Buy Online

with Best Sellers Sales

VHS : Midsummer Night's Dream


Browse or Search and Buy Online our Best Sellers Shopping Sales of VHS and Midsummer Night's Dream.



 : Midsummer Night's Dream

List Price: $9.99
Price: $2.90
You Save: $7.09 (71%)
Prices subject to change.



Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days




Audience Rating: PG-13 (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Binding: VHS Tape
EAN: 9780788815997
Format: Closed-captioned, Color, NTSC
ISBN: 0788815997
Label: Walt Disney Video
Manufacturer: Walt Disney Video
Number Of Items: 1
Publisher: Walt Disney Video
Release Date: April 04, 2000
Running Time: 105 minutes
Studio: Walt Disney Video
Theatrical Release Date: 1999
Sales Rank: 28075




Related Items:

Editorial Review:

Amazon.com:
This adaptation of a Royal Shakespeare Company production of William Shakespeare's A Midsummer Night's Dream is drenched in color: The costumes, the set, the lighting--all of them are flush with bright yellows, reds, blues, every color in the rainbow. In this classic comedy, the confused lives of four young lovers (two men who love the same woman and another woman who loves one of the men) get caught up in a fight between Oberon and Titania, king and queen of the fairies. Oberon has his servant Puck brush Titania's eyes with a flower that will make her fall in love with the next creature she sees--who turns out to be an oafish aspiring actor named Bottom and whom Puck has magically given a donkey's head. But Puck also brushes the eyes of the young lovers, twisting their love rectangle in all directions. The RSC actors have the great virtue of British theatrical training; they understand Shakespeare's language and, for the most part, can make that understanding clear to the audience. The production carries a number of theatrical devices into the movie--some actors play more than one character; the forest of the fairies is represented by a bare and brightly painted wooden floor; doors and umbrellas appear out of nowhere, resulting in some wonderfully surreal imagery. This may be confusing at first, but over the course of the story these techniques give the play's shifting worlds a greater clarity. This unusual adaptation is a feast for the eyes and an excellent introduction to one of Shakespeare's most popular plays. --Bret Fetzer



Customer Reviews
Average Rating:  out of 5 stars

Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Nice Production
If you choose to watch Shakespeare on Film/DVD you have to accept that it's going to move at a slower pace, more dialogue than usual will be cut and in this case an additional part not intended by the Bard will present itself. The little boy who appears throughout the play adds another (quite unnecessary) frame to a tale that is already framed. The actors however, are superb, (as they should be since they are the Royal Shakespeare Company) the casting of Bottom and Puck are spot on and the settings ... Read More



Rating: 3 out of 5 stars - Ying and Yang of modern productions.
Greetings,

Right off I'll say this much: I like (Note the use of personal opinion here not global statement) this version much more than the nightmarishly Hollywoodized 2003 one with Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer.

This version is a bit of extremes. On the one hand it's an excellent portrayal of the Bards work is some ways and in others directly contradicts what many masters of his works consider paramount at times.

The Good:

Well, personally ... Read More



Rating: 4 out of 5 stars - Stellar -- but truncated -- Dream
I saw this Royal Shakespeare Company production live and the movie captures a lot of its magic. However, excising out parts of this play diminishes it somewhat. And as others have noted, staging the play as a young boy's dream is unnecessary. It's not likely a young child could visualize the plot's intracies even in his most imaginative dreams.

Still, you aren't apt to hear Shakespeare's poetry spoken more splendidly than in this production. This is a veteran cast of top notch British ... Read More



Rating: 1 out of 5 stars - Not happy with this version
I had a couple of major problems with this version of "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

The little boy -- Titania's changeling? -- who kept cropping up was just one of those conceits that directors and screenplay writers feel that they have to slip in there to keep the story interesting. As if the story needs to be made more interesting. *sigh*

I don't mind the representational forest and the umbrellas and all that, but PLEASE don't write parts for characters that aren't even part ... Read More



Rating: 5 out of 5 stars - Wonderful
The Royal Shakespeare Players know how to do a production. This film of A Midsummer Night's Dream did more than take my breath away, it made me think and gasp and laugh till I had tears in my eyes. The sensitivity of the cast to each line they speak is profound and beautiful. So often when Shakespeare is performed on film the actors are not very familiar with speaking in verse, but this version the actors speak beyond the text and break down the barrier of language that is often associated with Shakespeare. ... Read More



Browse for similar items by category:

Top Advertisers: