NARRATOR:
Our revels now are ended.
These our actors, as I foretold you...
... were all spirits
and are melted into air...
... into thin air.
And, like the baseless fabric
of this vision...
... the cloud-capp'd towers...
... the gorgeous palaces...
... the solemn temples...
... the great globe itself...
... ye all which it inherit...
... shall dissolve...
... and, like this insubstantial pageant
faded...
... leave not a wisp behind.
We are such stuff
as dreams are made on...
... and our little life
is rounded with a sleep.
Who's gonna say, "Action"?
Should I say it, or should you?
- You wanna say it?
HADGE: You can say it.
- I don't want to. Say it.
SPACEY: You say it.
KIMBALL: And action!
- How do I look?
I can't see anything.
Are they out there?
This is my entrance.
Fuck.
[GROWLS]
MAN 1:
I'm actually reading Richard III...
...and I can't get on with it.
I've been reading it for six months.
You want to do it
with your American accent?
We're getting $40 a day
and all the doughnuts we can eat.
Shakespeare? What the fuck
do you know about Shakespeare?
Arise, fair sun...
...and kill the envious moon.
Like eager droppings into milk,
it doth posset and curd.
Some are born great,
some achieve greatness...
...and some have greatness
thrust upon them.
MAN 2:
Intelligence is hooked with language.
When we speak with no feeling,
we get nothing out of our society.
We should speak like Shakespeare.
We should introduce Shakespeare
into the academics.
You know why? Because then
the kids would have feelings.
PACINO: That's right.
- We have no feelings.
That's why it's easy for us
to shoot each other.
We don't feel for each other,
but if we were taught to feel...
...we wouldn't be so violent.
PACINO: Shakespeare helps us?
He did more than help us.
He instructed us.
PACINO:
Hi. You gonna see the play tonight?
You're gonna see it, huh?
Hello.
MAN 3: How much it cost?
PACINO: It's for free.
- Okay, I'm going.
- Okay.
MAN 4: Thanks a lot.
- Your first Shakespeare play?
- Yeah.
- It'll be interesting. Give it a try.
- I saw Hamlet recently.
- How did you feel about it?
- Did you see it live? It what?
- It sucked.
- It what?
- It sucked. I saw it live.
- It sucked?
- Yeah.
PACINO: Anything in Shakespeare that
made you think it's not close to you...
...or connected to you in any way?
- Yeah, it's boring.
A bank in England uses
Shakespeare as...
Cover my account number.
See, it's a hologram.
They use it as ID to prove
it's a real card.
PACINO:
What do you think of Shakespeare?
He's a great export.
Who's moving in on Shakespeare?
The Japanese.
Because they're kicking
the Americans' ass.
And they're all interested
in Shakespeare.
You know Shakespeare?
William Shakespeare?
We're peddling him on the streets.
I remember our English teacher
sent us to see...
... a local college production
of King Lear.
I went with my girlfriend...
...and after about 10 minutes
of these people:
[BABBLING]
They were doing this kind
of Shakespearean acting.
I just tuned right out. We made out
in the back row and left at intermission.
I was brought up in a school...
...where Shakespeare was taught
very kind of...
...straightforwardly and dully,
to be honest.
We read it aloud and it made no sense,
because there was no connection made.
My own experience...
...was in the fields in Michigan,
where I was raised on a farm...
...and an uncle, who was a Northern
guy, black Northern guy...
...came out of the field one day
and started narrating...
...Antony's speech, the funeral oration.
- From Shakespeare's Julius Caesar?
- Yeah. We'd heard stuff from the Bible...
...but my first time as a kid,
I was hearing...
...great words having great meaning.
KIMBALL:
What brings us to Montreal?
To Paris? To London?
What takes us into dungeons,
to parapets...
- To Japan next.
- To Japan, maybe, is a quest.
PACINO:
It has always been a dream of mine...
... to communicate how I feel
about Shakespeare to other people.
So I asked my friend Frederic Kimball,
who is an actor and a writer...
... and also our colleagues
Michael Hadge...
... and James Bulleit, to join me.
And by taking this one play,
Richard III...
... analyzing it, approaching it
from different angles...
... putting on costumes,
playing out scenes...
... we could communicate
both our passion for it...
... our understanding
that we've come to...
... and in doing that...
... communicate a Shakespeare
that is about how we feel...
... and how we think today. That's
the effort we're gonna give it here.
KIMBALL:
We've done Richard three times. Twice.
You did it at the Studio, we've done it
in Boston and on Broadway.
At least, the head start is that
I've done it. You've done it.
- But the problem, Frederic...
KIMBALL: The audience hasn't done it.
- They haven't done it.
- It's a difficult play.
PACINO: If someone were to ask you
about Richard III...
...what would you remember about it?
To be honest, I really don't remember
that much, if anything at all.
PACINO: Did you know that Richard llI
had a deformed arm and a deformed back?
- No, I didn't.
PACINO: You didn't know that?
The play, Richard III,
about the guy with the humpback?
- No.
- You got me there.
Mm-mm.
PACINO: He was a humpback? "A
horse. A horse. My kingdom for a horse"?
- That comes from Richard III.
MAN 5: It does, yes.
I mean, nobody knows
who Richard llI is.
- Nobody.
HADGE: It's a tough play to get.
The relationships between
those characters.
- Who can keep it straight?
- Well, I think the question is...
...what is the understanding?
I mean, the understanding is...
It's a simply... Can you
follow the story line and the plot?
We've provided this kind of
docudrama-type thing...
...to inform some of the scenes
so you know where you are.
For instance, there's an early scene
with the queen...
... and her brother and her two sons...
... which is outside in an anteroom...
...waiting for the king to call them in
because he is inside, sick.
The queen is worried. She's afraid
the king will die, who is her husband.
And when he dies, the only...
The only people left to inherit the throne
are her two young sons...
...by the king himself.
She has two sons by a previous
marriage, which are in the scene.
And she's afraid that the character I
play, Richard llI of Gloucester...
...is going to take hold
of the situation...
...and somehow manipulate them
into thinking...
...that they're, you know...
That the kids are...
I'm confused just saying it.
I can imagine how you must feel...
...hearing me talk. It's confusing.
I don't know why we even bother
doing this at all.
But we'll give it a little try.
Let's see what we can come up with.
First of all, let's get a smaller...
Let's work out of a smaller book
than this. This is hard to carry.
- Excuse me, but look at this. "Hello?"
- I think...
"Yes. It's my entrance? Oh, I see. "
It's good sometimes that you open it,
and it is Richard, it's not Hamlet.
Sometimes in Shakespeare,
there's a tendency...
...to confuse the plays.
The first act is about a sick king,
and everybody maneuvering...
PACINO: Sure.
... around. I wish that this play...
...could begin...
...on the body...
On the sleeping king...
...Edward IV, your brother, in bed.
PACINO: Yeah.
And it pans up and you are standing
over him, looking at him.
Yeah.
- Yes, but he's alive, the king is alive.
- Yes.
I would prefer having him
off in the distance. I'd like...
- Good. You can watch him.
PACINO: I'd like to walk...
- Frederic? Can you get the other end?
KIMBALL: Yeah.
I'd like... Hi, how are you?
Frederic and I decided to go
to The Cloisters...
... a museum that has
a medieval setting...
... which is good for us because the play
takes place in this period.
We thought we'd rehearse
in this atmosphere.
We're shooting him.
We're shooting him.
I'll be with you in a minute,
if you can just wait for me out there.
- So you're here.
- Okay. Okay.
- And here we are.
- Okay.
Now, you're Richard's brother,
the sick king, and I'm Richard. Okay.
Yes. I move this way,
and you follow me.
- Now...
- How exciting to start with "now. "
You'd wake your audience up,
wouldn't you? "Now!"
Now...
...is the winter of our discontent...
...made...
...glorious summer...
...by this sun of York.
KIMBALL:
It's a pun.
The sun of York is the sun in the sky...
...over the English countryside of York.
York is also your family name,
and you are one of three sons of York.
Let me say it again, then.
Now...
...is the winter of our discontent...
...made glorious summer.
PACINO: I said the opening speech
from Richard to a group of students...
"Our discontent made glorious summer. "
Anybody know what that means?
...who were interested, because I meant
something, didn't know what I meant.
"Now is the winter of our discontent. "
What am I saying?
He is referring to their part...
To the Wars of the Roses.
Before the play Richard llI starts...
