Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead! (1990) USA Tom Stoppard
Can any of us change our fate when we cannot even remember it?
The action starts almost immediately. Here we have two men on horses riding through a steppe of a mountain. The two companions find an ordinary gold coin on the road. Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth) stop to pick up their good fortune. Rosencrantz quickly realizes that although the coin they have found is seemingly ordinary…. the environment is not. They travel along as Rosencrantz delves into his OCD delight of pushing the coin to see when it finally breaks its lucky streak.
The chemistry between the two is dynamic. It reminds me of Laurel and Hardy or Abbot and Costello insofar as that they are together against the world whereas the three stooges were against each other - Unless you happen to come walking through! While we never really learn who is who, my German tells me that “Rosencrantz” is a rosary while “Guildenstern” is a Guild of Stars and to make it easier I picked which character embodied that in my mind. Rosencrantz seemed too cute to be a big nebula of stars.
GUILDENSTERN: It must be indicative of something
besides the redistribution of wealth.
ROSENCRANTZ: Heads.
GUILDENSTERN: A weaker man might be moved
to re-examine his faith,
for nothing else at least
in the law of probability...
ROSENCRANTZ: Heads.
GUILDENSTERN CONT: Consider.
One,
probability is a factor which
operates within natural forces.
Two, probability is not
operating as a factor.
Three, we are now held within um...
sub or supernatural forces.
Discuss!A dialogue continues about what to do when the novelty of flipping a coin 79 times in a row ends. Guildenstern suggests that there are fear and danger but Rosencrantz only can find absurd humor in their predicament. Guildenstern mocks his intelligence saying someone is easily impressed when they have never had anything to “write home about”. For whatever stupidity that Rosencrantz has he has nothing to be ashamed for because his intuitive and childlike curiosity for fun is what makes him prolific in the content, he creates from the environment around him.
Guildenstern remembers that they were “sent for” but little else. The scene changes to a tracking shot of them riding furiously in a direction but the destination is unknown. They stop mid-gallop to figure out their plan. They remember that they were sent by the messenger who came at “pale dawn” for a “royal matter of urgency” and that their fear is inspired by a worry that they will arrive too late to play their part. Like Jim Morrison, my idol, once said: “No one will forgive us now for wasting the dawn”.
They cross paths with a traveling performance troupe that corrals them into watching a story as they finally have an “audience. It doesn’t seem to matter who the audience is, but rather that their story is told less they “forget their lines” otherwise they will be forced to go back to improvising, which if you’re Colin Mocherie or Ryan Styles makes it look like magic. …because it is. No mere mortal is that good at thinking on the fly. The actors their repertoire and suggest a play to suit the times for “being what they are” which The Director (Richard Dreyfus) says are “indifferent” and “wicked”.
Guildenstern asks if they can join the performance and the Director says that they can but Guildenstern comments about their crudeness. The Director responds that in better days they were purists but have been tarnished by the times. Rosencrantz gives them money to perform but Guildenstern stops it forcefully by stomping on it and then questioning if they are aware of any Greek tragedies of antiquity. The Director says that they are more from “Blood, love, and rhetoric” school of thought. They can perform without love or rhetoric but never without blood. Guildenstern asks if that is what the people want but The Director offers that it is simply what they do. Guildenstern attempts to cheat the Director by making him bet on the lucky coin. The Director aware of the rules of the environmental challenges Guildenstern by calling heads. When they look up, the acting troop is gone.
The scene changes to Hamlet chasing Ophelia down the castle walls and exiting out of frame. Their exit is our heroes entrance. we see our players suddenly enmesh with the scenery. The king arrives with the queen (whom he recently married) and asks Rosencrantz and Guildenstern to help with Hamlet who has undergone some mental break. They eavesdrop on Polonius who tells King Claudius that he has discovered the reason behind Hamlet’s break with reality and the Queen suggests that the reason is no more than his father’s death and his mother’s hasty remarriage. The priest is unequipped to handle the emotional state that Hamlet is in and questions him in the wrong way to which Hamlet avoids.
