Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)

Director:

Tom Stoppard

Writer:

Tom Stoppard (written by)

Release Date:

8 February 1991 (USA)

Genre:

Comedy | Drama

Plot:

Two minor characters from the play, "Hamlet" stumble around unaware of their scripted lives and unable to deviate from them.

Plot Keywords:

Coin | Destiny | Existentialism | Towel | Tennis

Awards:

3 wins & 1 nomination

Cast

  (Cast overview, first billed only)

Gary Oldman	...	Rosencrantz
Tim Roth	...	Guildenstern
Richard Dreyfuss	...	The Player
Livio Badurina	...	Tragedian
Tomislav Maretic	...	Tragedian
Mare Mlacnik	...	Tragedian
Serge Soric	...	Tragedian (as Srdjan Soric)
Mladen Vasary	...	Tragedian
Zeljko Vukmirica	...	Tragedian
Branko Zavrsan	...	Tragedian
Joanna Roth	...	Ophelia
Iain Glen	...	Hamlet
Donald Sumpter	...	Claudius
Joanna Miles	...	Gertrude
Ljubo Zecevic	...	Osric

Runtime:

117 min

Country:

UK | USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color (Technicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.85 : 1

Sound Mix:

Dolby Digital

Certification:

Iceland:L | South Korea:12 | Australia:PG | Finland:K-8 | Germany:12 | UK:PG | USA:PG (certificate #30638)

Filming Locations:

Brezice, Slovenia

Company:

Brandenberg

Trivia:

While on the ship bound for England, Tim Roth remarks, "I think I'll spend the rest of my life on boats." He does just that in the La leggenda del pianista sull'oceano (1998) ("The Legend of 1900"), in which his character spends his entire life on a cruise liner, never once stepping on dry land.

Goofs:

Incorrectly regarded as goofs: When Rosencrantz and Guildenstern first encounter The Player, it is day, and then suddenly changes to night. At times, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are in a night-time setting, but when the shot changes to show the The Player and his Tragedians, the sky is blue/grey. However, this is probably intentional. Absurdist drama often features a vague or ill-defined setting, including time of day. Tom Stoppard also wrote the stage play on which his screenplay is based, which features several such apparent jumps in time continuity as a means of promoting or maintaining a sense of confusion in the audience.

Quotes:

[first lines]
[Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are riding horses down a path - they pause]
Rosencrantz: [to Guildenstern] Umm, uh...
[Guildenstern rides away, and Rosencrantz follows. Rosencrantz spots a gold coin on the ground]
Rosencrantz: [to horse] Whoa - whoa, whoa.
[Gets off horse and starts flipping the coin]
Rosencrantz: Hmmm. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads. Heads.
[Guildenstern grabs the coin, checks both sides, then tosses it back to Rosencrantz]
Rosencrantz: Heads.
[Guildenstern pulls a coin out of his own pocket and flips it]
[...]

Movie Connections:

Referenced in Chasing Amy (1997)

Soundtrack:

Seamus

See it more than once!

This is one of my all time favorite movies. I love everything about it! The dialogue is ingenious, Gary Oldman, Tim Roth and Richard Dreyfuss are all superb and the concept is original. I found it much funnier on the second viewing; there is just so much to take in. It takes patience; you are thrown in seemingly in the middle of something. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, minor characters in Hamlet wander into the events of the play on call for their dialogue, and in between try to figure out their existence.

Sadly there is no US DVD, and I think the VHS is out of print. I have an old laserdisc, and I have heard that there's a UK DVD. If you do run across this I couldn't recommend it more strongly!