...we gotta know a little bit
about what happened before.
What happened is, we've just been
through a civil war...
...called the War of the Roses...
[SWORDS CLANGING]
...in which the Lancasters
and the Yorks clashed.
[HORSE NEIGHS]
Two rival families,
and the Yorks won.
They beat the Lancasters, and they're
now in power. Richard is a York.
PACINO:
My brother Edward is the king now.
And my brother Clarence...
...is not the king,
and me, I'm not the king.
I wanna be the king. It's that simple.
Key word, clearly, is...
Right from the start, is "discontent. "
So Richard, in the very opening scene
of the play, tells us...
... just how badly he feels
about the peacetime world...
... he finds himself in
and what he intends to do about it.
Now is the winter of our discontent
made glorious summer...
...by this sun of York.
And all the clouds
that lour'd on our house...
...in the deep bosom
of the ocean buried.
Part of the trouble is
that the Wars of the Roses...
...the wars for the crown,
are now over...
...because the crown has been won
by the Yorks...
...which means
that they can stop fighting.
Now are our brows...
...bound with victorious wreaths.
Our bruised arms
hung up for monuments.
Our stern alarum changed
to merry meetings.
What do they do
when the fighting stops?
Grim-visaged war...
...hath smooth'd his wrinkled front.
And now, instead of mounting
barbed steeds...
...to fright the souls
of fearful adversaries, he capers...
...nimbly in a lady's chamber...
...to the lascivious pleasings of a lute.
FEMALE SCHOLAR:
And you see lovemaking...
...and relations with the other gender...
...as what you translate
your male aggressions into.
But Richard llI has a little problem here.
But I...
...that am not shaped
for sportive tricks...
...nor made to court...
...an amorous looking-glass.
I, that am curtail'd
of this fair proportion...
...cheated of feature
by dissembling nature, deformed.
- Deformed.
- He was a hunchback.
PACINO:
Deformed. Deformed.
Unfinish'd...
...sent before my time
into this breathing world...
...scarce half made up...
...and that so lamely
and unfashionable...
...that dogs bark at me
as I halt by them.
Why, I, in this weak piping
time of peace...
...have no delight
to pass away the time...
...unless to see my shadow in the sun...
...and descant upon
mine own deformity.
Shakespeare has exaggerated
his deformity...
...in order to body forth dramatically...
...visually, metaphorically...
...the corruption of his mind.
Therefore...
...since I cannot prove a lover...
...to entertain these fair
well-spoken days...
...I am determined to prove a villain...
...and to hate the idle pleasures
of these days.
Richard's always saying:
"Here's the situation and what I'll do.
Watch this. " Then he does it.
Then they leave, he says:
"Wasn't that good, or what?
Did you see? This is fun. "
Plots have I laid...
...inductions dangerous...
...to set my brother Clarence
and the king...
...in deadly hate
the one against the other.
And if King Edward be as true...
...and just as I am subtle,
false and treacherous...
...this day should Clarence
be mew'd up...
...about a prophecy...
...that says that G of Edward's heirs
the murderer shall be.
It's, "This day should Clarence be
mew'd up...
...about a prophecy which says that G
of Edward's heirs. "
[PHONE RINGS]
KIMBALL: Right.
- By "G," what does that mean?
- Yes?
- Clarence...
George, Duke of Clarence.
- His first name is really George.
PACINO: Whose first name?
Clarence's.
That's why he's called "G."
PACINO: Yeah.
KIMBALL: I suggest you change it to "C."
"This day should Clarence be mew'd up
about a prophecy which says that...
...C of Edward's heirs
the murderer shall be. "
C of Edward's heirs
the murderer shall be.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul.
Here Clarence comes.
Cut.
What we gotta do, what we should do,
is get actors in here...
...not audition them,
just get them in...
... and let them just sit around,
just see and read.
We'll have different people read
different roles. Hopefully somehow...
...the role and the actor will merge.
The actor will find the role.
An actor will read one part...
... another actor reads another.
Hopefully, the casting will get done.
PACINO:
Who's got Dorset?
Who's got Dorset?
How about Lord Grey?
Richard will read Dorset.
- He's gonna do Buckingham.
- I thought Jim would do it.
PACINO: He's doing Catesby.
- What do I read?
KIMBALL:
Dorset and Grey are the same people.
PACINO: Dorset and Grey are the same...?
KIMBALL: Yes.
You two guys better sit on each other.
We used two actors in the same part.
It'll take us four weeks of rehearsal
to figure out what parts we're playing.
In more modern plays, we feel that
we understand it. It's there for us.
But in Shakespeare, you have
an entire company on the stage...
...good actors not knowing where
they're going. Where they are!
[MUSIC PLAYING]
PACINO: As Americans, what is that...?
That thing...
...that gets between us
and Shakespeare?
That makes some of our best actors
just stop when it comes to Shakespeare?
The problem with being
an American in Shakespeare...
...is you approach it reverentially.
We have a feeling, I think...
...of inferiority to the way
it has been done by the British.
I think Americans
have been made to feel inhibited...
... because they've been told so long
by their critics...
... by their scholars and commentators...
... that they cannot do Shakespeare.
Therefore they think they can't,
and you become totally self-conscious.
American actors are not self-conscious.
But they are when it comes
to Shakespeare.
Because they've been told they can't
do it, and they foolishly believed that.
Perhaps they don't go to picture galleries
and read books as much as we do.
I think it's the effect
of how everyone looked and behaved...
...that one got a sort of Elizabethan
feeling of period.
Experienced classical actors...
...have a few things that
they can use at a moment's notice.
The understanding of iambic
pentameter, for one thing.
PACINO:
Everybody says, "lambic pentameter. "
What is that supposed to mean?
Some say there are no rules.
I say there are rules...
...like the iambic pentameter,
that must be learned...
...and can be rejected once learned.
"Pentameter" means "meter,"
and "pen," meaning "five. "
So there's five beats.
Which, at its worst, sounds only like:
"Why, so. Now have I done
a good day's work. "
De-da de-da de-da de-da de-da.
And iambic is where the accent goes.
That's de-tum de-tum de-tum de-tum.
And five of them:
Da-da da-da da-da da-da da-da.
Make a pentameter line, five iambs.
An iamb is like an anteater.
Very high in the back
and very short, little front legs. Da-da!
Shakespeare's poetry and his iambics...
...floated and descended
through the pentameter of the soul.
And it's the soul, the spirit of real,
concrete people going through hell...
...and sometimes moments of great...
...achievement and joy.
That is the pentameter
you must focus on...
...and should you find that reality...
... all the iambics will fall into place.
Dive, thoughts, down to my soul.
Here Clarence comes.
Brother, good day.
What means this armed guard
that waits upon your grace?
His majesty tendering my safety,
hath appointed this conduct...
...to convey me to the Tower.
- Upon what cause?
- Because my name is George.
Clarence...
...what is the matter? May I know?
Yea, Richard, as I know. But I protest
as yet I do not. But, as I can learn...
...he hearkens
after prophecies and dreams.
And from the cross-row
plucks the letter G.
And says a wizard told him that by G...
...his children disinherited should be.
And, for my name of George begins with
G, it follows in his thought that I am he.
These, as I learn,
and such like toys as these...
...have moved his highness
to commit me now.
Why, so it is,
when men are ruled by women.
'Tis not the king that sends you
to the Tower, Clarence.
'Tis my Lady Grey his wife, 'tis she
that tempts him to this extremity.
We are not safe, Clarence.
We are not safe.
PACINO: Now, if Richard's
brother Edward was king, right?
And then he dies...
...Clarence, his other brother,
is next in line.
No, the kids were next in line.
After the king's kids came Clarence.
So Richard figures, "I get rid of Clarence,
then work out getting rid of the kids. "
Meantime, this deep disgrace
in brotherhood...
...touches me...
...deeper than you can imagine.
- I know it pleaseth neither of us well.
- Your imprisonment shall not be long.
I will deliver you, else lie for you.
Meantime, have patience.
GUARD 1: It's time, my lord.
- I must perforce.
BALDWIN: Must.
- Farewell.
PACINO: It looks like Richard's plan
is really starting to work.
He got the king to put Clarence
in the Tower...
... by poisoning the king's mind
against him.
So now he's got one brother locked up,
the other brother, who's king, is sick.
So he's in good shape.
He can move around.
He can maneuver. He's got room.
Go...
...tread the path
thou shalt ne'er return.
