As You Like It

Shakespeare's As You Like It (1978 TV Movie) was directed by Basil Coleman. Helen Mirren stars as Rosalind, the biggest female role in any Shakespeare play.

This movie is part of the Ambrose Shakespeare series, which filmed every one of Shakespeare's plays. Typically, movies in this series had minimal production values. (This is the way Shakespeare's plays were seen when they were originally produced. However, now the lack of scenery looks skimpy.)

However, this movie was filmed in Glamis Castle (as in Macbeth). The location allows us to see a real castle, with ramparts, as well as a great wooded area, which becomes Arden Forest.

We all know that Mirren can act, but I think she got better as she grew older. One problem is that she's very feminine--as Viola is--but she spends most of the play dressed as a man.

This As You Like it is probably as good as you're going to get on the small screen. I don't think it matters whether you see it as DVD or in a movie theater. My advice is to try to see it live onstage.

This 1978 production is a sparkling version of a great play. Indeed, apart from some unnecessary abridgments of Touchstone's coruscating orations, this production is nearly flawless. The natural settings endow the play with a genuinely rustic atmosphere. (The fact that Helen Mirren occasionally has to wave insects away from her is something which contributes to that atmosphere.)

Arthur Hewlett, who appears to be on the verge of death in his performance as Adam, in fact lived for nearly two decades beyond the making of this production. Richard Pasco, who steals nearly every scene in which he appears as Jacques, died in 2014 at the age of 88. Helen Mirren is at her usual level of excellence in her starring role. Angharad Rees, who died of cancer in 2012, is likewise excellent as Celia/Aliena. Brian Stirner is not at quite the same level (with two or three slightly misjudged renderings of lines), but he performs commendably as Orlando. Kudos are due to everyone else in the cast as well, in a production that does not include any bad performances.

This is where it all began. BBC producer Cedric Messina was shooting a drama at Glamis Castle when he thought, "What a great place to shoot 'As You Like It.'" And so the idea for the complete series of Shakespeare telecasts was born.

Unfortunately, an all-too-real Forest of Arden here provides an impediment to the play. An artificial meditation on identity and appearance, "As You Like It" has one of Shakespeare's lamest plots, with poor characterizations, perfunctory incidents and sloppy story resolution. "Love's Labour's Lost" and "Twelfth Night" are as solid as tanks by comparison.

Video equipment was not as portable in the late 1970s as it is now, and the whole exercise is sapped by the actors' battle against Nature and logistics. A sense of strain is omnipresent. The characters are often physically too far apart and must yell at each other, Helen Mirren has to wave gnats away from her face repeatedly during a major speech, and a lush carpeting of ferns belies text references to a harsh outdoor existence. Basically, you come out of this play humming the trees.

Performances across the board are OK, but never better than that. Helen Mirren shows reliable professionalism as Rosalind and Richard Pasco's bilious affect is uniquely suitable to the character of Jacques.

Also noteworthy is the Banished Duke of Tony Church, who recorded frequently for the now-forgotten Marlowe Society of Cambridge's complete Shakespeare series on Argo LPs. And 6'7" David Prowse, fresh off his first appearance as Darth Vader in the original "Star Wars," shows up unexpectedly as Charles the Wrestler, performing the Shakespeare well in his own voice, and not overdubbed by James Earl Jones.

Budget considerations meant that "As You Like It" and "Henry VIII" would be the only plays in this series shot on location. BBC studio drama would come to an end in the early 1990's, but a production like this one points up the advantages of staying indoors.

I am shocked at how much scorn this adaptation of As You Like It has garnered on this website. In my opinion, it's a good if not great adaptation of one of the Bard's lesser comedies.

Helen Mirren and the beautiful locations are the prime reasons to check this one out. Mirren is engaging as the heroine Rosalind. And the forest and castle used for shooting are just beautiful.

Of course, the play itself has issues. The plot is thin and the resolution comes out of nowhere. Still, it's all an excuse to hear that glorious verse and witty banter.

A fine film, though not essential.

I can't possibly disagree with the first review more. The cast is splendid, the performances are spot on, and unlike most of the BBC productions it engages you immediately and doesn't bog down.

Richard Pascoe's Jaques is amazing, Hellen Mirren gives her usual strong performance, and so many of the smaller parts stand out. Touchstone for instance steals every scene he's in.

Indeed the only thing you really need wink at is the absurdity of Shakespeare's plot and its fantastical 11th hour resolution, but none of that matters...the play's the thing. Even the music is quite lovely.