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List Price: $9.98 | | Label: Hbo Home Video
Salesrank: 8102
Released: September 25, 2007 |
| Our Price: $4.58 |
| Used Price: $3.99 |
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MPAA Rating: PG (Parental Guidance Suggested)
Media: DVD |
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Editorial Review:
Emmy award winner Kenneth Branagh, the man who redefined Shakespeare for a whole new generation with Henry V, Much Ado About Nothing and Hamlet, brings the Bard's most delightful comedy to sensational life! Rosalind is a young woman living in the court of her uncle when she falls in love with Orlando, a young gentleman of the kingdom. When Rosalind is banished, she flees into the forest of Arden disguised as a man...only to encounter Orlando who has also been exiled! But can she win his heart, disguised as she is? With a setting inspired by 19th century Japan and a star-studded cast including Kevin Kline (Dave, A Prairie Home Companion), Bryce Dallas Howard (Spider-Man 3, The Lady In The Water) and Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, The Da Vinci Code), AS YOU LIKE IT once again proves that all the world's a stage. Come enjoy!
Description of As You Like It:
If you think stuffy old Shakespeare could be livened up with some ninjas, Kenneth Branagh (Hamlet, Mary Shelley's Frankenstein) has heard your call. Adapter/director Branagh has set the pastoral comedy As You Like It in feudal Japan, where the characters are still British (they live in a community established by Western merchants) but now have reason to dress up in lush Japanese fabrics and engage in sumo wrestling. Due to a feud between two noble brothers, Rosalind (Bryce Dallas Howard, The Village) is banished and ends up disguised as a man in a nearby forest. There she tests the faith of her beloved (and also banished) Orlando (David Oyelowo, MI-5), who can't recognize her because she looks like a Dickensian ragamuffin. Meanwhile, a variety of other star-crossed lovers romp around the forest and zen gardens, sparring about love and melancholy. Branagh, never a subtle director, takes every opportunity to squeeze in slapstick and action (like the aforementioned ninjas), but he also keeps the language clear and the movie is beautiful to look at. The strong cast includes Kevin Kline (who previously frolicked in a movie adaptation of A Midsummer Night's Dream), Alfred Molina (Spider-Man 2, Frida), Romola Garai (I Capture the Castle, Dirty Dancing: Havana Nights), and Adrian Lester (Hustle, Love's Labors Lost). --Bret Fetzer
As You Like It Reviews:
Also hard to understand! 
2009-12-07 - From the cover of this movie i thoght it would be a nice movie. It was a bit violent, and very hard to follow. THE END.
A beautiful work of art 
2009-11-14 - Kenneth Branaugh has done another masterpiece with Shakespeare's play. Very artistically made and includes a host of wonderful actors and actresses. The setting is in Japan where English Lords have gone with their families to embrace the beauty of the orient. There is a squabble between brothers and many things unfold because of this and everyone seems to connect with whatever comes to them. One brother returns with friends to the woods of Arden and his daughter goes on her own escapades with her cousin and the court jester (Alfred Molina). The story comes together beautifully in the end with marriage, joy and reconcilliation.
Dark Bard 
2009-10-28 - I enjoy Shakespeare on film and collect most of the interpretations, some better than others. Recently I have purchased Branagh's "As You Like It" and Al Pacino's "Merchant of Venice". I have always considered them to be comedies, but in these recent versions they have become extremely dark.Perhaps it is simply a reflection of the confusion of our own time.
"As You Like It" for some reason which is not quite clear,is transfered to Japan, and although allowing for considerable beauty in the costumes and photography, it really strains the text to comply with the concept.
What carries it are the beautiful performances. "As you like it" is a great play for wonderful cameo parts such as Touchstone, melancholy Jaques, Audrey and so on. Alfred Molina and Kevin Kline give distinguished perfomances despite the Hokusai version of the Forest of Arden. Kline particularly has emerged as a fine Shakespearian actor; one remembers his excellent and touching Bottom in the recent film of "Midsummer Night's Dream". Let us just call it a worthy but unsatisfactory attempt, sadly lacking Branagh's uplifting joy exhibited in his "Much Ado About Nothing".
Is it a movie, or a haiku? 
2009-08-02 - Clearly from other reviews lots of people enjoyed the movie, but I found it quite -- empty! Yes, visually it's stunning, well done there, and the cinematography does some unusual stunts, but the play is so pruned that we don't ever understand why Rosalind is such a popular character, why Jacques is such a malcontent, why Touchstone is so funny, why the shepherd adores Phoebe so .... and on and on.
To be fair, I'm a professor of Ren. Lit., so my standards are high, but I cannot understand why Branagh chose to edit the play so ruthlessly. Certainly the movie's length allows for more of the dialogue to be included.
The other odd choice was that the dramatic elements (the usurpation, the bad-blood between the brothers) is played VERY seriously ... which I think is amiss in what is undoubtedly a comedy. Rocketing back and forth between true brutality, self-loathing to ennui and hilarity made me a bit sea sick. I've so enjoyed his other efforts at bringing Shakespeare to the screen, but this attempt, in my opinion, focuses so much on the visual that the story's meat-and-potato bits are the only ones left intact. Le sigh.
An English Teacher's Perspective
2009-06-15 - This is a wonderful adaptation of the play, but be advised that substantial script cuts have been made. Some of the nuance of the play has been lost, but overall the plot's integrity remains solid and the characterizations are consistent with the original script. My students enjoyed watching this video as a review for the test, but it doesn't substitute for a reading of the play. The epilogue is produced in a very clever way; I enjoyed that part the most. I would definitely recommend buying this video for classroom use.
