Comments on: Shakespeare In Love – Historical Inaccuracies

By: Nontraditional Student Reaching Lifelong Goals » Blog Archive » Shakespeare’s Histories Research Paper

Sat, 29 May 2010 18:52:11 +0000

[...] Major victory for the History Geek! I guess he owes me TWO beers now (Last term’s Shakespeare In Love Historical Inaccuracies Paper found one that he had missed). I wanted to share my A+ research paper about [...]

By: Henry D Ritscher

Henry D Ritscher — Mon, 05 Apr 2010 15:09:55 +0000

The sad part is that so many people will watch a film, such as “Shakespeare In Love” and believe that it is historically accurate. In truth, it is a fiction with references to actual history. This can be illustrated by the belief by many that Shakespeare’s own work about Julius Caesar is taken as historical fact, and not an historical fiction. This is a prime reason why students should be taught from original sources , and not from “history books” based on “history books.” This practice is at its worst when law students learn the constitution base on case law and not what the framers wrote. When navigating at sea, a small error at the start of a voyage leads to a large error at the destination. In law, when there is a small error in interpretation of the constitution, all cases that follow will increase that error. Hollywood writers are seldom real historians and their works are filled with errors. They are designed to be entertaining and not accurate. When people know the facts, they can suspend their disbelief while watching the film. When they do not know the facts, they walk away believing what they saw. The fault lies in our selves, not in our stars.

By: Trulyfool

Trulyfool — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 05:19:47 +0000

I suppose we have to cut some slack to movie makers (or the ostensibly more ‘serious’ novelists) when they handle history. It’s certain that all the films I saw growing up that dealt with ‘history’ were way off beam, but they did whet my appetite for the real thing. If that ‘thing’ can ever be reconstructed!

If things Shakespearean interest you, check out ‘Playing Shakespeare’, a 3-DVD series done in the early 80s by the Royal Shakespeare Company. It shows the text worked through from various acting perspectives, and John Barton — who still resides emeritus at least over the enterprise — moves us through the language and in no small way gives a flavor of the time.

As an incidental treat, many now very well known actors show up much younger — Judy Dench, Ben Kingsley, Ian McKellen, Patrick Stewart, David Suchet and other familiar faces.