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Damian Lewis as Antony in Julius Caesar: 'Friends, Romans, Countrymen' [video]
- jprd 3y agoWATCHING Shakespeare is what unlocked his work for me. Reading his works is naturally entertaining and insightful, but it is like reading a Hollywood script vs. watching the movie. I kind of feel like this is a RUSH or Grateful Dead conversation too, "oh man, you've never experienced it until you've seen it live" kinda vibe. TY for posting!
- NoboruWataya 3y agoI gave up on reading plays shortly after school. They are made to be enjoyed live.
- jmfldn 3y agoI love this take on it, I've watched it a few times. It goes to show that when you have writing and acting of this quality you don't need any other embellishments.
- pge 3y agoContext for anyone not familiar with it - Julius Caesar has been assassinated by a group led by Brutus. They reluctantly allow Antony (a close ally of Caesar) to give a eulogy at the public funeral. According to Plutarch and others, Antony's eulogy set off a riot, leading ultimately to the overthrow of Caesar's assassins. The speech in this video is Shakespeare's imagining of Antony's eulogy in which he initally appears to praise Brutus ("Brutus is an honourable man") but gradually turns the crowd against him. Just brilliant - there's a reason we're still reading shakespeare 400 years later...
- tgv 3y agoI'm afraid that English teachers here are killing Shakespeare. They hardly make their pupils read Shakespeare, but instead try to make it fun! Oh, so much fun. Yes, youngster, let's make fun. Shall I tell you about Shakespeare's dick jokes? Haha, I'm sure you're going to like that and pay attention. And then all they remember is vague jokes they can't tell, because they don't have the vocabulary.
- ethbr1 3y agoShakespeare's dick jokes were equally for the contemporary audience. Man knew his patrons, who didn't all know the finer points of their letters.
- pge 3y agoIt’s not just trying to make it fun - a lot of teachers just don’t know the material well enough to teach it. My daughter’s English teacher (in a highly regarded high school) taught them that “Wherefore art thou Romeo?” was archaic English for “Where are you?” because Juliet didn’t know where he was (like “Wherefore are my car keys?”, he said). If the teacher doesn’t understand one of the most famous and most important lines in one of Shakespeare’s most read and most taught plays, how will the students ever learn to understand it?
- Zetobal 3y agoIt's not making it fun. It's making them read at all. Go into a classroom of 8-10th grades and have your fucking mind blown. Both comments yours and the guy who says that they don't know the source material anymore are just so unbelievable pretentious and condescending it hurts.
- AlbertCory 3y agoTeaching middle schoolers is just about the worst job in the world. But at least it pays poorly /s
- eszed 3y agoOn the contrary, it's one of the best jobs in the world. Kids that age are just old enough to comprehend complex ideas, without (yet) having spent enough time in the educational system to have all of their curiosity and creativity beaten out of them. The best trick is to pitch whatever you want them to do as somehow slightly subversive, and they'll follow you anywhere. On the other hand, yeah: teaching has been made into one of the worst careers (at least for educated people) there is, which is why I'm not doing it anymore.
- ethbr1 3y agoThe quality of Roman oratory (as attested to in the historical record and imagined by Shakespeare later) is impressive. Performed, for the thinking public, to plant a thought inside their heads. Political speeches are so hamfisted, lowest-common-denominator affairs these days. And why should they not be? (Also, I'll watch Damian Lewis in anything)
- asimpletune 3y agoIf you think they’re good, just wait till you read the Athenian speeches. So good.
- amanaplanacanal 3y agoAlso recommend Marlon Brando from the 1953 movie.
- mongol 3y agoYes was about to say this. It is the only version I have seen
- cm2187 3y agoI prefer James Purefoy's performance in Rome, playing a more thuggish (and probably more realistic) Mark Antony.
- erehweb 3y agoSee also the William Shatner version in "Free Enterprise" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73tjF0bzAi4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=73tjF0bzAi4 Interesting because the movie portrays it as a ridiculous idea - a musical of "Julius Caesar" in rap form. But funnily enough, a hip-hop musical of the life of Alexander Hamilton was a great success. Maybe every stupid idea is close to being great.
- qingcharles 3y agoWhat did I just watch? O_o
- beefman 3y agoThis is terrible! He's on a balcony speaking to a crowd, not close-up in a studio. And it's meant to be a fiery oration, not an understated monologue. This could work for Brutus' speech, maybe, but not Antony's.
- appointment 3y agoIt's a YouTube video, not a stage show. Lewis interprets the scene as a more intimate gathering to fit the intimate style of most YouTube videos. Every performance is an adaptation of the original work to a different medium, place and/or time. Also the whole point of the speech is that its tone and meaning changes radically as it goes.
- zeristor 3y agoWhy is this flagged? There’s no disputation in the comments to suggest there’s any issue. The video appears perfectly straight forward.
- eszed 3y agoTwenty or so years ago I had the pleasure of playing Antony in a school-tour version of this play. One of the best experiences of my career was the time ~300 incredibly rambunctious middle-schoolers boo'd and boo'd the actor playing Brutus, until he got them to shut up and listen to his speech (preceding this one), at the end of which they were cheering. Then I got to go out and flip them back around with this one. The principal afterwards apologized to us that the students were "so loud", and we were like "No, that was perfect". That recollection still gives me chills.