Upon examining the opening monologue of Richard III, spoken by the man himself, we can see evidence of Locraine’s foreground for his film. The play opens with Richard of Gloucester, alone on stage.

Made glorious summer by this son of York

And all the clouds that lour’d upon our house

In the deep bosom of the ocean buried.

Now are our brows bound with victorious wreaths;

Our bruised arms hung up for monuments;

Our stern alarums chang’d to merry meetings,

And now, -instead of mounting barbed steeds

While Locraine’s film adaptation of Richard III is effective in terms of contextualizing and conveying the plot, the obvious Hitler reference can appear quite overbearing. It distracts from the actual character of Richard, who has often been proclaimed as “the greatest villain of all time,” by transforming him into a completely different person.

Instead of beginning this monologue with Richard in solitude, Locraine places him at the center of a public ballroom event. We see Richard (Ian McKellen) dressed in formal, militant attire, wearing a dark green uniform with a red sash and metals of honor. His hair is closely cropped, combed and gelled to one side. Under his lip is a small, neatly trimmed mustache. As he speaks, he receives a warm reception from the crowd. They cheer and laugh after almost every sentence he utters. When he says “Grim-visag’d War…” the camera begins t

Some topics in this essay:
King Edward, Richard Gloucester, Ian McKellen, Richard III, Adolf Hitler, , England Richard, Richard Locraine’s, Nazi Germany, Edward IV, monologue richard, richard iii, king edward, son york, clouds lour’d,