A&E Biography - William Shakespeare: Life of Drama (1996) [VHS]
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Product details
Actor: BiographyEdition: VHS Tape
Audio: English (Original Language)
Format: Black & White, Color, NTSC
Running Time: 50 minutes
Release Date: 1997-02-25
Audience Rating: NR (Not Rated)
Publisher: A&E Home Video
Studio: A&E Home Video
VHS Movie Reviews of A&E Biography - William Shakespeare: Life of Drama (1996) [VHS]
Movie Review: Good overview of the Bard's life
Summary: 5 Stars
I regularly teach my college's Introduction to Shakespeare class, and have found this to be a very good overview of the Bard's life and times. Micheal Wood's film on Shakespeare is also excellent, but that one is much too long to show in class. This A&E Bio, however, is the perfect length; coming in at about 50 minutes, it's ideal for showing towards the start of the semester. It includes good visuals and images, and includes short clips from several well-respected Shakespeare scholars.
I would also like to address the issue of Shakespeare's sexuality and his relationship with the Earl of Southampton, since several reviewers mention this in a dismissive way. I think that not introducing this aspect of Shakespeare's life to our students does them a great disservice. Literary scholars like Stephen Greenblatt (of Harvard University) and Stephen Orgel (of Stanford University) have done much research into the sexual norms of Shakespeare's life and period, and most gender and Renaissance studies scholars concur that Shakespeare was most likely bisexual, and that sexuality was understood differently during the Renaissance -- as more of a continuum. When we study sonnets like Sonnet 20 ("A woman's face with Nature's own hand painted / Hast thou, the master-mistress of my passion"), I think that there is ample enough evidence that Shakespeare had a relationship with another male. To dismiss this or not address it in class reflects ignorance of the current state of literary scholarship, as well as homophobia.
Movie Review: Fab for a high school teacher's needs . . .
Summary: 5 Stars
Since this version of the Shakespeare A&E bio was "stolen" from our high school English department and I depend heavily on it for certain lesson plans, I bought it myself. It arrived at a nominal fee in pristine condition and I already used it for summer school classes. I am always happy with my Amazon purchases. No disappointments yet. Thanks for helping to keep my teaching and personal life organized. DeLana Beagle Movie Review: Great Teaching Tool
Summary: 5 Stars
I'm a High school drama teacher and while doing a lesson on Shakespeare I bought this video to teach the kids about Shakespeare's life. It has a lot of great information and it doesn't dumb it down (if you get what I mean). Its not just a biography of the events in Shakespeare's life, it looks at him as a man and explores how events in his life triggered his creative process. There is a lot of great commentary from well respected scholars and classical actors and directors. Great teaching tool for anyone trying to make Shakespeare cool. Movie Review: Will's got it going on
Summary: 5 Stars
Lots of stuff about Shakespeare out there, but this contains so much information in a condensed and entertaining format. HIgh school and college level students really respond positively. Ther are discussion questions that go along with it at the A&E bio website.Movie Review: It's ok...
Summary: 3 Stars
As an English teacher about to teach several of Shakespeare's works, I purchased this video in the hopes that it would provide a short history of his life. In actuality, it proved to be just that--short. I was left with many questions. Nevertheless, it is a good buy since it does cover most of the basic info and is only 50 min in length (my class meets for 45 min).
Summary of A&E Biography - William Shakespeare: Life of Drama (1996) [VHS]
He is the world's most influential and admired writer, a man whose imaginative genius still moves us, nearly four centuries after his death.William Shakespeare's tumultuous life produced an unmatched legacy of drama and poetry. But the Bard's own story remains, for the most part, a mystery. Piece together the clues of Shakespeare's identity, from his comfortable youth in Stratford-on-Avon and his marriage to an older woman at 18 to the night of carousing that led to his death at age 52. Film excerpts, dramatic readings and location footage provide a glimpse into his little-known- life and his astonishing 20-year career as a playwright and actor.Turn back the pages of time for a remarkable portrait of William Shakespeare the greatest writer the English language has ever known.Though Shakespeare is heralded as the world's most influential and admired writer, little is known about the man himself. That didn't stop A&E Biography from weaving together a substantial birth (in 1564) to death (in 1616) portrait from spotty documentation, historical accounts, and interpretations of the master's work itself. It won't give away all the video's surprises to reveal here that Shakespeare was born into privilege, started out as an actor, had an unhappy marriage to an older woman--in his will, he specifically left her only his "second best bed"--and survived the death of his only son, Hamnet. Many of his most complex works came about after the death of his son, including the play named after him. Before Shakespeare died (due to an illness borne of too much pickled herring), he penned perhaps the last thing he would ever write--his own epitaph. It reads, in part, "Blessed be the man that spares these stones and cursed be he that moves my bones." --Jennifer Vogel
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