King Lear (1999)

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly ... See full summary »

Directors:

Brian Blessed, Tony Rotherham

Writer:

William Shakespeare (play)

Stars:

Brian Blessed, Hildegard Neil, Jason Riddington

Cast

Credited cast:
Brian Blessed	...	King Lear
Hildegard Neil	...	The Fool
Jason Riddington	...	Edmund
Phillipa Peak	...	Cordelia
Rest of cast listed alphabetically:
Peter Balderstone	...	Cornwall's Captain
Mark Burgess	...	Edgar
John Corvin	...	Gentleman
Paul Curran	...	King of France
Mark Denny	...	Duke of Cornwall
David Dexter	...	2nd Messenger
Billy Hanna	...	1st Knight
Mark Hayden	...	Oswald
Claire Laurie	...	Regan
Caroline Lennon	...	Goneril
Graham McTavish	...	Duke of Albany

Storyline

King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.

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Plot Keywords:

tragedy | shakespeare's king lear | based on play | character name in title

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Genres:

Drama

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Details

Country:

UK

Language:

English

Company Credits

Production Co:

Cromwell Productions Ltd., Lamancha Productions

Technical Specs

Runtime:

190 min

Did You Know?

Connections

Version of King Lear (1971)

User Reviews

Nobody seems to have the patience and guts to sit out a 3 hour long movie.

Nobody seems to have the patience and guts to sit out a 3 hour long film questioning eternal human behaviour as greed, jealousy, hatred and false-heartedness. These themes are at the heart of a lot of Shakespeare's works. Set in the early middle-ages with a fair deal of suspense and superstition and witchery this film should appeal to fantasy lovers. The acting in this film is great and the story is of a kind that scenario-writers seldom match. It is a shame only 10 people of IMDb took notice of this film. All is in it;tenderness, unconditional love,terrible remorse, and all for us to see and entertain us.