I first saw this version of A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM as a special presentation on commercial television before going off to college (yes, commercial TV did things like that back before PBS and in the pre-cable days). I fell in love with it and this is before I knew who any of the people (outside of Diana Rigg who was Emma Peel in THE AVENGERS) were. It is my favorite adaptation of the play. The late 1960s-early 1970s were a Golden Age for Shakespeare on film as directors reached out to humanize Shakespeare and remove him from the lofty pedestal where earlier theatrical generations had placed him. Starting with Franco Zefferelli’s ROMEO & JULIET (1968) through Roman Polanski’s MACBETH (1971), there were a handful of fresh, youth oriented adaptations of the Bard that featured gifted, up and coming performers. This is one of the best.
First up there’s the once-in-a-lifetime cast almost all of whom would go on to major careers in movies and TV. There’s Ian Holm, Helen Mirren, Diana Rigg, Ian Richardson, David Warner, and dressed in little more than a fig leaf (ivy actually) the one and only Judi Dench. Second and probably more important is the way they deliver Shakespeare’s dialogue. Not stuffy and erudite but as if it were everyday conversation. They are also highly sensitive to Shakespeare’s meter reminding us that Shakespeare was a poet as well as a playwright. Rarely have the lines sounded this fresh and spontaneous. This is one of the few Shakespeare adaptations where you won’t need subtitles which is good because this DVD-R doesn’t have any.
Finally there is the DVD-R itself. For years this performance was released in a substandard DVD from Waterbearer Films who simply copied their already existing VHS tape with its muddy visuals and muffled sound. It wasn’t great and it was good enough just to have a record of it but it was a far cry from the film that I saw on TV and then in college. This new MGM Limited Edition DVD-R restores the film to how it looked then. A sharp, clear, colorful picture with clean, crisp sound so that you won’t miss a word of dialogue. You also won’t miss the Carnaby Street fashions which were contemporary then and now make the movie something of a period piece. However there’s nothing dated about Shakespeare’s dialogue or the way this cast delivers it making this A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM for the ages.
The Capsule Critic 