon Olds put it best when she said, “Baseball is reassuring. It makes me feel as if the world is not going to blow up.”

Like most of you, I was formally introduced to Shakespeare in high school. I think it was Romeo and Juliet in Mrs. Burns’ English Class. Once I got to Cal Berkeley as an English Lit Major, Shakespeare was an inevitability, like Haley’s Comet, and I hopped on that comet and have been riding it ever since. I have read all of his plays, some multiple times, and my DVD movie library contains many of the best adaptations of his work—movies like Zeffirelli’s Romeo and Juliet (the one with the sublime Olivia Hussey), anything by Lawrence Olivier, and Kenneth Branagh’s Henry IV. I also enjoy movies or plays that have fun with Shakespeare (Theatre of Blood with Vincent Price comes to mind), or ones that entertainingly update his plays like Ten Things I Hate About You, which is a rendition of Taming of the Shrew set at a high school. It was movies like these that were the idea behind A Midsummer Madness.

A Midsummer Madness is my third novel. Beggar King is an historical fiction novel set in Ancient Greece that was published in 2008. Railhead is a western novel set in 1869 Wyoming and was published in 2012. Historical fiction is my preferred genre, and I think that each of my literary influences—Hemingway, Faulkner, Twain, Steinbeck—all wrote historical fiction novels in one way or another. Certainly Dickens and Tolstoy did, and in terms of more modern influences I would point to Steven Pressfield and Charles Frazier. During my research for A Midsummer Madness, I experienced the added delight of discovering some wonderful baseball writers like Roger Kahn, W.P. Kinsella, and David Lamb.

When I sit down to write a novel, it has to have a subject that grabs me and keeps me motivated through the months of research and writing. Whether it’s the myth of Odysseus or the old west or Shakespeare and baseball, the passion for my subject matter has to be there. And I hope that this passion comes out in my work. I try to write the same way Clint Eastwood directs—straight forward, moving the story along, not wasting scenes, and keeping the viewer engaged. If I can accomplish that, I’m happy. And along the way, if I can impart a little about my philosophy or the power of myth, without hitting the reader over the head with it, I’m even happier.

I’m planning something of a launch party for my book here at the local library. My wife is also working hard on social media to get the word out. Signed copies of my book are also going to Larry Baer, CEO of the San Francisco Giants and to their manager Bruce Bochy. I’m hoping to use their positive feedback on my new website that iUniverse is designing for me.

This is my first run at self-publishing, and I have to say that iUniverse delivered on everything they said they would in a timely and professional manner. I’ve also recommended them to other author-friends of mine as an alternative to trying to crack through the granite monolith that is traditional publishing. One of my favorite experiences was working with the iUniverse folks in designing my book cover. And, of course, nothing beats the kick you get when you see that book cover for the first time on Amazon.com or BarnesandNoble.com.

My advice to aspiring writers would be directed to a very select group of authors who, like myself, are trying to write a book while at the same time working a full-time job and raising a family. Find a way to carve out the time. That’s all I can say. I wrote my first novel when I was a middle manager in a major corporation, with a wife and two kids, a home mortgage, and bills to pay. But I found a way to carve out an hour or two, here and there, sometimes at home and sometimes at work, and over time, little by little, brick by brick, I finished the book with my family and job still healthy and intact. It might take years, but what the heck. What else do you have to do?

Make sure to check out the iUniverse site for more advice and blogs, as well as iUniverse Facebook and iUniverse Twitter. For a FREE Publishing Guide, click here!

#iUniverse #iUniverse Blog #iUniverse Publishing

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