Edward II
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Movie Reviews of Edward II
Movie Review: Nobility of humanity, the humanity of royalty, the most base of royal
Summary: 5 Stars
This excellent play is for mature audience only. Shocking. This will haunt you in your nightmares. Yet from it came some of the best of english monarchy. The future king owned his mother and childhood and was one of the best english kings.Movie Review: Lest anyone be confused....
Summary: 5 Stars
Noting the review below, it is not Tilda Swinton who sings but in fact Annie Lennox.
This has been one of my favorites for years.
Movie Review: Almost Shakespearean
Summary: 4 Stars
An avant-garde film that won't appeal to all tastes, Derek Jarman's "Edward II" takes Christopher Marlowe's Shakespearean-era play and imbues it with a modern sensibility. The minimal sets look as though they were thrown together in an abandoned warehouse or airplane hangar, and successfully convey a stifling atmosphere of labyrinthine darkness, decadence, and murder most foul.
As Edward II, Steven Waddington does what he can with a role that seems to be seriously underwritten. Not having read the original play, I'm not sure if that's attributable to Marlowe or to Derek Jarman (who also co-wrote the screenplay), but Edward never emerges as much more than a character on a page: there's nothing much "kingly" about him, he's not terribly bright, and his motivations seem to change, depending on the scene. Far more successful, I thought, was Andrew Tiernan, as the flashier, much-despised lover of the king, Piers Gaveston. Tiernan plays Gaveston as a fop with an attitude, a scheming, snarky twink with dollar signs in his eyes, and a block of ice for a heart. He plays up to poor, dimwitted Edward, making him believe that he loves him, but the only person Gaveston cares about is Gaveston. He's presented as a villain, but he's certainly no worse than Nigel Terry's power-hungry Mortimer, whose own scheming, and canoodling with Edward's sex-starved Queen Isabella (Tilda Swinton), have devastating consequences. Terry, a veteran actor, turns in a fine performance here, while Swinton (one of only a handful of actors I'd characterize as "luminous") has never been more breathtaking; her Isabella is regal and proper, but with fire blazing beneath the cultivated fashionista veneer. Jarman's partner, Kevin Collins, has a key role as the jailer, and he makes the most of it. His ability to convey the deepest emotions with minimal dialogue is both moving and impressive. And Annie Lennox has a brief, beautiful scene as a singer, which only made me wish that she had a bigger part, because she's got a terrific presence.
At the end of the day, "Edward II", while not a perfect film, is far from a waste of time. It's sort of like Shakespeare with a kink, an under-developed, yet mesmerizing, foray into royal intrigue that links its subject matter to modern issues (AIDS, gay liberation) while eschewing the tired casting of porno coverboys as the principal male leads. The film is commendable on a number of levels, and its shortcomings are overshadowed by Jarman's fine direction and vision, by many of the performances, and by the overall quality of the production.
Movie Review: The Text Not The Subtext Is The Key.
Summary: 4 Stars
Being one of only two movies (as opposed to stage productions) based on the works of Christopher Marlowe (the other is the Richard Burton 1967 DOCTOR FAUSTUS), Derek Jarman's 1991 film of EDWARD II would be important for that reason alone. However there is more to the film than that. It's not only what meets the eye but what meets the ear that really counts. Like most of his films, Jarman shot EDWARD II on a shoestring and like many a theatre director turned filmmaker, he follows the time honored tradition of re-interpreting a classic play for the screen. The minimal settings and modern costumes, which were partially budgetary concerns, take some getting used to as does the overtly gay overtone that Jarman brings out which is not for the easily offended even though it can clearly be found in Marlowe's text. However, if you can get past that, then this EDWARD II can be a surprisingly rich and rewarding experience especially on repeated viewings.
After I have watched a film version of a Shakespeare play or in this case Marlowe, I like to run it through my sound system without the picture and just listen to the words and how the actors speak them. The cast for EDWARD II is very strong and their theatrical background comes through with most of Marlowe's lines. Shakespeare was regarded as a playwright when he died in 1616 while Marlowe was considered a poet when he was murdered in 1593. There is poetry in Marlowe's blank verse that even Shakespeare couldn't aspire to although he was the better writer overall. But I digress. With a trio of strong performances from Stephen Waddington, Tilda Swinton, and Nigel Terry, this version of EDWARD II has a raw power that is accentuated by Jarman's visuals and Simon Fisher-Turner's music. Forget the anachronisms like Annie Lennox or the appearance of Queer Nation and focus on the story of a flawed individual who like Othello, "loved not wisely, but too well".
Movie Review: Surrealistic History!
Summary: 4 Stars
Maybe you know Edward II from Braveheart. He's the son of the nasty King Edward I who conquered Scotland and Wales. He was gay, though his official responsibilities required him to have a wife and children (Edward III was his son). His male lover, Piers Gaveston, was contemptuous of the aristocracy of England, giving them nasty nicknames that make Edward laugh uproariously. So the queen and *her* lover plotted to get rid of Edward, and they did in a *very* nasty way. This is all done in modern day surroundings, with the gay lovers smoking modern cigarettes (note--there was no tobacco in England in the 1300s).
This film is not for the squeamish. Very explicit scenes of homosexual sex acts. If you're a high school or even college teacher, this will NOT be appropriate for your general classes to learn about English history. It might be appropriate for an advanced drama class, but even then you should go carefully, giving the class adequate warning about what they're going to see.
My favorite in the film is Tilda Swinton as Queen Isabella, the vengefully jealous spouse.