King Lear (TV Movie 2018)

King Lear: Directed by Richard Eyre. With Jim Broadbent, Jim Carter, Tobias Menzies, Emily Watson. An aging King invites disaster when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

“This is a gripping rendition of Lear with fantastic performances by all. Nearly all the famous and inspiring lines are here. I say u0026quot;nearlyu0026quot;.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThere were several cuts to Shakespeareu0026#39;s text that surprised and disappointed me. A couple examples:n1) When Kent (Jim Carter) berates Oswald (Christopher Eccleston) I couldnu0026#39;t wait for Kentu0026#39;s long insulting harangue of Oswald: u0026quot;A knave, a rascal, an eater of broken meats, etc.u0026quot; Alas, it was cut.n2) The most shocking scene in the play, the blinding of Gloucester (Jim Broadbent) by Cornwall (Tobias Menzies), contains the line: u0026quot;Out, vile jelly! Where is your luster now?u0026quot; Sadly, the second sentence was cut. I saw a performance where Cornwall not only gouges out Gloucesteru0026#39;s eye, but when it pops onto the floor, he stomps on it. That still gives me chills, but it is not in this version.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eMany other of the famous lines are kept in: u0026quot;How sharper than a serpentu0026#39;s tooth it is to have a thankless childu0026quot;, u0026quot;Every inch a kingu0026quot;, And my favorite speech, Edmundu0026#39;s (John MacMillan) u0026quot;This is the excellent foppery of the world…u0026quot;u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eThe cuts from scene to scene were a little jarring, and if one is unfamiliar with the text it is difficult to understand the conversations. The gist of the story can be discerned, but at the end I felt slightly disappointed despite the bravura performances. Emma Thompson as Goneril was cold blooded malice; Emily Watson as Regan was a convincing conniver. Andrew Scott was fine as Edgar but the film does not explain how no one could recognize him despite having nothing more than a dirty face and a womanu0026#39;s frock on. The same goes for Jim Carteru0026#39;s Kent, although he did at least shave off his hair and moustache, and wore shabby clothes.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eAnthony Hopkins was excellent as Lear, with the full range of emotions Shakespeare gives him: loving, raging, angry, mad and grief stricken.”