Anonymous

Directed by: Roland Emmerich

Staring: Rhy Ifans, Sebastian Armesto, Venessa Redgrave.

Rating: 3 Stars

This is the film that has English Literature Students up in arms across campus. Director Roland Emmerich – famous for destroying large cities in Independence Day (1996) and Godzilla (1998) – here tries his (destructive) hand at taking down a British literary institution. He revives the snobbiest of conspiracy theories: that William Shakespeare, who received no more than a grammar school education, could not possibly have written the finest prose and poetry in western civilization – it must have been a nobleman.

The Elizabethan aristocrat selected by Emmerich to debunk The Bard is Edward De Vere, Earl of Oxford, played with David Bowie-esque charm by Rhys Ifans. In this unashamed twisting of history, De Vere is a born writer, but his cruel and puritanical guardian, William Cecil, also Chief Advisor to Queen Elizabeth I, pushes his talents underground at a young age. In his twilight years, De Vere recognises the power of the theatre to influence the masses and sets out to compose work that will foster support for the Queen’s policies, as well as stir the working classes to protest against the tyrannical Cecil. In order to have the work staged, and to ensure his name is not attached to the subversive messages in his writings, he hires struggling playwright Ben Jonson (Sebastian Armesto) to lend his less well-known name to his corpus of work. However, Jonson passes the job to buffoonish and semi-illiterate actor Will Shakespeare, and thus, the film claims, the cabal began. The movie explores the relationship between the jealous Jonson and De Vere, as well as imagining the events in the aristocrat’s life that influenced his writing.

As a fan of ‘the man from Stratford’ myself, I was ready to hate this film. However, if you forget that this film is being marketed as an alternate version of literary history, it can be enjoyed as an amusing Elizabethan romp. The tone is closer to Blackadder than to Shakespeare in Love, abounding with ludicrous jokes at the expense of the plebs, all cast in the mould of Baldric. As for Shakespeare, he is presented as a lower-class duffer: in one scene he and his actor cronies are shown sitting around trying, and failing, to pronounce ‘iambic pentameter’.

Ludicrous premise and questionable social politics aside, the screenplay successfully weaves dozens of subplots and flashbacks together to create a dynamic vision of the period. Though the audience is left a little wiser about the religious tensions and military campaigns of the time, the issue surrounding the succession to the throne is well developed though a passionate adolescent affair between our Earl of Oxford and the not-so-Virgin Queen Elizabeth (Vanessa Redgrave).

Furthermore, Emmerich’s computer generated visuals of sixteenth century London are sumptuous in their scope and detail. He revels in both the mud of the city streets and the opulence of the palace. Beautifully lit, the camera work is also far subtler than could be expected from the director who also brought us Eight-Legged Freaks (2002). However, despite remarkable cinematography and some outstanding dramatic performances, it is the language of Shakespeare that steals the show: all other dialogue pales in comparison.

All in all, a surprisingly enjoyable film – even if it does encourage a generation of school children to discredit the finest playwright Britain has ever produced.