Julie Taymor version of The Tempest, with the change in gender roles, was beyond amazing. Taymor took an extra step and embellished the back-story to be more appropriate and making the backstory better fit the context of her adaptation. Prospera, Helen Mirren, is absolutely the right person for the role. Mirren is just such an actor, she protrays her Prospera with such dignity and intensity, which is at the center of all this film's success. Prospera is vain, bitter, volatile, doting towards her daughter, and a magnetic presence throughout the film. She manages to convey shades of grief and remorse at the years she’s lost, and her weathered face goes through a whole range of dark emotions. Mirren’s performance, in fact, is basically the one great thing in the movie. Djimon Hounsou as …show more content…
In Taymor direction, I strongly believe she picked the right man to portray a drunk. His interpretation of Stephano was a comedic relief to the play. He truly played the charter that frustrates Caliban as he jokes around. I wish he had had more of a presence in the play, but understand that would have changed the interpretation of the play. In this paper I did not touch on the King and his men as they traveled the island looking for Ferdinand or their encounters with Ariel, though I did not touch on this part of the movie it was also well divulged but the director and the cast. Alan Cumming and Chris Cooper played their roles as appearing to be “trusted” but being the villains wanting to kill the King for their own benefit was shown through their acting. Tom Conti who, played, Gonzalo, showed how loyal his charter was to the King and that he would lay his own life down to protect him. Conti facial expressions showed the pain/worry that the King. David Strantharin who played King Alonso, seemed more distraught about the loss of his son from the shipwreck in the movie compared to the
...larly impressive was John Savarese playing the part of the Narrator with an engaging charm and likeability that makes his calculated betrayal of the Girl all the more cruel. There is much room to play El Gallo as an unsympathetic manipulator, but Mr. Savarese finds a way to balance his character's actions with compassion, which makes for some wonderfully poignant moments, especially in the signature tune "Try to Remember."
With the semester coming to an end, many students are excited. This especially includes those who will be graduating soon. However, graduation can be seen as a bittersweet moment. On one hand, the graduates enter into a new chapter in their lives. On the other hand, they may lose communication with some of their friends. Unfortunately, this is a natural aspect of each person’s life. Everyone will experience some kind of loss in their life, whether it is person or an object. In The Tempest, Shakespeare discusses the topic of loss. While this theme is not talked about much compared to other themes in the play, it is very important since it is a theme that is included in the 1956 movie adaptation Forbidden Planet. While both works illustrate the ways people deals a loss, the later work demonstrates how the advancement in the world have affected the way modern society
.... The action flows so seamlessly between the two elements that they often seem like aligned narratives rather than a mise-en-abîme. This flawlessness is used as a great outcome, further emphasizing that human cruelty is nothing new. It's easy to forget that Atuey, Columbus, Las Casas, Montesinos, etc. are actors playing roles-within-roles because they seem just as "real" as Costa, Sebastian and Daniel. The film's entire cast is incredible, but the star was Juan Carlos Aduviri, he gave both Atuey and Daniel distinct identities with a few common traits. Daniel and Atuey are both forthright rebels, but they have dissimilarities and (including living centuries apart). As an activist for morality and equality who believes in speaking truth to power, I found Even the Rain especially impactful. This film is certain to inspire many of us to keep fighting for what is right.
The first difference between the play and the movie “The Tempest” is; the protagonist Prospero, the Duke of Milan, is played by a female character named Prospera in the movie filmed in 2010, directed by Julie Taymor. He is a complex character in the play however the personality that Shakespeare created was slightly changed in the movie. The key point of this gender difference is to highlight the role of women’s empowerment over the last two hundred years. Taymor’s movie is making a statement on how Prospera’s power is limited for the island, she is still able to empower throughout the text sexually,...
“The Tempest” is a play about an alchemist trying to exert revenge on the people who expelled him from dukedom from the kingdom of Milan. During the course of the play Prospero has many chances to make the antagonists suffer. During these times Prospero arbitrarily finds humanity and decides not to harm them and even care for their goodness. An example of this is when Prospero assures to Miranda that during the tempest Prospero created, everyone on the boat was not harmed: “Be collected./No more amazement./ Tell your piteous heart/There’s no harm done.” During the play Prospero goes through a plethora of mood swings that show many different sides of such as: Prospero as being a patriarchal or benevolent figure to him being a tyrant or being manipulative.
The first two acts of The Tempest share a couple of inconsequential similarities and have some very contrasting differences. The similarities are, on the whole, superficial: Both acts consist of just two scenes and both acts are of a similar length. However, the similarities end there.
The multicultural history of Colonial Virginia, contained a development in a now prosperous country. It didn’t come with all perks though. Suffering and discrimination became a big foundation to build during colonial Virginia. This issues caused severity and despair. Starting there was just hard enough especially during the Jamestown. Altogether these choices made happen during the early 1600’s shaped and developed America.
