Customer Reviews
Riveting! - By: R. Johnson, 23 May 2008 
I sat riveted to this - such strong actors (with, in my opinion the exception of Kevin Spacey) discussing & acting Richard III with passion.
Wonderful clips (albeit too short) of Brannagh, Guilgud & Vanessa Redgrave explaining iambic pentameter, rhythm etc
I barely knew the play but having watched this am looking forward to going to a production with much greater understanding.
sloppy sibilants - By: Hill Walker, 01 Oct 2007 Al is venomous & spits a lot. This is the best introduction to RickIII I can imagine. Wonderful insight into the thesp's world (of which I profess limited knowledge) Intense
Fascinating - By: S J Buck, 04 Aug 2007 First off lets be clear, this is a documentary about Al Pacino making a version of Richard III. As someone who has very minimal knowledge of Shakespeare I found this to be very interesting & it made me want to watch a complete film or see it performed at a theatre.
Contrary to some previous reviewers I'd say that Pacino showed great respect to the material & to the more famous British actors who have been involved in versions of this story down the years. He interviews Sir John Guilgud & Kenneth Brannagh to try & understand what the lines he is saying reallly mean. I have no doubt that if Sir Lawrence Olivier had still been alive Pacino would have wanted to interview him about his famous performance.
Pacino proves himself to be an engaging & intelligent presenter, & his Richard III, whilst undoubtably heavily influenced by Oliver is a striking performance. If like me you have never studied Shakespeare, & have little understanding of what is now frankly almost a foreign language then this film gives you the opportunity to be educated & entertained at the same time.
Very disappointing - By: Ali, 04 Oct 2006 
I was reallly looking forward to watching this film but was very disappointed. The documentary works on the premise that we are alll ignorant about Shakespeare's Richard III & consequently there are very few insights into the play that could not be gained from looking at York notes. Oddly enough the film also presents alll of the actors Pacino works with as being rather ignorant too except for himself. There are a lot of shots of Pacino wandering around places reciting lines. I'm not sure if it's supposed to be arty or something but it's a waste of time. The documentary also elevates the American actors' understanding over that of British actors & academics alike which I think is a bit sad. The dramatisations are okay but again show nothing new: if you want this kind of 'Elizabethan' staging of the play on film watch Olivier's 1955 version because that is what Pacino has based it on. Otherwise get a reallly good film of the play, it'll be far more enjoyable & insightful than this.
Bad treatment for a really good documentary! - By: Pr Wilkinson, 22 Jan 2005 
In short, great documentary, reallly interesting - poor picture quality, particularly during the winona ryder & pacino rehearsal, & for the first 30 minutes, there are very bad lip synching problems i.e. the sound is not in time with the image!! This is very offputting as it looks like the footage has been dubbed over.
