I've just seen this on DVD as I missed it on it's brief general release here in the UK. This play is excellent on stage where the constraints of live theatre mean much happens off stage and has to be reported by those on stage. Sometimes where not much happens off stage a filming can work - see Asquith's 'Importance of being Earnest' for a good example.
Filming such a play means you can open it out and this cried out for it. There are some scenes in Parliament sure but we needed a bit of the courtroom drama. The dramatic scene between Morton and the boy comes off rather low key here, whereas it is brilliant and intense on stage.
There is very good acting here and the restrained emotions typical of the British middle classes then (and now for that matter) but with just a little more opening out this could have been so much better.
The play was based on a real life case of 1912 called the Archer-Shee case - the boy was killed in the First Worl War. The First Lord of the Admiralty (or minister for the Royal Navy for our overseas readers) then was Winston Churchill I believe. Mamet's made a bit of a point with the casting of the First Lord in his version.
The 1949 version is better in my book.
Filming such a play means you can open it out and this cried out for it. There are some scenes in Parliament sure but we needed a bit of the courtroom drama. The dramatic scene between Morton and the boy comes off rather low key here, whereas it is brilliant and intense on stage.
There is very good acting here and the restrained emotions typical of the British middle classes then (and now for that matter) but with just a little more opening out this could have been so much better.
The play was based on a real life case of 1912 called the Archer-Shee case - the boy was killed in the First Worl War. The First Lord of the Admiralty (or minister for the Royal Navy for our overseas readers) then was Winston Churchill I believe. Mamet's made a bit of a point with the casting of the First Lord in his version.
The 1949 version is better in my book.