Simple, plain Clarence!
I do love thee so...
...that I shall shortly send
thy soul to heaven.
GUARD 1: Prisoner approaching.
GUARD 2: Prisoner Hastings exeunt.
Who is this?
The new-deliver'd Hastings?
- Good time of day unto my gracious lord!
- As much unto my good lord Hastings.
Well are you welcome to this open air.
How hath your lordship
brook'd imprisonment?
With patience, noble lord,
as prisoners must.
You can do something
from Shakespeare...
...think that you're feeling it or whatever.
HARRIS: Mm-hm.
You love it.
You think you're communicating it.
And the person you said it to
has not understood a word you said.
You can't believe they didn't.
"Thoust" and, you know...
...just the way it's worded,
that confuses the people of, you know...
...this time period.
HADGE: Shakespeare used a lot
of fancy words. You know?
And it's hard to understand,
to grasp them.
They're not fancy words.
That's where we get confused.
But they're poetry. It's hard
to grab hold of some rap slang too.
It's hard to get hold of it until your ear
gets tuned. You have to tune up.
In a contemporary play, someone says:
"Hey, you. Go over there,
get that thing and bring it to me. "
That would be the line.
Shakespeare says it:
"Be Mercury, set feathers to thy heels...
...and fly like thought
from them to me again. "
The King is weak and sickly...
...and his physicians fear him mightily.
- By Saint John, that news is bad indeed.
O, he hath kept an evil diet long.
You shouldn't have to understand
every single word.
Why? Do you understand every...?
I mean, it's not important.
It doesn't matter.
As long as you get the gist of it.
Just trust it. You'll get it.
ALLEN:
And if he were dead...
...what would betide on me?
No other harm but loss of such a lord.
The loss of such a lord
includes all harm.
They're trying to soothe her
because she is an hysteric.
- She is way out of control.
ALLEN: But does that weaken...
...the reality of what's happening?
KIMBALL: It strengthens
the incompetence of others...
But why should they be incompetent?
- Why make them weaker?
KIMBALL: Because they went to Ludlow...
...with little train
and got their heads cut off.
But then it's no great deed on his part
if you make them weak.
PACINO: They're not weak.
ALLEN: They're not weak...
...nor do I think that they're stupid.
I think...
By diminishing their importance,
you diminish his actions.
- It's bound to happen.
- It's a very human, familial thing to say:
"Calm down. It will be all right. "
But underneath it...
...they know what the scoop is, and I
keep throwing back at them:
"Stop! You know damn well
what's going on. "
And that's why I'm hysterical.
You know it.
If he dies, that's it.
PACINO: Let's start the scene.
- Have patience, madam.
There's no doubt his majesty
will soon recover his accustom'd health.
In that you brook it ill,
it makes him worse.
Therefore, for God's sake,
entertain good comfort.
And cheer his grace
with quick and merry...
And that's the way
you want me to behave, is that it?
If he were dead,
what would betide on me?
No other harm, Mother,
but loss of such a lord.
The loss of such a lord...
...includes all harm.
The heavens have bless'd you
with a goodly son...
...to be your comforter when he's gone.
- Ah, he is young.
His minority is put into the trust
of Richard Gloucester.
A man that loves not me...
...nor none of you.
PACINO:
We gotta come up with ideas, direction.
KIMBALL: We need a plan.
- We've got to start writing prefaces...
...or, like, a list that says,
"Today we'll do these scenes.
I want you to talk about Lady Anne
and what happens to her. "
PACINO: How are you?
How you doing?
PACINO:
How do you feel about Shakespeare?
KIMBALL: This feels good.
PACINO: That's good.
[SPEAKING IN ITALIAN]
PACINO: William Shakespeare?
- William Shakespeare, right.
- Do you like him?
MAN 6: Of course.
Did you ever see Shakespeare?
- I never studied.
- You've never seen?
Never seen the show,
but you still like him?
MAN 6: Sometimes I see
something good on TV.
- Oh, TV.
- I like it.
PACINO: But Shakespeare, you don't see?
MAN 6: No.
- That's too bad.
- There's no Shakespeare on TV.
No. Perfectly fine.
Sometimes it comes on.
"To be or not to be.
That is the question," right?
- Right.
- That is the question.
PACINO: They do me wrong,
and I will not endure it.
I fear our happiness is at its height.
Who is it that complains
unto the king...
...that I, forsooth, am stern,
and love them not?
Because I cannot flatter...
...look fair, smile in men's faces...
...deceive, cog, duck with French nods
and apish courtesy...
...I must be held a rancorous enemy.
The world they live in...
...the world they exist in
is privy to these kinds of...
- Is internecine family quarrel.
PACINO: That's right.
They are clawing at each other
for the throne.
Brother Gloucester,
we know your meaning.
You envy my advancement
and my friends'.
God grant we may never
have need of you!
Meantime, God grants
that I have need of you.
Our brother is imprison'd
by your means...
...myself disgraced...
...the nobility of the house
held in contempt...
...while great promotions
are daily given to ennoble those...
...that scarce, some two days since,
were worth a noble.
By Him that raised me
to this careful height...
...from that contented hap
which I enjoy'd...
...I never did incense his majesty
against the Duke of Clarence.
You're gonna say you are not the mean
of my Lord Hastings' late imprisonment?
You see? Richard's stirring the pot.
The king is dying,
so he's fearful and paranoid...
... and sending people to jail.
This is a situation Richard loves.
He can use the fear...
... the turmoil to his advantage.
He knows they hate each other.
He'll use their hatred
to manipulate them.
You know, to divide, then conquer.
My Lord of Gloucester,
I have too long borne...
...these blunt upbraidings
and these bitter scoffs.
By heaven, I will acquaint his majesty
of these gross taunts.
- I'd rather be a country servant...
PACINO: What!
Threat you me with telling of the king?
Tell him, and spare not.
Let me put it in your minds,
if you forget...
...what you are ere this,
and what you are.
Withal, what I have been,
and what I am.
A murderous villain,
and so still thou art.
PACINO:
Well, it is a complicated play too.
All those relationships and the wives,
the Queen Margaret stuff is difficult.
Hear me, you wrangling pirates,
that fall out...
...in sharing that which
you have pill'd from me!
PACINO: Margaret was the queen
before the war.
She was a Lancaster,
and she was dethroned by the Yorks.
She's a ghost of the past,
haunting the Yorks with her curses.
A husband and a son...
Don't you think she rants and raves
around the castle like this a lot?
PARSONS: No!
ALLEN: No?
I don't think so.
I think she just comes in this day...
...because it's a crisis time.
She feels it.
Give way, dull clouds,
to my quick curses!
It's primordial.
She brings that kind of music
into this experience.
Poor painted queen.
The day will come that thou shalt wish
for me to help thee...
...curse this poisonous
bunchback'd toad.
LINDFORS: Reading this play,
as I take word by word...
...everything she says happens.
Beware of yonder dog! Look.
Have not to do with him,
beware of him.
Sin, death, and hell
have set their marks on him...
...and all their messengers
await on him.
PACINO: Thou hateful wither'd hag,
have done thy charm.
And leave out thee?
Stay, dog, for thou shalt hear me.
The worm of conscience
still begnaw thy soul.
Thou elvish-mark'd, abortive,
rooting hog.
Live each of you
the subjects to his hate...
...and he to yours,
and all of you to God's!
We don't say a word. We let her go.
REDGRAVE: The music...
Literally, I mean the music...
... and the thoughts and the concepts...
... and the feelings have not been
divorced from the words.
In England, you've had centuries in
which word has been totally divorced...
...from truth, and that's a problem
for us actors.
If we think words are things
and have no feelings in words...
...then we say things to each other
that mean nothing.
But if we felt what we said,
we'd say less and mean more.
Spare some change?
Lt'd be interesting to see where he...
- Is that possibly...?
- Where Shakespeare was born.
PACINO: I think that's Shakespeare
up there in the window.
Knock first. Knock, Frederic.
PACINO: Hello. Frederic, you've...
KIMBALL: Okay.
- Where was William Shakespeare born?
- There's the bed of birth.
KIMBALL: You gotta be kidding.
- I wouldn't kid about a thing like that.
It's too late.
It's a very, very small bed.
I was expecting to have an epiphany...
...an outpouring of the soul
upon seeing...
- Go out and come in again.
- Where he was born.
If you're really an actor, you can come
back and have an epiphany. I did.
