Richard III **** (1995, Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Maggie Smith, Robert Downey Jr, Nigel Hawthorne) – Classic Movie Review 3645

Director Richard Loncraine’s 1995 Shakespeare movie gives Ian McKellen a showcase where he dazzlingly re-creates his stage performance as the mad English monarch Richard III, fired by vaulting ambition, hate and revenge on humankind for his hunchback affliction.

The striking-looking film is re-set in an alternative strife-riven, fascist 1930s Britain, imaginatively staged on famous English locations like the Brighton Pavilion, Battersea Power Station, Lincoln’s Inn Fields, County Hall, Earl’s Court, Royal Horticultural Halls, Senate House, Bankside Power Station, Syon House, Shoreham Airport and St Pancras Chambers, as well as Shepperton Studios.

Civil war has erupted in 1930s Britain, where, one by one, the murderously scheming royal duke gets rid of all those higher in line to the throne, like it is William Shakespeare’s version of Agatha Christie’s Ten Little Indians.

McKellen has exactly the measure of his monstrous man, physically credible as a creature who has spent a lifetime with one working arm, and both an actual and mental chip on his shoulder. Among an expert all-star cast, Annette Bening fits in nicely as Queen Elizabeth (wife of King Edward IV) and Maggie Smith does her usual effortless scene-stealing as the Duchess of York.

Remaking Laurence Olivier’s 1955 classic film Richard III, this version of Richard III is accessible, entertaining and quite a thriller.

It also stars Jim Broadbent as the Duke of Buckingham, Robert Downey Jr as Lord Rivers, Nigel Hawthorne as George, Duke of Clarence, Kristin Scott Thomas as Lady Anne, John Wood as King Edward IV, Jim Carter as Lord William Hastings, Edward Hardwicke as Lord Thomas Stanley, Adrian Dunbar as James Tyrell and Dominic West as the Earl of Richmond.

Also in the cast are Tres Hanley, Roger Hammond, Tim McInnerny, Bill Paterson, Denis Lill, Ryan Gilmore, Edward Jewesbury, Donald Sumpter, Matthew Groom, Christopher Bowen and Bruce Purchase.

Loncraine and McKellen write the screenplay. The cinematographer is Peter Biziou, McKellen produces with Stephen Bayly and Lisa Katselas Paré, the score is by Trevor Jones and the production designs are by Tony Burrough.

McKellen was 55 during filming but Richard III died aged 32, after reigning for two years. Edward Hardwicke’s father Cedric Hardwicke played King Edward IV in Richard III (1955).

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3645
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