Guildenstern prompts Rosencrantz to hypothetically question him (as Hamlet) to get to the real answer. Rosencrantz is mocked for being slow to grasp the idea but then wins an impromptu game of questioning. A game I learned how to do in Berlin on a sales floor, but mastered by the modern kings of comedy on Whose Line is it Anyway. The game has rules such as no statements, no repetition, no rhetoric, and the questions must be congruent with the flow of conversation. Their strategy has little luck when they meet Hamlet. We hear news from Polonius that the acting troop has arrived at the castle.
Downstairs The Director is telling the story of the Fall of Troy. Polonius and Hamlet and a few players are present. Polonius objects to how long the story is but Hamlet, which knows it by heart is enthralled and asks to hear of the story of Hecuba. Hecuba was the hero queen who could have flashes of the fall of Troy years before it happened. She mothered heroes who would die at the hands of others. Some of her children were Cassandra, punished and blinded for her gift of foresight. Paris, whose cunning started the war and ownership of Helen, and Hector whose areté is still told today.
Hamlet asks the players to perform The Murder of Gonzago. After Hamlet retires the Director speaks to Rosencrantz and Guildenstern alone to help them solve Hamlet’s issues. He lets slip a piece of information that Polonius believes that Hamlet’s love for Ophelia is the cause of concern. It’s obvious that the players know more about the story than Rosencrantz or Guildenstern and this becomes more evident as they reveal their story in their performances. First, the players perform for the lowest of the castle help and their story shows of Polonius’ murder, the death of two players out at sea, a young woman in flowers being caught in blue waves, and a duel gone awry. All of these visions respond to Hecate, the earlier tale provided to the downtrodden at dinner.
The next time the players perform it is a puppet show akin to “a play within a play” that hamlet is known for and has been used countless times since as a meta-performance. Bergman uses this device often. As they practice, Hamlet comes bursting through the stage and reprimands Ophelia who has been turned by her father to spy on Hamlet. She offers herself to him and he refuses her and the idea of marriage after seeing how it has been defined by his mother and uncle. During the actual performance, the King stands and orders the players to stop. While Hamlet and his mother are talking he kills Polonius through the curtain when he is aware he is eavesdropping.
Guildenstern and Rosencrantz find themselves in the dark and at sea with little knowledge about where or why they are there… again. They emerge on deck at pale dawn and they find Hamlet asleep in a cabin. Ordered to deliver Hamlet to the English King they read the letter they were given only to discover that the letter seals Hamlet’s death. A crisis of faith ensues between betrayal of a friend. Guildenstern is pragmatic but Rosencrantz is emotional and loyal. Guildenstern wins the argument to allow fate to act as the narrative. Hamlet hears them and changes the letter out.
In the morning there is a battle at sea by pirates. Hamlet narrowly escapes onto the other ship. In the morning light, they encounter the Queen who then reads the letter that Hamlet has traded in the night. Hamlet changed his own death to theirs. When their sentence is read aloud the Queen transforms again into The Director and an interesting dialogue happens. I’ve copied the text straight from the script to see the elegance in the way they handle the nature of fate, existentialism, and the absurdity that lies between the two.
ROSENCRANTZ: They had it in for us didn't they?
Right from the beginning who'd have
thought that we were so important?
GUILDENSTERN: But why?
Was it all for this? Who are we
that so much should converge
on our little deaths?
THE DIRECTOR: You are Rosencrantz
and Guildenstern. That is enough.
GUILDENSTERN: No, it is not enough.
To be told so little to
such an end and still, finally,
to be denied an explanation.
THE DIRECTOR: In our experience,
almost everything ends in death.
GUILDENSTERN: Your experience! Actors!
You die a thousand casual deaths
and come back in a different hat.
As Guildenstern stabs the Director as a proclamation of the severity of death The players gather together and applaud as The Director stands. The next shot is Rosencrantz and Guildenstern at dawn awaiting their own death. Rosencrantz welcomes death as a relief for his suffering and Guildenstern is already planning the next time around.
ROSENCRANTZ: We've done nothing wrong.
We didn't harm anyone, did we?
GUILDENSTERN: I can't remember.
ROSENCRANTZ: All right, then, I don't care.
I've had enough.
To tell you the truth,
I'm relieved.
GUILDENSTERN: There must have been
a moment at the beginning,
where we could have said no.
But somehow we missed it.
Well, we'll know better next time.
Till then.
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