Highly Overrated But Still Good

Great Film overall

This is one of the best movies I’ve seen in a very long time. You have to go and see this on the big screen.

Actress is magnificent and exudes a hypnotic screen presence in this affecting drama.

A Midsummer Night's Dream (1981/I) (TV), directed by Elijah Moshinsky, is a BBC video production. Between 1978 and 1985, the BBC produced all 37 of Shakespeare's plays for British television. They are now available on DVD. Although Midsummer Night's Dream is sometimes considered just a frivolous minor comic piece, it's actually a sophisticated and thought-provoking play. When it was written, Shakespeare was already a successful playwright, at was almost at the peak of his powers. He had command of his medium to such an extent that he could add two additional plots to the usual high comedy/low comedy convention of his day. We have two sets of star-crossed lovers-- Hermia, who is loved by Lysander and Demetrius, although she only loves Lysander, and Helena, who loves Demetrius, although he loves Hermia. Hermia's father demands that she marry Demetrius. (Her other choices are to be executed or to enter a convent.) That's just one plot.Meanwhile, in a wooded area outside the city, Oberon, the King of the Fairies, and Titania, the Queen of the Fairies, are feuding over a young servant boy. The boy is with Titania, but desired by Oberon for his entourage. When these two fight, nature goes into disarray, and people suffer.Theseus--the mythic hero--is ruler of Athens, where the play is set. He has defeated the Amazons and captured their queen, Hippolyta. He plans to marry Hippolyta in four days, so we know that all other matters must be settled by then.Finally, a group of working-class men ("rude mechanicals") is preparing a play to celebrate the nuptials. The play is Pyramus and Thisbe, which is about two truly star-crossed lovers who die because of their love. (Perhaps not the best choice for a wedding celebration, but that's the play they've chosen.)Midsummer Night's Dream is a comedy, so we know that the play won't end with dead actors being carried offstage. However, sorting out and bringing all these plots to fruition required the genius of William Shakespeare.The BBC did an excellent job with this play. Helen Mirren is superb as Titania, the Queen of the Fairies. (It's interesting that 20 years earlier she had played Hermia.) Titania is surrounded by her entourage of fairies, played primarily by children, and you really get the sense that something magical is happening. The fairies don't float in the air like Tinkerbell. They stumble and tumble along in front of, alongside, and behind Titania.I checked the bios of the other principle actors, and they are all solid professionals. However, as far as I could tell, none of them ever attained the stature of Helen Mirren. Nonetheless, they play their parts well and they work well together in ensemble.As I wrote in my review of the BBC's Hamlet, this movie presents us with good, solid Shakespeare. It's a very satisfying production, and definitely worth seeing. The BBC Shakespeare series was particularly popular for use in schools, colleges, and public libraries. Because they were made for TV, they work very well on the small screen. The DVD's are expensive to purchase individually, although the boxed sets are more reasonably priced. My suggestion is to check the DVD out of your local or college library, and treat yourself to over two hours of excellent Shakespeare.

Easily Shakespeare's most accessible play, with fairies, lovers and comical buffoons, "A Midsummer Night's Dream" is given a decent enough rendering here. The play could have been paced better, and some scenes made funnier but on the whole the production is acceptable.The Duke of Athens Theseus (Nigel Davenport) is preparing to marry his bride Hippolyta (Estelle Kohler) but has problems with two noblemen, Lysander (Robert Lindsay) and Demetrius (Nicky Henson), fighting over the same woman, Hermia (Pippa Guard). A fourth woman Helena (Cherith Mellor) hankers after Demetrius but he's not interested. A troupe of amateur actors, including the demented Bottom (Brian Glover) rehearse a play for the Duke's wedding. Hermia flees with Lysander into the forest pursued by Demetrius and Helena where Oberon (Peter McEnery), king of the fairies, takes an interest in their affairs in between squabbling with his Queen Titania (Helen Mirren). With the aid of his trusty sidekick Puck (Phil Daniels), he attempts to resolve the lovers' dispute himself and in the meantime embarrass Titania by having her fall in love with Bottom...At it's base this an actually quite complicated plot but the genius of the writing is that it's very easy to follow. The production does the play proud in this aspect and there's never any problem understanding what's going on.The lover's fighting in the forest benefits from the use of overlapping dialogue, and there is some lovely choral work to complement the fairy scenes. The beginning and end scenes in Athen's court could have been directed with a little more urgency. As it is, they drag somewhat.Phil Daniel's Puck, however, is too sped up. He is lithe and physical but too much of his dialogue is unfathomable. The scenes with the mechanicals could have been played for more laughs, despite the best efforts of Glover and Geoffrey Palmer as Quince.The lovers are well portrayed, and their fickleness as they fall in and out of love with one another is given a nice comic edge by the actors. I feel for the actors, though, as they spend most of their scenes drenched in mud and/or water, not a bad achievement in the studio setting.This series really needs a proper modern dress update these days. There is so much power and relevance in Shakespeare's stories that this project, though well-intended, didn't always take advantage of.

Let me say first of all that this is easily my favourite of all Shakespeare's plays. The way that it interweaves the fantastical and the real is exceptional. But this production did not do it the credit that it deserves.There were a lot of good things here. All Shakespearean productions seem to have at least one actor who doesn't seem at home with the language. It looked for a while as if this one would get away from that. Unfortunately, Puck's entrance kind of spoiled this for me, and as he is a major player it was doubly disappointing. He was totally miscast, and some of his better known lines were almost painful.Having Titania's bed chamber looking like a Rubens painting was a great touch - to say nothing of Titania herself, who, played by Helen Mirren, was outstanding. Making her attendants so numerous and so young was also excellent - in theory. But again, none of them (in their, admittedly few, speaking parts) seemed in any way comfortable with the language. I realise that Shakespeare can't be easy for 10-year-olds, but surely they could have done a little better.The sets were also a disappointment, the forests clearly being indoors and the puddles therein being miraculously free of mud. I don't know what would have been wrong with just shooting that part outdoors.It must be a tough production to get right. There were certainly some good things there, but some unnecessarily bad ones as well. I enjoyed it, but the Hollywood version from 1999 is better, and probably easier to source.

I stumbled upon this production as a teen on PBS one night and have never forgotten it. I'm not particularly a Shakespeare buff but this production gave me a serious soft spot for "Dream" and I've seen several productions of it. This one puts the rest to shame. This is perhaps the most palatable of the Bard's works and the staging and direction make it even more embraceable but do not dumb it down. A taste of this and you may well find yourself going out of your way to rent "Hamlet", "Othello" (or Lord help you) "Titus" (no, can't honestly recommend that one although Sir Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange and Alan Cumming all performed wonderfully).