[SIREN WAILING]
- Only...
- Did you have one?
- I did not see it.
- I'm not showing it. It's an inner one.
We're not alone.
- Every once in a while...
- There's a fire truck out there.
- I think we tripped an alarm.
- We should pause and think...
You talked too loud
and it set off an alarm.
MAN 7: Fire alarm. I got the fire officer.
KIMBALL: We set it off.
PACINO: There's a fireman. Oh, yes.
- Hello.
Unfortunately, the sensor head is here.
There.
That's going to be the problem.
Yeah? What is it? Is it...?
That's a real bummer.
We come 6000 miles to see
where he was born...
FEMALE SCHOLAR:
It's the greatest period in British arts.
This extraordinary development
and maturing and death of drama.
In 20 years, Shakespeare's over.
You have our greatest drama.
And Shakespeare learns incredibly fast.
Already, in this very early play,
he's thinking about people as actors...
...and about the stage.
And the imagination as a bit of life.
Hey, Jimmy?
How's the sandwich?
We're gonna bite the bullet
and do Act 2 of the play.
What we said was,
we're gonna shoot Richard's death...
...and murder of Clarence, and that's it.
- No, the king makes peace.
What are you saying?
We got an end of a movie to shoot.
"My horse... " "A horse. A horse.
My kingdom for a horse. "
Fellas, the cops are here.
Police say we need a permit.
You said you'd take care of things.
What, I need...?
Why do I need a permit?
We have to give up a meal like this?
OFFICER:
You have to go, guys. You have to go.
PACINO:
Hope you like turkey.
So, we are gonna get...
...a young Lady Anne.
I want somebody very young.
KIMBALL:
Very young. How young?
As young as you can get...
...and be able to do Shakespeare
and understand the scenes.
Someone young enough to believe...
...in Richard's rap.
KIMBALL: The problem is, we need
someone who can speak the part...
...which is why you always have
an older actress...
...because it takes maturity.
- You know, we don't need...
The problem of projecting the role...
...because it's a film, so we won't have
the need for the actor to project.
- We need a film actress.
- Great, great.
Someone like...
We'll think of someone.
Well...
PACINO:
I will marry the beautiful Lady Anne.
What though I kill'd her husband
and his father?
The readiest way to make
the wench amends...
...is to become her husband
and her father.
SCHOLAR 3: This language is
the language of thoughts.
To do this in the theater,
you must speak loud.
There are very few actors who can
speak loud and still be truthful.
That's the actor's problem.
Every actor knows the quieter he is,
the closer he can be to himself.
When you play Shakespeare...
...in close-up, in a film...
...and have a mike
and can really speak the verse...
... as quietly as this, you are not going
against the nature of verse.
You're going in the right direction
because you're allowing the verse...
...to be a man speaking his inner world.
RYDER:
Set down...
...set down your honourable load...
...if honour may be shrouded in a hearse.
PACINO: Was ever woman
in this humour woo'd?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
I'll have her.
I'll have her.
But I will not keep her long.
He says he'll have her...
...but he will not keep her long.
HADGE: You're asking why he wants her?
Well, I think it's clear,
he's out to get this girl.
To take her...
...in her heart's extremest hate.
[PACINO GROANS]
He's killed her husband
in the civil war.
Tears in her eyes!
And murdered her father-in-law.
The bleeding witness of my hatred by.
He's out to get her.
To win her!
Ha.
I pour the helpless balm
of my poor eyes.
Her mourning is genuine
because she loved...
KIMBALL: She goes out on the street, and
is it an accident that she meets Richard...
...the man who killed this man
and her husband?
Is it not possible that if...?
Did she have any idea...
...that if she went out with a corpse...
...making stops...?
You don't like that?
Does anybody have a better thing
than Frederic on this?
You just said that we didn't
answer the question...
...that what was...
PACINO: Did that upset you?
No. Then what did you say?
You said you were gonna find
a scholar...
...who'd speak directly into the camera
and explain...
...what really happened
with Richard and Anne.
And I am telling you that
that is absolutely ridiculous.
You know more about Richard III...
...than any fucking scholar
at Columbia or Harvard.
PACINO: Fred.
- This is ridiculous!
You are making this documentary
to show that actors...
...truly are the possessors
of a tradition...
...the proud inheritors
of the understanding of Shakespeare.
Then you turn around and say,
"I'm gonna get a scholar to explain it. "
- This is ridiculous!
PACINO: I hereby knight you, Frederic.
- Ph. D.
PACINO: Ph. D. Of the realm.
- Oh, God. Ridiculous.
- No, but the point is this, Frederic.
A person has an opinion.
It's only an opinion.
- It's never a question of right or wrong.
- There's no right or wrong.
It's an opinion. And a scholar
has a right to an opinion as any of us.
But why does he get to speak
directly to the camera?
I don't really know why
he needed to marry her, historically.
I simply don't know.
Um, it's...
PACINO:
Stay, you that bear the corse.
Set it down.
Villains, set down the corse.
Or, by Saint Paul,
I'll make a corse of him that disobeys.
My lord, stand back,
and let the coffin pass.
Unmanner'd dog!
Stand thou, when I command.
Advance thy halbert...
...higher than my breast, or, by
Saint Paul, I'll strike thee to my foot.
Spurn upon thee, beggar,
for thy boldness.
Richard needs Anne...
... because he wants to be king.
So he needs a queen.
Anne is perfect for the job.
Also, she needs protection.
Because she was on the losing side
of the War of the Roses.
She's young, she has no husband.
Basically, she has no future.
For Richard, she's someone
who'd represent...
... the other side,
the Lancasters coming to his side.
It says to the public that Anne has
forgiven him for killing her husband...
... therefore exonerating him
from his crime.
And thou unfit for any place but hell.
Yes, one place else...
...if you'll hear me name it.
Some dungeon.
Your bed-chamber.
I'll have her.
Gentle Lady Anne...
...to leave this keen encounter
of our wits...
...and to fall something
into a slower method...
...was not the causer of the timeless
deaths of these two men...
...Henry and Edward,
as blameful as the executioner?
Thou was the cause,
and the accursed effect.
Thy beauty was the cause
of that effect.
Thy beauty.
That did haunt me in my sleep...
...to undertake the death
of all the world...
...that I might live one hour
in your sweet bosom.
Teach not thy lip such scorn.
It was made for kissing, lady...
...not for such contempt.
If thy revengeful heart cannot forgive...
...lo, here. Here...
...I lend thee this sharp-pointed dagger.
If thou wish to hide in this true breast.
And let forth the soul
that adoreth thee...
...I lay it naked to the deadly stroke...
...and I humbly beg the death
upon my knee.
Nay, do not pause.
For I did kill King Henry...
...but 'twas thy beauty
that provoked me.
Nay, now dispatch.
'Twas I stabbed Edward...
...but 'twas thy heavenly face
that set me on.
Take up the sword again,
or take up me.
Though I wish thy death,
I will not be thy executioner.
Bid me kill myself. I will do it.
- I have already.
- That was in thy rage.
Speak it again...
...and, even with the word,
this hand...
...which, for thy love,
did kill thy love...
...will, for thy love, kill a far truer love.
- I would I knew thy heart.
- My heart is figured in my tongue.
Well, put up your sword.
Say, then, my peace is made.
That shalt thou know hereafter.
[METAL CLATTERS]
Shall I live in hope?
All men, I hope, live so.
Vouchsafe to wear this ring.
To take is not to give.
Look, how my ring
encompasseth thy finger.
Even so...
...thy breast encloseth my poor heart.
Wear both of them...
...for both of them are thine.
Leave these sad designs...
...to him that hath most cause
to be a mourner.
With all of my heart...
...and much it joys me too,
to see you have become so penitent.
Ha!
- Tressel and Berkeley.
TRESSEL & BERKELEY: Yes, madam.
RYDER:
Go along with me.
Bid me farewell.
Since you teach me
how to flatter you...
...imagine that I will say
farewell again.
PACINO: Was ever woman
in this humour woo'd?
Was ever woman in this humour won?
I'll have her.
[LAUGHING]
But I will not keep her long!
HADGE: We'll never finish this movie.
- It's got to be what it is.
How much more will we shoot?
It's a movie about a play.
We're making a documentary about
making Shakespeare accessible to people.
Those people, the people in the street.
They're not gonna get Richard III.
I can't even get it, it's too complicated.
Then why is it Shakespeare's
most popular play?
