Another film I caught at the Santa Barbara Film Festival was this unique adaptation of Shakespeare's Julius Caesar. The backdrop is this - a high-security is putting on a production of Julius Caesar with it's inmates acting as the actors. Through the course of the film we watch them rehearse, all leading up to the performance, and through all of that we get the actual play alongside the commentary of the prisoners as they find ways to relate to the material.
It's a pretty unique idea, right? Sadly it was too much in the middle for me. I would have preferred if it was just Julius Caesar set in a men's prison, or if it was more about the prisoners putting on the play, but with some more personal b-story. It met the ideas in the middle and I think, suffered for it. I believe this film has actually been around for a few years at this point, and not sure how else one could see it. If you're a big Shakespear nerd then you'll probably want to check this out just because. Not sure I can highly recommend it to anyone outside of that circle.
No comments:
Post a Comment