King Lear

Aug 6, 2008

2h 30m

★ 6.7

Overview

An aging King invites disaster, when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters, and rejects his loving and honest one.

Genres

Drama

TV Movie

Production Companies

Richard Price TV Associates Ltd.

King Lear Trailers

No Trailers found.

Cast

King Lear

Ian McKellen

Cordelia

Romola Garai

Regan

Monica Dolan

The Fool

Sylvester McCoy

Edmund

Philip Winchester

Duke of Burgundy

Peter Hinton

Earl of Kent

Jonathan Hyde

Goneril

Frances Barber

Earl of Gloucester

William Gaunt

Duke of Albany

Julian Harries

Edgar

Ben Meyjes

Duke of Cornwall

Guy Williams

Britain is in crisis. An ineffectual Queen Cymbeline rules over a divided dystopian Britain. Consumed with grief at the death of two of her children, Cymbeline's judgment is clouded. When Innogen, the only living heir, marries her sweetheart Posthumus in secret, an enraged Cymbeline banishes him. Behind the throne, a power-hungry figure plots to seize power by murdering them both. In exile Innogen's husband is tricked into believing she has been unfaithful to him and in an act of impulsive jealousy begins a scheme to have her murdered. Warned of the danger, Innogen runs away from court in disguise and begins a journey fraught with danger that will eventually reunite Cymbeline with a long-lost heir and reconcile the young lovers.

7.9

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Returning to their lord's castle, samurai warriors Washizu and Miki are waylaid by a spirit who predicts their futures. When the first part of the spirit's prophecy comes true, Washizu's scheming wife, Asaji, presses him to speed up the rest of the spirit's prophecy by murdering his lord and usurping his place. Director Akira Kurosawa's resetting of William Shakespeare's "Macbeth" in feudal Japan is one of his most acclaimed films.

7.0

Othello

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7.8

Hamlet at Elsinore

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6.4

Twelfth Night

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Sir Alec Guinness, Sir Ralph Richardson and Joan Plowright star in this merry on-stage mix-up of identity, gender and love in Tony Award-winner John Dexter’s production of William Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night. Originally broadcast on Britain’s ITV, this classic performance captures all the slapstick, puns and double entendres that have amazed and amused audiences for over four hundred years.

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0.0

This Is Macbeth

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Overview of The Scottish Play through CNN style character interviews.

0.0

This Is Hamlet

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A mockumentary examination of Shakespeare's greatest tragedy using "breaking news" style interviews and commentary.

7.1

My Own Private Idaho

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In this loose adaptation of Shakespeare's "Henry IV," Mike Waters is a hustler afflicted with narcolepsy. Scott Favor is the rebellious son of a mayor. Together, the two travel from Portland, Oregon to Idaho and finally to the coast of Italy in a quest to find Mike's estranged mother. Along the way they turn tricks for money and drugs, eventually attracting the attention of a wealthy benefactor and sexual deviant.

7.2

Chimes at Midnight

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Henry IV usurps the English throne, sets in motion the factious War of the Roses and now faces a rebellion led by Northumberland scion Hotspur. Henry's heir, Prince Hal, is a ne'er-do-well carouser who drinks and causes mischief with his low-class friends, especially his rotund father figure, John Falstaff. To redeem his title, Hal may have to choose between allegiance to his real father and loyalty to his friend.

7.0

Henry V - Live at Shakespeare's Globe

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Shakespeare’s masterpiece of the turbulence of war and the arts of peace tells the romantic story of Henry’s campaign to recapture the English possessions in France. But the ambitions of this charismatic king are challenged by a host of vivid characters caught up in the real horrors of war. Henry V, which opened the new Globe with the words ‘O for a muse of fire’, celebrates the power of language to summon into life courts, pubs, ships and battlefields within the ‘wooden O’ - and beyond.

8.0

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5.3

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5.1

As You Like It

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6.2

Romeo and Juliet

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Young love is poisoned by a generations long feud between two noble families.

6.4

Othello

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General Othello's marriage is destroyed when vengeful Ensign Iago convinces him that his new wife has been unfaithful.

4.0

Macbeth

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6.9

Omkara

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Half-caste bandit Omkara Shukla abducts his lady love, Dolly Mishra, from her family. Thanks to his cleverness, he gets away with the kidnapping. A conspiracy, however, forms against him when he denies his right-hand man, Langda Tyagi, a promotion. Ultimately, this plot threatens not only his relationship with Dolly, but their lives and those of their associates as well.

5.8

The King Is Alive

May 11, 2000

Stranded in the heat of a barren African desert, eleven bus-passengers shelter in the remnants of an abandoned town. As rescue grows more remote by the day and anxiety deepens, an idea emerges: why not stage a play. However the choice of King Lear only manages to plunge this disparate group of travelers into turmoil as they struggle to overcome both nature's wrath and their own morality.

6.9

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6.4

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The evil Iago pretends to be friend of Othello in order to manipulate him to serve his own end in the film version of this Shakespeare classic.