- Wait, what did you say?
- Who says it's popular?
It is! It's performed more than Hamlet.
So what?
I run before my horse to market.
Clarence still lives and breathes.
Edward still reigns.
When they are gone...
...then must I count my gains.
[DOOR SLAMS]
PACINO:
But, soft! Here come my executioners.
Are you going to dispatch this thing?
We are, my lord.
Come to have the warrant...
...that we may be admitted
to where he is.
Well thought upon.
I have it here about me.
But, sirs, be sudden in your execution.
Do not hear him plead.
For Clarence is well-spoken...
...and may move your hearts to pity
if you mark him.
Be assured we go to use our hands...
...not our tongues.
PACINO: I like you, lads.
About your business straight.
We will, my noble lord.
Go, go, dispatch.
KIMBALL:
Here's a place for the Clarence scene.
Just get Clarence very tight...
...in here, and you have all of the dead
pigeon feathers...
...and the guano and the texture...
...of the wall.
Just imagine you're close in.
PACINO:
It doesn't work.
It's not just the pigeon stuff.
It doesn't work. It has no sense of...
- What are you...? When...?
KIMBALL: No enclosure.
Frederic, it's pointless.
HADGE: For God's sakes, it's a prison.
- We need a place...
...where Clarence
is being held prisoner.
It's gotta be a... It's a prison.
Aha. See the tower?
It's going to be in the chamber...
...where the bell ringing unit is.
It's a really beautiful space.
It's got this shaft of white light
coming down from the top.
JIM:
That's where we'd place that.
This is nice. Nice light.
GUILFO YLE:
Shall we stab him as he sleeps?
MACVITTIE: No. He'll say it was
done cowardly, when he wakes.
GUILFO YLE: He shall never wake
until the great judgment-day.
Faith, certain dregs of conscience
are here within me.
Remember our reward,
when the deed is done.
- Come, he dies.
- Where's thy conscience now?
In the Duke of Gloucester's purse.
When he opens his purse
to give us thy reward...
...thy conscience flies out.
- 'Tis no matter.
- Few or none entertain it.
- What if it come to thee again?
I'll not meddle with it.
It makes a man a coward.
A man cannot steal, but it accuseth him.
A man cannot lie, but it cheques him.
A man cannot lie
with his neighbor's wife...
...but it detects him.
And any man that means to live well...
...endeavors to trust to himself
and live without it.
Come...
...shall we fall to work?
PACINO: While this is going on with
Clarence, his brother is in the castle...
... trying to make peace.
KIMBALL: They've been summoned
for the atonement meeting.
That's why everybody
is in the castle.
The making peace.
The king's family
are in incredible conflict.
He dares not die until he knows they
won't pull the whole thing apart...
...as soon as he's dead.
I every day expect an embassage
from my Redeemer to redeem me hence.
PACINO: The king wants this peace to
happen because he wants to make sure...
... that after he's gone
his children will continue the reign.
He and his wife must hope...
...that they will.
We know that you have another agenda.
Strike!
No, we'll reason with him first.
Where art thou, keeper?
Give me a cup of wine.
You shall have wine enough,
my lord...
...anon.
In God's name, what art thou?
A man...
...as you are.
- But not, as I am, royal.
- Nor you, as we are, loyal.
Who sent you hither?
Wherefore do you come?
To...
To...
- To murder me?
- Ay.
Ay.
Wherein, my friends,
have I offended you?
Offended us you have not...
...but the king.
I shall be reconciled to him again.
GUILFO YLE:
Never, my lord.
Therefore...
...prepare to die.
Hastings.
Rivers, take each other's hand.
Dissemble not your hatred...
...swear your love.
So prosper I...
...as I swear perfect love!
And so swear I.
Madam, yourself is not
exempt from this.
Wife, love Lord Hastings...
...let him kiss your hand.
ALLEN:
There, Hastings.
I never more shall remember
our former hatred...
...so thrive I and mine.
LINDFORS:
Do they really believe all this?
Do they really believe it when you say,
"Take their hand"?
PACINO: It's a vow.
KIMBALL: A solemn vow.
In this time, that's a solemn thing.
Only people who want to go to hell
would make vows and not keep them.
If you are hired for meed...
...go back again, and I will send you
to my brother Richard...
...who shall reward you better
for my life...
...than Edward will
for tidings of my death.
Come, you deceive yourself. 'Tis he
that sends us to destroy you here.
It cannot be...
...for he bewept my fortune...
... and swore, with sobs,
that he would labor my delivery.
PACINO: Touches me deeper
than you can imagine.
MACVITTIE:
So he doth...
...when he delivers you from this earth's
thraldom to the joys of heaven.
GUILFO YLE:
Make peace with God...
...for you must die, my lord.
Have you that holy feeling
in your soul...
...to counsel me to make my peace
with God?
And are you yet to your own souls...
...so blind, that you wilt war with God
by murdering me?
O sirs...
...consider, those that set you on
to do this deed...
...will hate you for the deed.
What shall we do?
Relent...
...and save your souls.
Relent! No. 'Tis cowardly and womanish.
Not to relent is brutish...
...savage...
...devilish.
My friend...
...I spy some pity in thy looks.
O, if thine eye be not a flatterer, come
thou on my side, and entreat for me...
...as you would beg,
were you in my distress.
A begging prince
what beggar pities not?
Look behind you, my lord.
Is Clarence dead?
The order was reversed.
But he, poor man,
by your first order died.
YULIN: Have I a tongue to doom
my brother's death?
My brother killed no man.
His fault was thought...
...and yet his punishment
was bitter death.
Who sued to me for him?
Who kneel'd at my feet,
and in my wrath, bid me be advised?
Who spoke of brotherhood?
Who spoke of love?
The proudest of you all...
...have been beholding to him
in his life.
Yet not one of you
would once beg for his life.
O God, I fear thy justice
will take hold on me, and you...
...and mine, and yours for this!
Come, Hastings, help me to my closet.
WOMAN 1: What is it in theater?
Why do we want to do it?
We want to do theater
because of that personal presence.
West Germany gave a billion dollars
a year to the arts.
I gave up a TV movie in France
to do Richard llI in Milwaukee.
I was talking to my teacher,
and she said, "You will benefit. "
Kevin Costner did that TV show.
- You lost out. Look at his career.
- He's afraid to do Shakespeare.
No, he's in the other room practicing.
PACINO: The Anointed Shakespeare.
WOMAN 2: "Annotated. "
It's got beautiful pictures.
It's got beautiful pictures.
That's what I like about Shakespeare,
the pictures.
HADGE:
He's dead. Okay.
Okay.
Well, what are we gonna do?
- Okay.
- I like it.
What next?
What do you mean, you like it?
MAN 8: What time is it?
MAN 9: 3:30.
MAN 8:
What are they doing, do you know?
MAN 9: Freddie said something
about burying the king.
MAN 8:
Is that in the play?
[CHURCH BELL RINGING]
[WOMAN CRYING]
PACINO: Here it goes. This is it.
KIMBALL: This is the crunch.
PACINO: Now we can say Richard
is the most powerful man at this point...
...alive.
All of us have cause to wail
the dimming of our shining star.
KIMBALL:
The crisis is...
...are they going to live by the words
that they spoke to the king...
... or are they not?
Is the peace going to hold?
I hope the king made peace
with all of us...
...and that compact is firm
and true in me.
- And so in me.
- And so say I.
Then go we to determine...
...who they shall be
that shall post to Ludlow.
Who is going to go to Ludlow
to get the young prince...
...and bring him back to be king?
Who's gonna do it?
And Buckingham says,
"Whoever does do it...
...we go along too. "
SPACEY: Whoever journeys to the Prince,
let not us two stay at home.
Buckingham decides politically
to align himself with Richard.
He does everything for him
in order to...
...help him, obviously wanting
to help himself.
When I am king...
...claim thou of me
the earldom of Hereford...
...and the moveables whereof
the king my brother was possess'd.
SPACEY: Buckingham is like
the secretary of state.
Like the guys who did
the Iran-Contra stuff, the dirty work.
PACINO: Mm-hm.
- Propped up the king.
PACINO: Without Buckingham,
there's no Richard as king.
- Right. He couldn't do it alone.
- Mm-hm.
But then, they never can.
Shakespeare saw Richard Gloucester
and Buckingham as gangsters.
They were thugs.
High-class, upper-class thugs.
