# Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead Appreciation Thread **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 27, 2001, 12:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405 "2001-11-27T00:48:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GingerOfTheNorth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/cdc98d/32.png) [@GingerOfTheNorth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GingerOfTheNorth)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 6:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/21 "2001-11-27T18:43:26Z")
My friend and I play the questions game quite frequently. She invariably wins. I _love_ this movie. Tim Roth and Gary Oldman are wonderful playing off of one another. ---
**Author:** ![Pucette](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/278dde/32.png) [@Pucette](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pucette)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 6:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/22 "2001-11-27T18:44:05Z")
I was wondering when my favorite Rosencrantz would pop in here. \ Heya, Gadarene! ---
**Author:** ![andygirl](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a9adbd/32.png) [@andygirl](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/andygirl)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 8:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/23 "2001-11-27T20:33:07Z")
When my high school did this play I was in charge of props. Our Roz and Guil were female- best friends, actually. It was tremendous fun. Provocative ambiguity! ---
**Author:** ![Green\_Eyed\_Stranger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/919ad9/32.png) [@Green\_Eyed\_Stranger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Green_Eyed_Stranger)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 8:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/24 "2001-11-27T20:44:06Z")
One thing I like about the movie (I didn’t get to see the play, my high school English class was going to see a performance at the local college, but the bus broke down and we missed it), was the way Rosencrantz and Guildenstern weaved in and out of the Shakespear play. That is to say, when you watch our heros, they speak in modern English. When they come to their portions in _Hamlet_, they shift into Ye Olde English, then back once their participation is ended (usually with looks of “What the hell was that” on their faces). What’s great about it is the fact that it’s so seemless, and so breathless. You see it coming in a whirlwind, and it wraps R & G up in it, then as quickly as it came it’s gone. Just my thoughts. GES ---
**Author:** ![Yondan](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/278dde/32.png) [@Yondan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yondan)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 8:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/25 "2001-11-27T20:47:20Z")
or did the babe quotient just shoot up in here? Oh, if only High School had been like this! > [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Nymaz \* > \*\*Hey, maybe I can get some opinions on my pet theory - Oldman’s character represents Intuition and Roth’s character is Logic. > Think about it - Roth keeps trying to organize everything into logical catagories, while at the same time ignoring the fantastic > ideas that Oldman (Intuition) keeps coming up with out of the blue. Meanwhile, Oldman doesn’t see his own ideas past the “fun” > quotient. Just a thought. \*\* Yes! and as such, they embody the two halves of the intellect which Hamlet cannot reconcile within himself. Ironically, it is the Rational (Roth) which makes the fantastic in the situation so sharp, and it is the Intuitive (Oldman) who percieves the physical order of things beyond the immediate far more clearly. ---
**Author:** ![Podkayne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/edb3f5/32.png) [@Podkayne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Podkayne)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/26 "2001-11-27T22:39:55Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Jeremy’s Evil Twin \* > \*\*Isn’t that a foul? \*\* Yep. Rhetorical question. Don’t you know the rules? ---
**Author:** ![Edwardina](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5f8ce5/32.png) [@Edwardina](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edwardina)\ **Post date:** [November 27, 2001, 10:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/27 "2001-11-27T22:49:17Z")
I love this film. I recently read (part of) the play, and it was wonderful, too. I’d **love** to see it done onstage. A good way to judge your friends is, do they like/get this movie/play? If so, you’re golden. If not, then you might want to reconsider your attachment to such a person . . . 😉 ---
**Author:** ![TV\_time](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/f17d59/32.png) [@TV\_time](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TV_time)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2001, 12:03am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/28 "2001-11-28T00:03:21Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by andygirl \* > \*\*When my high school did this play I was in charge of props. Our Roz and Guil were female- best friends, actually. It was tremendous fun. > > Provocative ambiguity! \*\* To be sure! but did they carry the character switch to the Hamlet character too? It would seem that to maintain consistency the director would almost have to. It sounds like an interesting direction to take. I love both the play and the movie. The first time I saw it was a touring company in Denver. I had no preperation for it and i wasn’t prepared for it. I just dropped by a play while in the “big city” and tickets were available for R&G. I so enjoyed it, I was saying, “Yes, Yes, Yes” under my breath on some of the great bits and breaking into applause at almost random great lines. ---
**Author:** ![Fiver](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/f/e274bd/32.png) [@Fiver](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fiver)\ **Post date:** [November 28, 2001, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405/29 "2001-11-28T02:43:38Z")
**SPOOFE** : > [@](#): > > I particularly loved _Arcadia_, although it seems I’m in the minority with that… No, no, I’m with you. I loved _Arcadia._ Only Stoppard could turn chaos theory into a period romance. When I saw R&G produced here in Atlanta, the two leads were good friends. This is a good way to do it. But my friend Holly told me she saw a production where the actors in the lead roles hated each other…and somehow that worked perfectly too. I wonder how a male/female casting would work? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-are-dead-appreciation-thread/95405.md?page=1)