Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead
Created by: Aleem Merani
Rosencrantz: "Do you think Death could possibly be a boat?"
Guildenstern: "No, no, no... Death is not. Death isn't. Take my meaning? Death is the ultimate negative. Not-being. You can't not be on a boat."
Rosencrantz: "I've frequently not been on boats."
Guildenstern: "No, no... What you've been is not on boats." (1)
The movie, "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" by Tom Stoppard is one of the most unique and inspriging films I've ever seen. The film deals with a primary notion of existentialism, echoed from the original play from which it derived, Hamlet, by William Shakespeare, specifically from soliloquy of Hamlet's where he questions life, "to be, or not to be..." (Hamlet, III, I, 57), however it has been adapted to its own story.
Rosencrantz and Guildenstern play the "game of questions" throughout the movie, which involves asking consecutive questions, one after the other to each other, until someone says something like a statement rather than a question, at which time the other person gains a point.
David Garrick in Hamlet, I, 4
King of Greece & family (LOC)
Rosencrantz and GuildensternMany of the questions relate to life and death, such as the quotes above. These two characters are portrayed as two people who are in this world, this "play" in which they have no real importance, and do not act until they are put in a position to. For example, in the beginning scene of this movie, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern travel across a mountainous area on horseback, and Guildenstern finds a gold coin on the ground, tossing it 92 consecutive times to come up with heads. The useless results continue up until the point they meet the Player King.. He claims that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are now his "audience," thus finally giving them some purpose in the...