There's been no influence here,
has there? No influence.
ALLEN:
What is thy news?
Lord Rivers and Lord Grey
are sent to Pomfret...
... and with them Sir Thomas Vaughan...
... prisoners.
ALLEN:
Who hath committed them?
The mighty dukes
Gloucester and Buckingham.
You're a pretty smart guy.
I can see it.
I see the ruin of my house.
Insulting tyranny begins to jet upon
the innocent and aweless throne.
I can see it...
...as in a map, the end of all.
PACINO: Now, Richard and Buckingham
have betrayed everybody.
They lied. They went to Ludlow
to pick up this prince.
They were supposed
to be peaceful.
They forced him out
from under his uncle's arms...
- ... and they've stolen this kid.
KIMBALL: They're bringing him back.
What they have really got there
is the throne of England...
- ... in their arms.
PACINO: The future.
KIMBALL:
They've got it.
[PACINO & KIMBALL SING "HE'S GO THE WHOLE WORLD IN HIS HANDS"]
PACINO:
Now is the winter of our discontent...
... made glorious summer...
... by this sun of York.
Welcome...
...to London.
CURATOR:
This is the first chance since 1640s...
...to see the Globe Theatre.
This is where Shakespeare...
...wrote his plays, where he acted.
- Shakespeare owned it.
PACINO: So this is the spot?
If you stand in the middle of it,
what happens?
It's like a sounding board,
like a resonating chamber.
- You can hear the wonderful acoustics.
- I hear it already.
Now is the winter of our discontent...
...made glorious summer...
...by this sun of York.
And all the clouds
that lour'd on our house...
...in the deep bosom of the ocean...
- Hi. Are you working on this?
- I am. I've been recording it since 1980.
- You've been recording this since 1980?
- Yeah. The whole shebang.
- Really?
- And who is this?
This is the son of one of the builders.
PACINO:
Welcome, sweet prince, to London.
My thoughts' sovereign.
The weary way
hath made you melancholy.
- I want more uncles here to welcome me.
- Sweet prince...
...those uncles which you want
were dangerous.
Your grace attended
to their sugar'd words...
...but look'd not on the poison
of their hearts.
God keep you from such false friends!
God keep me from false friends!
But they were none.
The mayor of London
comes to greet you.
Okay, now they got the kids. They got
the young prince who'll be king.
- They got his brother.
KIMBALL: Richard has a happy family.
PACINO:
Yeah. Somebody's gotta go.
Will't please you pass along?
Myself and Buckingham
entreat your mother to come...
...and welcome you at the Tower.
What, will you go unto the Tower,
my lord?
- What should you fear at the Tower?
- Nothing.
PACINO:
Why has he put them in the Tower?
He's going to kill them.
The Tower is where they execute...
They chop people's heads off.
There are many rooms up there.
So it can also go for meetings
and different places.
But there is one specific spot
up there...
...where they...
They do the...
You know, do the thing.
The one person who is in line is a child.
What a wonderful opportunity
for all of us to get what we want.
- Of course.
- I'll basically be running the country.
PACINO: One person's standing
in their way: Lord Hastings.
Hastings loves this kid, the prince.
He really wants him to be
the next king.
Though the kid's in the Tower,
he believes he will be.
KIMBALL: He's tough.
PACINO: Tough Guy Hastings.
He was the former king's
closest friend.
They even shared a mistress.
Mistress Shore. Who is she?
KIMBALL: She's Shakespeare's device
to connect Hastings and the king.
- They share the same woman.
PACINO: Good idea.
Hastings is a great threat
to Richard and Buckingham.
KIMBALL: He can stop them,
so they have to stop him.
SPACEY:
What shall we do...
...if we perceive Lord Hastings
will not yield to our complots?
Chop off his head.
CONWAY:
What are you talking about, Richard?
You mean Richard wear the crown?
BRYGGMAN:
I think it's the only way.
- Think about it.
- Let me tell you something.
I'll have this crown...
...this crown ripped off...
...and shoved into a cow's belly...
...before I would allow that scum
to defile the crown...
...by putting it on his head.
SCHOLAR 3: The text is only a means
of expressing what's behind the text.
If you get obsessed with the text...
This is a barrier to American actors...
...who get obsessed with the British
way of regarding a text.
That isn't what matters. What matters
is that you have to penetrate...
...into what, at every moment,
it's about.
So at this point, Hastings does not
take the threat of Richard seriously?
KIMBALL:
Absolutely not.
Anything can go on.
You think that this guy...?
PACINO: So now we've got Stanley.
Lord Stanley.
He's a friend of Hastings
and he's trying to convince him...
... they should get out of the country
because Richard's planning a takeover.
Some treachery,
at the council meeting...
... to pick the prince's coronation date.
My noble lords. The cause why we are
met is, to determine of the coronation.
In God's name, speak.
When is the royal day?
- Is all things ready for the royal time?
- It is, and wants but nomination.
To-morrow, then, I judge a happy day.
Tomorrow has been prepared
as a great feast day...
...of coronation and requires only
that we at this table say yes.
We think we have been brought together
just to rubber-stamp the prince.
PACINO: It's a fait accompli,
the prince will be king.
They're just there to pick the date.
SPACEY:
Who knows Richard's mind in all this?
Who is the most inward
with the noble duke?
On the duke's behalf
I'll give my voice...
...which, I presume,
he'll take in gentle part.
In happy time,
here comes the gentle duke.
My noble lords and cousins all,
good morrow.
I have been long a sleeper.
But I trust...
...my absence doth neglect no design,
which might have been concluded.
Had you not come, my lord...
...William Lord Hastings
had pronounced your part...
I mean, your voice...
...for crowning of the king.
PACINO:
Than no man might be bolder.
His lordship knows me well,
and loves me well. My lord of Ely!
When last I was in Holborn...
...I saw good strawberries
in your garden there...
...I do beseech you send
for some of them.
KIMBALL:
Marry, and will, my lord.
Cousin of Buckingham,
a word with you.
Remember we talked the other day
about a gathering of dons, in a way.
There's a lot of suspicion in this room.
I think there's a danger
to be in this room.
All of us in one spot.
And it's like somebody says,
"Just wait here, I'll be back. "
Or, you know, "Wait in this room... "
And it's been like, "What's going on?"
PACINO: It's simple.
They have to cut out Hastings...
... and only Richard
has the power to do it.
He's royal, a York,
but he must move fast.
It's his last chance to stop Hastings
from making the prince king.
KIMBALL: They'll suck in Hastings
using his mistress, Jane Shore, as bait.
Provoke him to say the wrong thing.
PACINO: Then everyone has to make a
choice, either Richard or Hastings.
Where is my lord, the Duke of Gloucester?
I have sent for these strawberries.
His grace looks cheerfully
and smooth this morning.
There's some conceit
or other likes him well...
...with that he bids good morrow
with such spirit.
There's never a man in Christendom
can lesser hide his love or hate than he.
For by his face straight
shall you know his heart.
What of his heart perceive you
by any livelihood he show'd to-day?
Marry, that with no man here
he is offended.
For, if he were,
you'd seen it in his looks.
I pray you all...
...tell me what they deserve...
...that do conspire my death...
...with devilish plots
of damned witchcraft...
...and that have prevail'd
upon my body...
...with their hellish charms?
The tender love I bear your grace,
my lord, makes me most forward...
...in this princely presence to doom
the offenders, whosoe'er they be.
I say, my lord,
they have deserved death.
Then be your eyes
the witness of their ill.
Look...
...how I am bewitch'd.
Behold mine arm...
...like a blasted sapling, wither'd up.
And this is Edward's wife...
...that monstrous witch...
...consorted with the harlot
strumpet Shore...
...that by their witchcraft...
...thus have marked me.
- Lf they have done this deed...
- If!
Lf...
...thou protector of this
damned strumpet...
Talkest thou to me of "ifs"?
Off with his head!
Now, by Saint Paul...
...I swear, I will not dine
until I see the same.
Lovel and Ratcliffe,
look that it be done.
The rest, that love me...
...rise and follow me.
MAN 9:
Stan...
Stanley!
Stan...
Woe for England!
Not a whit for me.
For I, too fond,
might have prevented this.
Come, dispatch.
'Tis bootless to exclaim.
Bloody Richard!
PACINO:
Hastings was the fly in the ointment.
The path is clear
for Buckingham and Richard.
They got the inner circle. They've
intimidated all the dukes and earls.
