Revengers Tragedy

Alex Cox brings us a gleefully over-the-top adaptation of a Jacobean revenge play. Where Shakespeare was the high culture of his day, this piece (originally performed anonymously, presumably to shield its author from any repercussions due to its distinctly anti-authoritarian slant) plays out more like a 17th-century Leone movie. In this version, the action has been transferred to a vaguely-defined post-nuclear-war Liverpool, ruled over by an amoral Duke and terrorized by his violent sons.

The cast is great (especially Derek Jacobi and Christopher Eccleston) and the whole film is characterized by an intense spirit of fun. My only problem (as a yank) was that -- in spite of years spent enjoying British TV -- I found the combination of archaic syntax and scouse accents to be incomprehensible at times. Fortunately, the subtitles on the DVD made it much easier to follow the dialogue and plot line.

This certainly won't be to everyone's tastes, but it's a good one.

A real cinematic treat, this film takes a play published in 1607 and transposes it to a strange modern(ish) world. Cox's direction is brilliantly inventive, giving the film a fast-paced anarchic feel that never becomes just a showy veneer. The stylised langauge and the modern visuals work very well. Christopher Eccleston as the "revenger" is superb, as is Derek Jacobi (as you've never seen him before!). Highly recommended.

The acting is tremendous, the dialogue is delivered with such ease and intensity, and where there is caddiness-- it is intentional. This movie is visually beautiful and unapologetic; it does not bore you with tedious dialogue, but challenges the audience to mesh both Jacobean language with a modern day setting. Other movies have tried to accomplish this time fold, attempting to 'modernize' what they consider to be classics, but other movies did not have Christopher Eccleston and Eddie Izzard. There performances deserved more credit than the average moviegoer could afford. See this movie.

i bought this film because it had eddie izzard in it. i was pleasantly surprised at how good it was. eccleston and izzard were great. derek jacobi was brilliant. The plot wasn't too predictable. the idea for the backdrop to be post-apocalyptic Liverpool was an inspiration. worth watching. its a film i would watch more than once. happy to add it to my favourites collection. the speech was sometimes drowned out by the background music which made the film a little hard to follow. but i intend to watch the film again, so I'm sure i will pick up stuff i missed the first time round. and my film doesn't have subtitles which would have helped.

I have just seen the premier of this film at the Cambridge Film Festival, and it is superb. Christopher Eccleston is demented as the lead role, and Eddie Izzard at last cuts out the buffonery and lives up to his promise. Chumbuwumba provide and excelent soundtrack, and the costume designers have seen too many Adam Ant videos. The scouse touches bring the film down to earth just when it seems to get away. Better performances, and directing, would be difficult to see.