Looking for Richard Page #9

Long live King Richard!

In the midst of these noble concepts,

these treaties and diplomatic pacts...

...he was saying

the truth beneath all this...

...is absolutely the opposite.

The truth is that those in power...

...have total contempt

for everything they promise...

...everything they pledge.

And that's what Shakespeare's

great play is about.

The reason why Shakespeare

is really important...

...is because, in the Talmudic theme...

I've taken Lady Macbeth

and put her in a rock 'n' roll context.

She's singing the blues.

Which is really a yin-yang or Chinese.

Hamlet's like every kid

who's freaked out...

...his mother, his father...

The way to truly live is to hold

both points of view at the same time.

I have them singing the blues,

doing the beat.

But an American audience

gets intimidated. They hear "Hamlet. "

They hear "Shakespeare. "

You must get me out of this.

Get me out of this documentary.

This idea was a bad idea.

It's gone too far.

- Take you away from all this?

- I wanna go. I wanna...

I want to be the king.

I want to be king, Frederic.

Make me king.

CROWD:
Long live Richard,

England's worthy king!

Long live Richard,

England's worthy king!

KIMBALL:
As soon as he gets what

he wants, Lady Anne, the crown...

...then the whole thing...

- The emptiness of it.

- Cousin of Buckingham!

- My gracious sovereign?

PACINO:

Give me thy hand.

Thus high, by thy advice

and thy assistance...

...is King Richard...

...seated.

But shall we wear

these glories for a day?

Or shall they last...

...and we rejoice in them?

Still they live and for ever

may they last!

Buckingham...

...now do I play the touch.

Young Edward lives.

Think now what I would speak.

Say on, my loving lord.

Shall I be plain?

I wish the bastards...

...dead.

Why is it necessary now to kill them?

You're king. What difference...?

- It's...

- But as long as they live.

What sayest thou now?

Speak suddenly. Be brief.

Your grace may do his pleasure.

Thou art all ice...

...thy kindness freezeth.

FEMALE SCHOLAR:

Everybody may have a price...

...but for a lot of people,

there is a fundamental decency.

It takes a long time for them

to reach that point.

The action of the play,

the sense of exciting movement...

...is Richard's finding out the point

beyond which people won't go.

PACINO:

Say, then that I have thy consent...

...that they shall die?

It's an interesting question...

...about where Buckingham is...

How far he's willing to go,

where he's willing to draw the line.

It's as if everything Buckingham

does in the play...

...somehow manages

to keep the blood off his hands.

Give me some little breath,

some pause, dear my lord...

...before I speak positively in this.

I shall resolve you herein presently.

The king is angry.

None are for me...

...that look into me

with considerate eyes.

He is bound to be left alone...

...because nobody can love the king...

...beyond the degree of their own egoism

or their own goodness.

There will be a point.

He has reached Buckingham's point.

That deep-revolving...

...witty Buckingham...

...shall no longer be neighbor

to my counsels.

What?

Hath he held out with me

so long, untired...

...stops he now for breath?

Well...

...so be it.

When he went away, did he agree

to do it, or was he gonna say:

"I can't, but give me

what you promised"?

I think he's come back and says:

"Okay. We have to do it,

let's bite the bullet. Let's do it. "

But he's too late.

My Lord, I have consider'd in my mind

the late request...

...that you did sound me in.

- Well, let that rest.

- Dorset is fled to Richmond.

SPACEY:
I hear the news, my lord.

PACINO:
Stanley.

BRYGGMAN:
Yes, my sovereign?

PACINO:

Richmond is your wife's son...

...look to it.

My lord...

...I claim the gift...

...my due of promise...

...which your honor and your faith

is pawn'd.

The earldom of Hereford and moveables

which you promised I shall possess.

Stanley...

...look to your wife.

If she convey letters to Richmond,

you shall answer it.

What says your highness

to my high request?

I do remember me,

Henry the Sixth did prophesy...

...when Richmond was just a little boy

that Richmond would be king.

Perhaps.

- Perhaps...

- My lord! The earldom...

PACINO:

Richmond!

When last I was in Exeter...

...the mayor in courtesy

show'd me the castle there...

...and call'd it Rougemont.

[PACINO LAUGHS]

At which name I started,

because a bard of Ireland told me once...

...that I should not live long

after I saw Richmond.

- My Lord!

- Ay, what's o'clock?

I am thus bold to put your grace in mind

of what you promised me.

Ay, but what's o'clock?

Upon the stroke of ten.

- Let it strike.

SPACEY:
Why let it strike?

Because...

...that, like a Jack...

...thou keep'st the stroke, tick-tock...

...betwixt your begging...

...and my meditation.

Tick-tock.

I am not...

...in the giving vein to-day.

May it please your grace...

...to resolve me in my suit?

Thou troublest me.

I am not...

...in the vein.

Thou dost scorn me

for my gentle counsel?

And soothe the devil

that I warn thee from?

O, but remember this another day...

...when he shall split

thy very heart with sorrow...

...and say poor Margaret...

...was a prophetess!

And thus be it so?

Repays me my deep service

with such contempt...

...made I him king for this?

O, let me think on Hastings,

and be gone...

...to Brecknock...

...while my fearful head is on!

You stand on brittle ground.

Will it last,

or will someone next week say:

"Hey, they got a bum rap.

Let's push the case of the kids"?

The kids have got to go.

Is thy name Tyrell?

James Tyrell...

...and your most obedient subject.

Darest thou resolve

to kill a friend of mine?

Please you.

But I had rather kill two enemies.

Thou hast it.

Two deep enemies, foes to my rest

and sweet sleep's disturbers...

...are they that I would have thee

deal upon.

Tyrell...

...I mean those bastards in the Tower.

Let me have open means

to come to them...

...and soon I'll rid you

from the fear of them.

Say it is done...

...and I will love thee,

and prefer thee for it.

I will dispatch it straight.

I am so far in blood...

...that sin will pluck on sin.

Tear-falling pity dwells not in this eye.

Any production of Richard III,

the last act dribbles out for me.

- I'm gone.

PACINO:
For me, the last act...

... Richard is the most accessible

because it's clear...

...that Richard has attained

this power now.

He's king and he's on the decline

because as soon as he becomes king...

...they come at him from all sides.

Richmond is attacking.

This guy, Richmond,

his family were the losers...

... in the War of the Roses.

He had fled to France and was there

raising an army...

... to get the throne back

for the house of Lancaster.

MESSENGER 1:

My gracious sovereign...

...now in Devonshire,

as I by friends am well advertised.

MESSENGER 2:

In Kent the Guildfords are in arms.

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