Prospero manifested to have been a caring father, and that he has taken full responsibility for her, as a proper father ought to do. On the other hand, Prospero has apparently been cautious with giving Miranda information about her past. In response to Miranda’s concerns of herself, Prospero answers; “Stay, not yet” (14, Act 1, Scene 2). “Obey, and be attentive” (15, Act 1, Scene 2), he exclaims to her in the same scene. In The Tempest, Miranda can be interpreted as a living representation of female morality. Miranda is typically viewed as completely embodying the patriarchal order of things, thinking of herself as dependent to her father. The traits that create Miranda 's femininity are the same traits that oppress her: her innocence and vulnerability are seen as the things that allow her to be manipulated by her father. Prospero 's use of Miranda as a gadget in his political revenge is expressive of the play 's sexist attitude towards women. Prospero is, to some extent, in control over her sexuality and her thoughts; According to Linley "Patriarchy 's dominance explains why so many men had such low opinions of women, treating them unsympathetically and as sex objects. " Prospero was portrayed as a patriarchal father who cared about his daughter, but he wasn 't ashamed to use her as marriage bait to get what he
The “Tempest” by William Shakespeare explores many viewpoints throughout the story. Shakespeare challenges and asserts many values and viewpoints throughout the story. Which leads him to base his characters actions off of that . In the Tempest traditional values and gender stereotypes are heavily influential on the female characters.
As Daniel Kaffee Tom Cruise does a believable acting as in times Daniel is clueless and must ask others to explain things to him. His best scenes are when he is in the courtroom launching counter arguments and evidence to win the case. The scene where Kaffee is driving home and gets surprised by a character appearing is wonderful as Tom Cruise appears to genuinely be shocked in the scene, but not only does tom cruise make the movie good so do his co stars.
The epiphany of this however, is realized at the end of the play. Nearly every scene in the play, either intentionally or unintentionally, portrays a struggling relationship between a figure that possesses power and a figure that is suppressed by that power. The play explores the relationship between master and servant very dynamically. In the opening scene, the boatswain (servant) is very oppressive towards the noble men (master) due to their sophomoric attitude in a dangerous situation like that. This is especially visible when Antonio, the usurping Duke of Milan, asks the boatswain where the master is, to this, the boatswain replies, “Do you not hear him?
The Tempest by William Shakespeare, among other themes, is a play very centered around rivalries, an important one being the one between Prospero and Caliban. As one would naturally expect, the triumphs and failures of the ongoing conflict yield different reactions for the two different characters. The conflict illustrates a dichotomous view of the way in which people respond to failure or defeat. Whereas Caliban responds to defeat instinctively with furious acts of retaliation, Prospero reasons that when those kinds of acts are examined under the scope of logic, they appear to be unlike that of a noble and therefore, should not be undertaken.
It makes sense to me to see in this Shakespeare's sense of his own art--both what it can achieve and what it cannot. The theatre--that magical world of poetry, song, illusion, pleasing and threatening apparitions--can, like Prospero's magic, educate us into a better sense of ourselves, into a final acceptance of the world, a state in which we forgive and forget in the interests of the greater human community. The theatre, that is, can reconcile us to the joys of the human community so that we do not destroy our families in a search for righting past evils in a spirit of personal revenge or as crude assertions of our own egos. It can, in a very real sense, help us fully to understand the central Christian commitment to charity, to loving our neighbour as ourselves. The magic here brings about a total reconciliation of all levels of society from sophisticated rulers to semi-human brutes, momentarily holding off Machiavellian deceit, drunken foolishness, and animalistic rebellion--each person, no matter how he has lived, has a place in the magic circle at the end. And no one is asking any awkward questions.
The Tempest, like any text, is a product of its context. It is constructed in relation to moral or ethical concerns of 17th century European Jacobean society. The resolution of conflict appears 'natural' or an inevitable consequence if regarded in relation to the concerns of its context. The resolution of conflict in this play incorporates Prospero being returned to his 'rightful' or natural position as Duke of Milan, his daughter Miranda getting married to Ferdinand, and the party returning to Milan leaving the island to the 'monster', Caliban. The resolution is a consequence of the concerns of the time, including the idea of the divine right of kings, courtly love, and colonisation.
Throughout history, the struggle for power has led mankind to commit unspeakable acts of violence in order to obtain or maintain dominion over others. Imprisonment, torture and murder are all tools tyrants such as Caligula of Rome, Ivan IV of Russia and Pol Pot of Cambodia used to subject their will on others. At the most basic level these are all stories of men obsessed with power. The Tempest, by William Shakespeare is another such story that shows just how far a person will go to gain control and power over others. The character relationship between Prospero and his slaves, Ariel and Caliban, provides insight into the overall theme of the story which is the struggle between those who have power and those that are envious of that power and will stop at nothing to take it from themselves.