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Who was William Shakespeare, really? Was he the son of a glove maker
from Stratford Upon Avon, as common knowledge has us know? But then, how
did he know all the inner workings of the Royal Court, then not nearly as
common knowledge as nowadays, how did he get to study classic poetry and
the like, how did he know so much about foreign country when travelling
abroad wasn't a common thing? Now this film makes the case that who we
consider as William Shakespeare isn't the man who wrote all these plays,
sonnets and whatnot at all, but it was indeed Edward De Vere, 17th Earl of
Oxford, a contemporary of Shakespeare, a close confidante of Queen
Elizabeth I, a very well-educated man with proven literary skills and a
love for the theatre who had not only intimate knowledge of the court, but
has travelled to most countries Shakespeare's plays are set in, his own
experiences seem to be mirrored in Shakespeare's work, and who might only
have written under a pen name because noblemen at his day and age weren't
allowed to practise any legal trade. And after his death, his authorship
remained a secret for patriotic reasons, and any documents pertaining to
it were destroyed ... Now I have to admit, while I'm a great
admirer of Shakespeare the writer, I know very little about his life, let
alone the actual authorship of his work (including the controversy about
his authorship), and to be quite honest, this film doesn't convince me
that Edward De Vere actually was behind the work of Shakespeare, simply
because that while the film makes a great case, all it presents is
circumstantial evidence and not a shred of concrete proof, trying to argue
instead while it had been destroyed. Plus, the many parallels between
Shakespeare's work and De Vere's life seem often forced, being based on
the false assumption that a writer (even one as great as Shakespeare)
needs to have experienced things oneself to write them down. Now
all that said, in its own right, Shakespeare: The Truth Behind the Name
is a pretty fascinating film, thanks not only due to the wealth of
information about Elizabethean times dug up for the documentary, but also
due to Robin K. Phillips very spirited presentation that is actually as
humourous as it is informative - so much so that it doesn't really matter
where you stand on this matter, or if you find the film convincing about
its core subject, it's a very good watch nevertheless.
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