Richard III + LFR Quotes

“make Shakespeare accessible to … the people in the streets”

Pacino’s purpose in LFR

“Cheated of feature by dissembling nature/ Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time,”

Machiavellianism accentuated by Richard’s physical deformity → Elizabethans believed that one’s external appearance was reflective of their inherent goodness or evilness, and as Richard was ‘cast’ out earthside, it suggests that his ‘evilness’ is indelibly etched from birth and his physical deformities are emblematic of his moral degeneracy; establishing him as a Machiavel from the outset.

“since I cannot prove a lover...I am determinèd to prove a villain.”

Richard III’s physical deformity ‘forcing’ him to become evil

“I fear t’will prove a troublous world.”

Lower class aware of Richard III’s versimilitude and foreshadowing political discord

“We should introduce Shakespeare into the academics…. then children would have feelings.”

Pacino interviewing people on the street, giving a voice like Shakespeare to a group with limited social value

“Who’s gonna say action around here?”

Pacino reconceptualises his powerful role as the glorified mediator between the archaic narrative and disconnected, postmodern audience, primarily through verisimilitude.

“we’ve done Shakespeare three times.”

Kimball establishing Pacino as an ‘expert’ on Shakespeare, making him a conduit for the truth

“I am not made of stone,/But penetrable to your kind entreats/ Albeit against my conscience and my soul,”

Richard III feigning reluctant acceptance of the throne to show his deceitful nature by playing different parts

“honey’d words”

Richard’s linguistic manipulation

“despair and die”

Ghost’s chants echoing Richard's guilt and foreshadowing his doom.

“Richard has let the pursuit of power totally corrupt him… he is alienated from his body and self.”

Kimball’s social psychoanalystical commentary

“everyone has a right to an opinion”

Pacino’s postmodern belief in the death of the author