Pacino assumes creative licensing in adapting his film ‘Looking for Richard’ to an audience unappreciative of Shakespeare’s craft. In creating his docu-drama for a 20th century audience, Pacino transcends the confines of the Elizabethan era, hence allowing Shakespeare’s Richard III to prove more accessible and relevant to a contemporary audience. Through creative reshaping, Pacino vivaciously expresses the values intrinsically connected to both periods, teetering on previous concepts whilst entering a unique approach to them. In grasping a clear intertextual connection, the audience seamlessly witness Pacino’s attempt to reshape Shakespeare’s expression of the human self, deeply extricating the utmost importance of understanding one’s actions.
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The corruption of power prevails across time periods, as initiated by Shakespeare and confirmed by Pacino in Looking for Richard. Undoubtedly, the battle for authority overrules the natural order of a human being, hence the consequent result of destruction and loss. In Richard III, Shakespeare thoroughly examines the nature of power and authority, utilising Richard’s brutal actions to demonstrate that the ends do not justify the means. In the Elizabethan theocracy, power was conferred through hereditary, not merit, hence Richard as a clearly unworthy and unwanted heir to the throne. In granting Richard the opportunity to cement his ‘power’, Shakespeare depicts the protagonist exerting the Machiavellian influence, as seen seducing the young Princes in Act 3, Scene 3, “God keep you from such false friends”, and “Your grace attended to thy sugared words.” Clearly, Shakespeare’s purposeful shaping of this figure through clever word play effectively conveys to the audience the detrimental nature of such power-lust characters, hence his subsequent death by the end …show more content…
The adamant nature of the protagonist to pave his own destiny is revealed similarly in both texts, however expressed according to each particular context. Shakespeare’s providential landscape sees the authority of the monarch prevailing, hence crafting the play as a reflection of both the Queen and God’s handiwork, “Peace may live again, that she may long live God say Amen.” In being “determined to prove a villain”, Shakespeare immediately creates tension in reflecting a definitive shift between humanity’s unquestionable relationship with God to a more secular expression, clearly opposing the natural order of the Church. Likewise, in reflecting the secular world and free-will by which America is built upon, Pacino makes minimal reference to providentalism, however dwells upon his own determination to “labour” his “docu-drama type thing.” Evidently, whilst aligning human instinct in demonstrating one’s desire to carve the future, Pacino effectively re-shapes his contemporary text in revealing his own passion for creativity, as reflected in his histrionic despair in “not wanting to say action”, thus resembling Shakespeare’s character of Richard. Accordingly, in examining the desire for freewill in both contexts, the audience are invited to witness the important of loyalty to both protagonists. As reflected in Richard III, Shakespeare disproves Richard’s
The corruption of power prevails across time periods, as initiated by Shakespeare and confirmed by Pacino in Looking for Richard. Undoubtedly, the battle for authority overrules the natural order of a human being, hence the consequent result of destruction and loss. In Richard III, Shakespeare thoroughly examines the nature of power and authority, utilising Richard’s brutal actions to demonstrate that the ends do not justify the means. In the Elizabethan theocracy, power was conferred through hereditary, not merit, hence Richard as a clearly unworthy and unwanted heir to the throne. In granting Richard the opportunity to cement his ‘power’, Shakespeare depicts the protagonist exerting the Machiavellian influence, as seen seducing the young Princes in Act 3, Scene 3, “God keep you from such false friends”, and “Your grace attended to thy sugared words.” Clearly, Shakespeare’s purposeful shaping of this figure through clever word play effectively conveys to the audience the detrimental nature of such power-lust characters, hence his subsequent death by the end …show more content…
The adamant nature of the protagonist to pave his own destiny is revealed similarly in both texts, however expressed according to each particular context. Shakespeare’s providential landscape sees the authority of the monarch prevailing, hence crafting the play as a reflection of both the Queen and God’s handiwork, “Peace may live again, that she may long live God say Amen.” In being “determined to prove a villain”, Shakespeare immediately creates tension in reflecting a definitive shift between humanity’s unquestionable relationship with God to a more secular expression, clearly opposing the natural order of the Church. Likewise, in reflecting the secular world and free-will by which America is built upon, Pacino makes minimal reference to providentalism, however dwells upon his own determination to “labour” his “docu-drama type thing.” Evidently, whilst aligning human instinct in demonstrating one’s desire to carve the future, Pacino effectively re-shapes his contemporary text in revealing his own passion for creativity, as reflected in his histrionic despair in “not wanting to say action”, thus resembling Shakespeare’s character of Richard. Accordingly, in examining the desire for freewill in both contexts, the audience are invited to witness the important of loyalty to both protagonists. As reflected in Richard III, Shakespeare disproves Richard’s