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Reviews (5)
27 Aug, 2021
The Best King Lear on Film
0 of 1 found this helpful This is one of the finest black and white adaptions of Shakespeare’s plays, and a masterpiece which still makes me think. In 1970, this could have been shot in colour, but the film’s cheerless mood and atmosphere was enhanced through its cinematography.
King Lear is an old man ‘crawling towards death’ who gives his lands away to his daughters which gives the story its impetus,
However, Paul Schofield was much younger than ‘four score and more’ in 1970 but is more convincing than other Lear’s I have seen on stage and screen, including that of Brian Blessed’s version 30 years later. Other colour adaptions have added their own strengths to this mighty play, including Olivier’s 1980s towering ITV performance. But few have managed to surpass this black and white triumph.
Lear’s anger, bitterness and unrelenting descent into madness creates a despairing mood. As a result you have to watch the film several times to get the most out of it. The bleak landscape of wintery ice and snow are not merely symbolic, but glues the viewer to the dispiriting action and characterisation, from which there is no escape.
Schofield’s performance is a ‘tour de force’ and a great success, although there are other good supporting roles throughout. Irene Worth as Goneril, Susan Engel as Regan stand out, but so do other cast members such as Patrick Magee, Alan Webb and Cyril Cusack.
From a stage play of four hours, the film was cut to just over half its length. This meant immense editing and omissions of sub plots as well as character profiling, but the film still retains a decent shape and is thoroughly captivating throughout.
22 May, 2019
Good for beginners
Visual has an easy layout to follow, great pictures of what is on the screen. Ideal learning tool.
27 Aug, 2021
Fascinating, but limited
This 1953 American TV version of King Lear was recently salvaged and imperfectly reconstructed. Many people believe that it should not have been; however I am not one of them, despite its many faults.
Because of the recording’s many problems it has only limited entertainment value and is one of the lesser screen adaptions of the play. Even so, it is still pleasing to see Welles in another meaty Shakespearian role which would otherwise be lost. But to be brutally honest, if it was not for Welles, I would give this a miss.
I think Welles is good in the title role, although we must ‘suspend our disbelief’ more than normal trying to accept him as an octogenarian ‘crawling towards death’. For me, the only other actor of note is Natasha Parry as Cordelia who went on to play Lady Capulet in Franco Zefferelli’s Romeo and Juliet.
Condensing a four hour stage play into a heavily abridged screen adaption of a studio production leads to all sorts of limitations, problems and faults. I could give an endless list of them, including inconsistencies beyond the basic plot. Other screen versions, played by Paul Schofield and Laurence Olivier are superior and far more entertaining.
However this production can still be a fascinating experience because we witness television still in its infancy tackling a monster of literature with a minimalist production. As for the general public, I think they ought to give it a miss.