Richard III and the Film Looking for Richard

The movie Looking For Richard is not a complete film based on Richard III by William Shakespeare, but rather a documentary organized by Al Pacino documenting his passion and struggle to make Shakespeare more available to the general public. Pacino feels that our current society is not well enough exposed to Shakespeare, and that what they are exposed to does not particularly interest them. 

I found however, that this reason that Pacino gave in the beginning of the film was only one of many factors that motivated him to create this film. What eventually became apparent during the film was what Shakespeare meant to the actors, how their personal struggle to perform the play was evident. It is said in the film that there is an idea that American actors are intimidated by performing Shakespeare and that the general consensus was that only the English could perform it successfully. 

Pacino and his crew interviewed actor, scholars, visited the birthplace of Shakespeare, and even visited the globe theatre in order to get a complete understanding of how to truly perform the play. Pacino seemed to be getting frustrated with all of the complications within Richard III that could not be answered by scholars. Pacino truly wants to show how important Shakespeare is to him, and you can feel his passion when he is performing some of the scenes from the play. 

The documentary portrayed 4 of the major scenes in Richard III, along with a few shorter minor connecting scenes to help the flow of his thought and also the flow of the story. One of the most powerful scenes for me was when the entire family, minus King Edward, is together and Richard is accusing Elizabeth of being the cause for the downfall his brother Clarence. The room seems tense and Richard’s tone is getting heated with Elizabeth, and meanwhile Margaret appears to be a
prophetic/apocalyptic voice in the room.