Much Ado About Nothing: A Screenplay by Kenneth Branagh

Much Ado About Nothing: A Screenplay Reviews

• 
  Christine

  This edition is the the tie-in for the Kenneth Branagh movie, so it is the movie script - some of the play has been cut. It includes photos of the shot, including the names of the horses the men rode.
  
  Much Ado is my favorite Shakespeare play and I could write a wonderful essay about it (I did in college after all). Kenneth Branagh, however, says it best in the introduction:
  
  "In short, the play presents a whole series of emotional and spiritual challenges that we - young, old, male, female - continue to face when we love. And all throughout this comic debate about everything and nothing, there is life-giving, wisdom-bearing, humour and warmth. The piece is harsh and cruel as people can be. It is generous and kind as they can also be. It is uplifting but never sentimental. It 'holds the mirror up to nature' and allows us inside its wonderful warts-and-all world of human nature, to understand and perhaps even to forgive ourselves for some of our oft-repeated follies". (Branagh on page xvi).
  
  
  To which I say - WORD.
  
  
• 
  Alan

  Branagh's text, about 38% of Shakespeare's--not good; compare his Hamlet, which is almost all of Sh's text.
  It appears a delightful film, with well cast leads including Dogberry, and maybe even Keanu as Don John though he can be off-putting quite beyond his role.
  Many of the great lines in Sh. are Leonato's, and I think many of them B. cuts, though I cannot right now say which, ten years after teaching this. Leonato shows the same regret over his daughter as Capulet, Juliet's dad. Leonato on his only child, "Grieved I I had but one? / Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?/ O one too much by thee! Why had I one? / Why ever wast thou lovely in mine eyes..." Leonato's daughter Hero is falsely accused of a premarital affair as we might now call it, a minor offense in most parts of modern America.
  
  Leonato's self-pity is engorging. When his brother Antonio tries to comfort him, the heart of Shakespearean wisdom emerges:"Brother, men / Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief / Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it/ Their counsel turns to passion, which before / Would give perceptial medicine to rage, / Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, / Charm ache with air and agony with words....No, no, 'tis all men's office to speak patience /...But no man's virtue nor suffieciency / To be so moral when he shall endure / The like himself." (5.1.30ff)
  Five lines later, Shakespeare sums this up helpfully; Leonato to his brother, "I pray thee peace. I will be flesh and blood, / For there was never yet philosopher / That could endure the toothache patiently,/ However they have write the style of gods, / And made a push at chance and sufferance."
  Later in the same scene, this profound Shakespearean wisdom is spiced by the humor of Dogberry's legal complaint against Borachio to Leonato, "this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me an ass..." "And masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass."
  Though almost completely incompetent, Dogberry does in fact catch the bad guys.
  As for toothache references in Shakespeare, there are several, and do not forget the barber's chair, "which fits any buttock," in Taming I believe.
• 
  Matt

  
  I watched his movie version (ehhhnn) and I read this screenplay because I was playing Don John the bastard brother on stage back in high school.
  
  In case anyone's interested, Joss Whedon's version of it that just came out is excellent. Better than Branagh's, for sure.
• 
  Bernie4444

  We shall not cease from exploring
  
  We shall not cease from exploring, and the end of all our exploring Will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time. -T.S. Eliot-
  
  We can now have voice-over narration with movies that make DVDs well worth buying and we can enjoy the mover more after seeing what the artist or writer or director was trying to accomplish. I myself need someone to tell me when my shoe is untied.
  
  You may notice a few drawbacks to the DVD extra route that this book addresses. First, even if the media lasted forever the DVD will become unreadable with newer technology. Unless you have, a portable device about the size of a book a DVD can be clumsy to carry around. People that are book-oriented can get more pleasure from this medium.
  
  The book itself is conveniently divided into logical sections:
  Introduction
  Synopsis
  The screenplay
  The cast
  The film
  The shoot
  
  All the movements and dialog are clearly written. There are plenty of color pictures as visual aids. After enjoying, the different views of both Shakespeare and the movie, this book makes a great conversation item.
  
• 
  Lori

  A gift from my husband. So much fun to read the screenplay and compare it to the finished product. Also great notes and pictures.
• 
  Glen Engel-Cox

  The book to accompany the movie. I found it at a cinema book store in Seattle, as well as the cloth edition of
  Beginning. There’s nothing new here, really, although one can take the screenplay and check it against the play to find out the changes that were made to the text.
  
  Branagh says in the foreword that having the American actors was his idea. Perhaps. I had heard a rumor that he had included them for a wider U.S. distribution. In any case, it’s worth noting that the Americans, with the possible exception of Denzel Washington, just can’t hold a candle to even the meanest bit parts played by the British. I still think Keaton was way too “Beetlejuice” for Dogberry, although the explanation for his interpretation herein gave me new insight into it. If you’re a Branagh admirer as I am, you shouldn’t pass this book up.
• 
  Brittney

  If you love the movie than you will love this too! It was a super quick read and a fun glimpse behind the scenes of the 1993 adaption of Shakespeare's Much Ado About Nothing. The pictures were lovely, Kenneth Branagh's screenplay adaption was hilarious to read (I'm looking at you "Benedick in Hamlet Mode") and his insights into the play were a treat to read. I highly recommend this book.
• 
  Ryutaro Hamada

  1.OXEORD, Stage2
  2.7/3; 90 minutes
  3.love, Italy, party, trouble, surprise, criminal, wedding
  4.What is the biggest party have you ever attended?
  - It is my aunt wedding party when I was six years old. It was great party!
  5.This story was made by Shakespare. He is very famous person but I did not know this story. I think there are too many characters in this story so I think this story is a little bit difficult for me. But many pictures in this book help me to enjoy reading. It was very interesting!
• 
  Mary

  Preparing for Josh's version, I saw Kenneth's version, it was great.