A Midsummer Night's Dream [DVD] [1999]

This version of the play is a wonderful version.The acting and visual production make it a joy to watch.

The movie is lively and colorful and brings the play to life. I would recommend using it when teaching the original script to high school students. The use of bicycles is innovative and brings in a modern perspective. Hermia and Helen are a bit too similar in size (it adds to the humor if Hermia is much smaller), but are convincing.An added bonus are Bottom's acting (Kevin Kline) and the Mechanicals' play. Kline brings in a great deal of depth, and rather than viewing him as "monstrous" and ridiculous, we actually feel sympathy for him and can perceive Titania and Bottom as types of Beauty and the Beast. In addition, towards the end of the Mechanicals' play Pyramus & Thisbe, the actor playing Thisbe (Sam Rockwell?) stops the ridiculous mannerisms and switches into brilliant, moving acting that reveals suddenly what great performances can do.Shakespeare used the Mechanicals' "medieval style" skit as foil to his own professional play, a type of meta comment on the differences between the old style and the new, professional, modern (Elizabethan) approach. The little twist in acting by Thisbe in a sense contradicts this intention, yet simultaneously focuses attention on what makes performance convincing.

I really didn't want to watch this but, (having foolishly agreed to a democratic DVD selection process within the family), was forced into sitting through what I expected to be an excruciating parody of the Bard's work. Shakespeare does not translate easily from stage to screen and I also have a totally unreasonable and irrational aversion to his text being spoken in an American accent! Michelle Pfeiffer as Titania and Calista Flockhart as Helena? - it was bound to be a disaster.I was completely wrong. No, this isn't pure Shakespeare and purists and blinkered scholars will probably loathe it, but having sat through quite a few very tedious stage versions of the play I can say this was one of the most enjoyable interpretations I've seen in a long time. AMSD is Shakespeare at his most whimsical, it's a piece of gentle froth with some classic "Whitehall" farce thrown in. And this the film captured admirably. The photography is quite stunning, the accompanying music is beautiful and the acting - even from those not recognised as Shakespearean thespians - is surprisingly good. If I'm to be very picky, Christian Bale seemed ill at ease as Demetrius (difficult to see how Helena was so infatuated with this passionless noodle!) but otherwise everyone, including our American friends, served the play well. Pfeiffer was particularly good as the Fairy Queen and Kline's Bottom (if you'll pardon the expression), though different from most interpretations I've seen, worked very well.Thus, what looked as if it was going to be a tedious evening turned out to be a delightful surprise. One of my old English teachers, a miserable old curmudgeon who considered a split infinitive to be a capital crime, would have hated this if he'd lived to see it. However, I suspect that Shakespeare himself would have loved it!

Don't listen to killjoys who found trivial faults with this adaptation: it's a wonderful, magical production of possibly the most wonderful, magical play ever written. It will turn many people onto Shakespeare.It's so full of ideas, I hardly know where to start, so here's just a few: Kevin Kline's Bottom is an arrogant poseur in an unhappy marriage, rather than the buffoon we are more used to; Calista Flockhart's clingy Helena, whining away in the rain on her bicycle, makes you see why poor old Demetrius wants to get as far away from her as possible; the lovers' quarrel is enhanced by a muddy catfight; and when the dream is over and dawn breaks, the Duke and his hunting party wake the four lovers up - and to their embarrassment, they're naked. Bottom's play at the end is a hoot, until unexpectedly, it becomes serious and reflects on the film's theme.Add a quintet of brilliant Brits to the Hollywood stars and there's only one problem with this film: when it's over, you want it to go on.

I So Love this movie, Magic brought to real-life and back to the most huge romance, But it sometimes is somewhat dry, but that's dialogues and Shakespeares own, greatly brought to movie and than the play of start of As Ye like it in it, where by accident all the main characters die, it's hylaric. Go buy this movie.

Sadly, this film does not appear to available on Bluray but this DVD version is a nice clear print.The production itself is a delight although I adhere to the general consensus that Mickey Rooney as Puck is just plain annoying. Still, the whole thing is rather well done and as an introduction to the Shakespeare play, it is excellent, magical even.I am pleased with my purchase.

This is the best version of midsummer nights dream I have seen, there is a little deviation from the original play, but only in the action and not with the script, because any writer or director who is presumptuous enough to think they can improve on a script written by Shakespeare is delusional. All the actors are brilliant, it's playful and magical and the musical score fits perfectly

A lavish production with excellent actors, costumes etc but ruined by appalling sound. I missed about 80% of the dialogue.. Hard to believe that most were experienced Shakespearean actors. Also poor camera work, speaking with back to camera so no chance of lip reading. Subtitles not available. A great shame and wasted opportunity.