So now...
... all that's left is winning the people.
SPACEY: Every time there's an election
in this country, whether for mayor...
... president or city council...
...the fact is people are tired of the way
it's been and want a change.
How now, how now,
what say the citizens?
Now, by the holy mother of our Lord,
the citizens are mum.
I expected them to be boisterous,
and that they would come and rally.
- Did they so?
- No...
...so God help me,
they spake not a word.
But, like dumb statues, stared each
other on, and look'd deadly pale.
And did they so?
No!
What, are you deaf?
I'm saying, whatever their reaction...
...we had this plan.
- We still had it.
SPACEY:
So they're being told...
... that here, right before your eyes,
is the man who will make it better.
And, see...
...a book of prayer in his hand,
true ornaments...
...to know a holy man.
Irony is really only hypocrisy with style.
Here again, we love
Richard's irony, in a way.
We know he's as hard as nails,
that he's only pretending to be religious.
PACINO: They canvass like politicians.
Complete with lies and innuendo...
... they manage...
... to malign this young prince,
who is the rightful heir to the throne.
And they know it.
Infer the bastardy of Edward's children.
And they say he was a bastard...
... that his father was a bastard.
It's an act, and these people buy it.
It's a complete lie.
SPACEY:
We heartily solicit you...
...to take on the kingly government
of this your land...
...not as protector, steward, substitute,
or lowly factor for another's gain.
But as successively
from blood to blood...
...your right of birth,
your empery, your own.
Since you will buckle fortune
on my back...
...to bear her burden,
whether I will or no...
...I must have patience
to endure the load.
CROWD: Long live Richard,
England's worthy king!
Long live King Richard!
In the midst of these noble concepts,
these treaties and diplomatic pacts...
...he was saying
the truth beneath all this...
...is absolutely the opposite.
The truth is that those in power...
...have total contempt
for everything they promise...
...everything they pledge.
And that's what Shakespeare's
great play is about.
The reason why Shakespeare
is really important...
...is because, in the Talmudic theme...
I've taken Lady Macbeth
and put her in a rock 'n' roll context.
She's singing the blues.
Which is really a yin-yang or Chinese.
Hamlet's like every kid
who's freaked out...
...his mother, his father...
The way to truly live is to hold
both points of view at the same time.
I have them singing the blues,
doing the beat.
But an American audience
gets intimidated. They hear "Hamlet. "
They hear "Shakespeare. "
You must get me out of this.
Get me out of this documentary.
This idea was a bad idea.
It's gone too far.
- Take you away from all this?
- I wanna go. I wanna...
I want to be the king.
I want to be king, Frederic.
Make me king.
CROWD: Long live Richard,
England's worthy king!
Long live Richard,
England's worthy king!
KIMBALL: As soon as he gets what
he wants, Lady Anne, the crown...
...then the whole thing...
- The emptiness of it.
- Cousin of Buckingham!
- My gracious sovereign?
PACINO:
Give me thy hand.
Thus high, by thy advice
and thy assistance...
...is King Richard...
...seated.
But shall we wear
these glories for a day?
Or shall they last...
...and we rejoice in them?
Still they live and for ever
may they last!
Buckingham...
...now do I play the touch.
Young Edward lives.
Think now what I would speak.
Say on, my loving lord.
Shall I be plain?
I wish the bastards...
...dead.
Why is it necessary now to kill them?
You're king. What difference...?
- It's...
- But as long as they live.
What sayest thou now?
Speak suddenly. Be brief.
Your grace may do his pleasure.
Thou art all ice...
...thy kindness freezeth.
FEMALE SCHOLAR:
Everybody may have a price...
...but for a lot of people,
there is a fundamental decency.
It takes a long time for them
to reach that point.
The action of the play,
the sense of exciting movement...
...is Richard's finding out the point
beyond which people won't go.
PACINO:
Say, then that I have thy consent...
...that they shall die?
It's an interesting question...
...about where Buckingham is...
How far he's willing to go,
where he's willing to draw the line.
It's as if everything Buckingham
does in the play...
...somehow manages
to keep the blood off his hands.
Give me some little breath,
some pause, dear my lord...
...before I speak positively in this.
I shall resolve you herein presently.
The king is angry.
None are for me...
...that look into me
with considerate eyes.
He is bound to be left alone...
...because nobody can love the king...
...beyond the degree of their own egoism
or their own goodness.
There will be a point.
He has reached Buckingham's point.
That deep-revolving...
...witty Buckingham...
...shall no longer be neighbor
to my counsels.
What?
Hath he held out with me
so long, untired...
...stops he now for breath?
Well...
...so be it.
When he went away, did he agree
to do it, or was he gonna say:
"I can't, but give me
what you promised"?
I think he's come back and says:
"Okay. We have to do it,
let's bite the bullet. Let's do it. "
But he's too late.
My Lord, I have consider'd in my mind
the late request...
...that you did sound me in.
- Well, let that rest.
- Dorset is fled to Richmond.
SPACEY: I hear the news, my lord.
PACINO: Stanley.
BRYGGMAN: Yes, my sovereign?
PACINO:
Richmond is your wife's son...
...look to it.
My lord...
...I claim the gift...
...my due of promise...
...which your honor and your faith
is pawn'd.
The earldom of Hereford and moveables
which you promised I shall possess.
Stanley...
...look to your wife.
If she convey letters to Richmond,
you shall answer it.
What says your highness
to my high request?
I do remember me,
Henry the Sixth did prophesy...
...when Richmond was just a little boy
that Richmond would be king.
Perhaps.
- Perhaps...
- My lord! The earldom...
PACINO:
Richmond!
When last I was in Exeter...
...the mayor in courtesy
show'd me the castle there...
...and call'd it Rougemont.
[PACINO LAUGHS]
At which name I started,
because a bard of Ireland told me once...
...that I should not live long
after I saw Richmond.
- My Lord!
- Ay, what's o'clock?
I am thus bold to put your grace in mind
of what you promised me.
Ay, but what's o'clock?
Upon the stroke of ten.
- Let it strike.
SPACEY: Why let it strike?
Because...
...that, like a Jack...
...thou keep'st the stroke, tick-tock...
...betwixt your begging...
...and my meditation.
Tick-tock.
I am not...
...in the giving vein to-day.
May it please your grace...
...to resolve me in my suit?
Thou troublest me.
I am not...
...in the vein.
Thou dost scorn me
for my gentle counsel?
And soothe the devil
that I warn thee from?
O, but remember this another day...
...when he shall split
thy very heart with sorrow...
...and say poor Margaret...
...was a prophetess!
And thus be it so?
Repays me my deep service
with such contempt...
...made I him king for this?
O, let me think on Hastings,
and be gone...
...to Brecknock...
...while my fearful head is on!
You stand on brittle ground.
Will it last,
or will someone next week say:
"Hey, they got a bum rap.
Let's push the case of the kids"?
The kids have got to go.
Is thy name Tyrell?
James Tyrell...
...and your most obedient subject.
Darest thou resolve
to kill a friend of mine?
Please you.
But I had rather kill two enemies.
Thou hast it.
Two deep enemies, foes to my rest
and sweet sleep's disturbers...
...are they that I would have thee
deal upon.
Tyrell...
...I mean those bastards in the Tower.
Let me have open means
to come to them...
...and soon I'll rid you
from the fear of them.
Say it is done...
...and I will love thee,
and prefer thee for it.
I will dispatch it straight.
I am so far in blood...
...that sin will pluck on sin.
Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.
Any production of Richard III,
the last act dribbles out for me.
- I'm gone.
PACINO: For me, the last act...
... Richard is the most accessible
because it's clear...
...that Richard has attained
this power now.
He's king and he's on the decline
because as soon as he becomes king...
...they come at him from all sides.
Richmond is attacking.
This guy, Richmond,
his family were the losers...
... in the War of the Roses.
He had fled to France and was there
raising an army...
... to get the throne back
for the house of Lancaster.
MESSENGER 1:
My gracious sovereign...
...now in Devonshire,
as I by friends am well advertised.
MESSENGER 2:
In Kent the Guildfords are in arms.
Every hour more competitors
flock to the rebels.
Their power grows strong.
Sir Thomas Lovel
and Lord Marquis Dorset...
...in Yorkshire are in arms.
- Out, ye owls!
Nothing but songs of death?
Take thou that,
till thou brings better news.
He suspects everyone around him.
He has no friends.
