King Lear

source: King Lear

The modern adaptations of classical masterpieces are bot particularly new, and not exclusive to theater as operas have been adapted for many years now to moderb settings. However UK seems to be surprisingly keen to the idea considering how much backlash these adaptations receive for not being set in medieval world commonly depicted by their authors, one of the similar adaptations that stand out in my mind is the Macbeth with Sir Patrick Stewart. King Lear is a new one and like aforementioned Macbeth it is extremely faithful to the play, the play's text is intact in its full glory while the setting is in an alternative modern day. King Lear's character was written with an extreme bitterness by Shakespeare as he wanted to make a darama in contrast to the life of the historic Celtic King Lear. Sir Anthony Hopkins performs and delivers this character very well, so well you will be left speechless and amazed. The side characters are also portrayed very well as the case includes the likes of Emma Thompson and Andrew scott. I believe that King Lear 2018 should be somewhere at top of anybodies "to watch list"

Wonderful acting... Anthony Hopkins at his best. I didn't think I would like it but it just "grasps" you into the characters.. I became so involved with the characters and the story... I highly recommend watching this!

I typically enjoy watching both traditional and modern versions of Shakespeare's work, so maybe I am a bit biased. However, I truly believe that this adaptation was wonderfully done for a modern version. Anathony Hopkins is always a delight and his performance as Lear was very well done in my opinion. My only complaint was they should have cast Christopher Eccleston as Albany insted of Oswald. He's such a strong actor and he could have really made that character shine. Emma Thompson was marvelous and so was Tobias Menzies as The Duke of Cornwall. Tobias is just wayyy too good at playing evil humans. I recommend you watch this adaptation, you will enjoy it if your a Shakespeare fan.

I'd been avoiding it because I never thought Shakespeare was Hopkins' wicket and my mind wasn't changed after seeing it. It was done in a modern setting with realistic acting technique and while that can serve some of the plays well, I thought it completely robbed King Lear of its mythical qualities which are essential to allowing audiences to connect with it. They also cut the text to the bone (it's 40 minutes shorter than the vastly superior Ian McKellen version) which really hurts some of the actors. There are vestiges of an interesting performance in Andrew Scott's Edmund but the role is gutted so badly that he never had a chance and as for Karl Johnson's Fool, I honestly can't say if he was any good or not because of his lack of screen time. Emily Watson and Emma Thompson have their moments as Regan and Goneril but (dare I say it?) Lear cursing a sixty year-old woman with sterility didn't work for me at all. There are some fine performances in it (Jim Broadbent as Gloucester and Jim Carson as Kent are both good, which you'd expect) but I'd call this one of the least effective Lears that's available for streaming. Hopkins can be an extraordinary actor in the right role but he offers no variety in his interpretation and lacks the histrionic thunder that Lear requires. Two of the play's most famous scenes, the storm on the heath and the Lear's lamentation over Cordelia's corpse, fall flat because Hopkins simply is not dramatically up to the task. I consider King Lear to be the greatest work of art ever created but this presentation left me with an unsatisfying aftertaste of having seen a masterwork diminished. I respect director Richard Eyre but he tried to be too clever with this production and Lear is a colossus that defies such tinkering.

Greatly cast adaptation of one of William Shakespeare's greatest works. As most modern Shakespeare adaptation also this one takes place during contemporary days with the original language (or most of it). You can either love it or hate it. The cast is tremendous. The ensemble is lead by Anthony Hopkins who is of course born to play that role and it feels like he waited his whole career to take advantage of that role. A great performance by a wonderful character actor. Emma Thompson was fine, but she can do better. She was often on the edge of overacting. Still a nice coup to have her playing one of Lear's daughters. Emily Watson was good, also on the edge of overacting but it suited her role much better. I really liked Florence Pugh who was perfectly cast in the role of Cordellia. And another fantastic and memorable turn by Jim Broadbent. The look was great. A very good cinematography and moving score added to the experience. It did have some lengths but overall it was a good adaptation mostly thanks to Sir Hopkins and a solid direction by Richard Eyre.

Led by Anthony Hopkins as the title character, the cast of this media adaptation was outstanding. But Shakespeare's play was so truncated that the result was the Cliff's Notes version of "King Lear." It is not clear why the filmmakers wanted to cut the play so severely. The long speeches were abbreviated with the apparent goal of capturing the principal narrative. But the result was that the character developments suffered. One of the main problems was in the portraits of Goneril and Regan, the two greedy daughters of Lear. By eliminating so much of the dialogue, there was only a sketchy portrayal of the two characters. In the early part of the film, both Goneril and Regan were sympathetic in light of the boorish behavior of their old father, his grubby one hundred retainers, and a brood of dogs. Then, with insufficient motivation and exposition, the two sisters turned instantly into studies in evil. While the concept of the film was an updated modern setting for Shakespeare's pre-Christian, the effects seemed gimmicky. There was not enough of a pretext for France to be invading Great Britain in the twenty-first century, due to a falling out of the old king and his daughters. The visuals, including bombs dropping and battalions marching on the streets overwhelmed the language. The best scenes were the quiet moments, such as the opening scene where Lear fatefully divides his kingdom and the later reunion of Lear and Cordelia. It is unfortunate that there is not a "director's cut" version of this film that adds an extra two hours of dialogue necessary to do justice to Shakespeare's masterful tragedy.

Incredible powerful way to bring Shakespeare to life - a must for every school - need all of his works performed in such a relatable way. Fascinated all the way through. Every actor is superb - masterful - become their roles seamlessly - well done everyone who put this together! Bravo! More please! (Anthony Hopkins must never retire- gets better and better)

The plot was too difficult to follow, given all of the cuts to the text, maybe it needed some narration. Actors were just playing Can You Top This and went way over the line of credibility. Some of the Sets and war footage were good, others were just filler. Too bad, should have been much better.