Hoist

Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead

1990

Live by Netflix, die by Netflix.

This was supposed to be the epilogue to the Denmark Project, following the Branagh Hamlet. But Nf leapfrogged this over the other on Tuesday, then on Wednesday processed Hamlet . . . to be shipped Thursday . . . from Houston . . . to arrive next Tuesday.

This was filmed in Yugoslavia, the Rosencrantzguildenstern of geopolitics, and how Tom Stoppard got someone to put up money for him to film his absurdist play elevating the most minor of Hamlet's characters to the leads is a mystery probably best not thought about. Whatever it cost to make, it can't have earned out. (OK, couldn't help but look: surprisingly, early a quarter of a million in U.S. b.o., and another quarter of a million is Australian dollars; there must be more Hamlet nerds--or Gary Oldman and/or Tim Roth nerds--than I thought. And it seems to have been released in a two-disc set, which also suggests that there must be a "cult following." Well, good!)

What is this play/movie about?

• Death
• Drama
• Determination
• The anti-Aristotelian notion that no one is a minor character is his or her own play.

Oh, one other thing: this film features not just the best but the two best Hamlet dumbshows I've seen.