I'm listening, I'm listening.
QUINN:
Fellows in arms...
...and my most loving friends.
Thus far into the bowels of land
we march'd without impediment.
And here receive we
from our father Stanley...
...lines of fair comfort
and encouragement.
Ah...
QUINN: The wretched, bloody,
and usurping boar...
... that spoil'd your summer fields
and fruitful vines...
...this foul swine is now even
in the centre of this isle.
[CHEERING]
Every man's conscience
is a thousand men...
...to fight against this guilty homicide.
Then, in God's name, march.
True hope is swift,
and flies with swallow's wings.
Kings it makes gods,
and meaner creatures kings.
[CHEERING]
[COUGHING]
KIMBALL: Well.
- Am I dying?
That's what I want to know.
Am I dying?
When are we gonna kill Richard?
- I have a worse question.
- Excuse me?
I have a feeling...
...that your Richard will have earned
his death...
...and we should think about
a way to do it.
[COUGHING]
Close... Close... Close the door.
[COUGHING]
You're 98.6.
Put it under the tongue.
Then it doesn't click. If I'm 98.6,
then you're a Shakespearean actor.
"On the 22nd of August, 1485, a battle
was fought for the crown of England.
A short battle,
ending in a decisive victory.
In that field, a crowned king, manfully
fighting in the middle of his enemies...
...was slain and brought to his death. "
PACINO:
Here, pitch our tent, here...
...even here in Bosworth field.
SCHOLAR 1: What is fascinating
when you come to the last act...
...to the Battle of Bosworth,
the battle itself goes for very little...
...apart from, "My horse. My horse.
Kingdom for a horse. "
To me, the battle is really the ghost
scene. The ghost scene is the battle.
PACINO: Richard is visited in his sleep by
the ghosts of the people he's murdered.
Give me another horse.
Bind up my wounds.
Give me another horse!
Frederic and I decided to go
to the actual theater...
... where Richard llI was performed
some 300 years ago...
... and this ghost scene was acted
on the stage here, in London.
We thought we'd rehearse
and see if we could get a sense...
... of those old spirits.
Method acting-type stuff.
I've always had trouble
with this speech.
It's good when an actor
has trouble with a speech...
...and goes and tries to do it.
I've heard you talking about Richard
as a man who cannot find love.
A person who finally,
in the last scenes, knows...
... that he does not have
his own humanity, that he's lost it.
PARSONS:
Tormenting dreams!
KIMBALL: He has let the pursuit
of power totally corrupt him...
... and is alienated from his own body...
... and his own self.
GHOST:
Dream on, of bloody deeds and death.
Where are my children?
PARSONS: Toad!
- Despair. Despairing. Death.
- Give me another horse.
ALLEN: Where is thy brother, Clarence?
PACINO: Get me a horse!
Get me a horse!
ALLEN:
Yet thou didst kill my children.
- Despair. And die.
PACINO: Bind up my wounds.
Bloody Richard!
[GASPS]
[THUNDER ROLLS]
[METAL SCRAPES]
Soft! I did but dream.
Soft!
I did but dream.
O coward conscience...
...how dost thou afflict me!
The lights burn blue.
It is now...
...dead midnight.
Cold fearful drops stand
on my trembling flesh.
Richard.
Richard.
What do I fear?
Myself?
There is none else by.
Is there a murderer here? No.
Yes, I am.
Then fly!
From myself? No.
No.
I love myself.
Alas...
...I hate myself...
...for hateful deeds.
Guilty. Guilty.
Committed by myself.
Guilty.
I am a villain.
I am a villain.
Yet I lie. I am not.
Fool, of thyself speak well.
Fool...
...do not flatter.
I shall despair.
There is no creature loves me.
When I die...
...no soul shall pity me.
Wherefore should they...
...since that I myself...
...find in myself...
...no pity to myself?
KIMBALL: My lord!
- Who is there?
Ratcliffe, my lord. 'Tis I.
Well, get out of here. I'm working.
- You got it.
- Let's try it one more time.
Catesby, my lord. 'Tis I.
- Catesby.
- The early village-cock...
...hath twice done salutation
to the morn. Your friends are up...
...and buckle on their armor.
- Catesby.
I've had a fearful dream.
Catesby, I fear...
COX:
Nay, nay, good my lord...
...be not afraid of shadows.
By the apostle Paul,
shadows to-night...
...have struck more terror
in the soul of Richard...
...than can the substance of
...and led by shallow Richmond.
Come, come with me.
The silent hours steal on, and flaky
darkness breaks within the east.
PACINO:
Stanley, look to your wife.
If she convey letters to Richmond,
you shall answer.
BRYGGMAN:
Prepare thy battle early in the morning...
...and put thy fortune to the test
of bloody strokes and mortal-staring war.
You have to give a speech
in half an hour.
- Maybe we should...
- No, I got the general...
...gist of it.
KIMBALL: Got the gist of it.
O Thou...
...whose captain I account myself...
...look on my forces
with a gracious eye.
Put in their hands
thy bruising irons of wrath...
...that they may crush down
with a heavy fall...
...the usurping helmets
of our adversaries!
What shall I say more
than I have inferr'd?
Remember whom you are
to deal withal.
A sort of vagabonds,
rascals, and runaways...
...a scum of Bretons,
and base lackey peasants...
...whom their o'er-cloyed country
vomits forth...
...to desperate adventures
and assured destruction.
Make us thy ministers of chastisement.
You sleeping safe,
they bring to you unrest.
You having lands,
and blest with beauteous wives...
...they will restrain the one,
distain the other.
And who doth lead them
but a paltry fellow?
To thee I do commend
my watchful soul...
...ere I let fall the windows
of mine eyes.
A milk-sop...
...one that never in his life felt
so much cold as over shoes in snow?
O, defend me still!
Let's whip these stragglers
o'er the seas again.
Lash hence these overweening
rags of France...
...these famish'd beggars,
weary of their lives.
If we be conquer'd...
...let men conquer us...
...not these bastard Bretons.
Shall these enjoy our lands?
Lie with our wives?
Ravish our daughters?
Hark! I hear their drum.
Fight, gentlemen of England!
Fight, bold yoemen!
Draw, archers...
...draw your arrows to the head!
Spur your proud horses hard,
and ride in blood.
Amaze the welkin
with your broken staves!
[HORSES NEIGHING]
[METAL SCRAPING]
[YELLING]
PACINO:
My horse!
My horse!
CONWAY:
And in a bloody battle end thy days!
Despair, and die!
ALLEN:
They withdraw.
See? They're deserting him.
A horse! A horse!
My kingdom for a horse!
Withdraw, my lord, withdraw...
Slave, I set my life upon a cast,
I'll stand the hazard of the die.
There be six Richmonds in the field.
- Five have I slain to-day.
- My lord!
FEMALE SCHOLAR:
Although he's frightfully clever...
... he is, at the same time,
like a kind of boar...
... who has subsumed into himself
all these frightful animal images...
... and all that the rest have got to do
is to hunt the boar.
And that's what they do,
and they get him.
PACINO:
A horse!
A horse!
My kingdom...
...for a horse!
He's a hearty dude, and in the end,
he's surrounded and he just goes...
He'll give up anything for a horse.
He's rich, a king, and he needs a horse.
My kingdom for a horse.
[GRUNTING]
[YELLING]
KIMBALL: I didn't mean it.
- I love you, Frederic.
I didn't mean it. I didn't mean it.
PACINO: He didn't mean it.
You kill me, after all I did for you.
- Richard's dead.
- Richard's...
At last we can rest.
God and your arms be praised,
victorious friends, the day is ours...
...the bloody dog is dead.
- Dead!
- Is this it?
- I hope so.
Are we done? This is it?
If I told him about the 10 rolls of film,
he'd want to use it.
I love the silence.
I love the silence.
After silence, what else is there?
What's the line?
SCHOLAR 2: "The rest is silence. "
- Silences.
Whatever I'm saying,
I know Shakespeare said it.
NARRATOR:
Our revels now are ended.
These our actors, as I foretold you...
... were all spirits
and are melted into air...
... into thin air.
And, like the baseless fabric
of this vision...
... the cloud-capp'd towers...
... the gorgeous palaces...
... the solemn temples...
... ye all which it inherit...
... shall dissolve...
... and, like this insubstantial
pageant faded...
... leave not a wisp behind.
We are such stuff
as dreams are made on...
... and our little life
is rounded with a sleep.