The Shakespeare Conspiracy

Poor scholarship
It seems the facts were manipualted to support a conclusion that had already been reached. That can be done with anything. Better to just see where the facts...and I mean facts, not suppositions, take us. The truth is there are so few real facts about Shakespeare. I'm surprised that Derek Jacobi would lend his name on such a piece of poor scholarship

Take what you can get
This is not a very good DVD in terms of technical quality and some of its content is shaky too, but it does provide an interesting overview of the theory that Shakespeare's poems and plays weren't written by a Stratford businessman named William but by a nobleman poet named Edward de Vere. The fact that this theory (which has has attracted adherents like Sigmund Freud as well as the actor Derek Jacobi, who hosts the DVD) can't get a better media presentation says a lot about how much influence the prevailing academic "Stratfordian" version of Shakespeare has on the mass media. Want to watch a video about William of Stratford? Take your pick of many lavish productions. Want to watch a video about Edward de Vere? Take what you can get... (PBS did make a video about de Vere years ago but it is not to be found...)

Fascinating!
Some years ago, the PBS FRONTLINE episode THE SHAKESPEARE MYSTERY introduced me to Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford. Having been unable to acquire a video of that fascinating broadcast, I am now quite happy to settle for THE SHAKESPEARE CONSPIRACY as a consolation prize. What a compelling presentation!

I am puzzled by the critical review of this film where the reviewer asks the bizarre question "Are there any claims that the author of the plays, sonnets and poems may have been German?" He also points out that the film's producer has an MBA and has written a few books with sensationalist titles. He then complains that the film "contains some unusually tacky and very old silent film footage of Othello and Shylock" that are racist and anti-semitic. Well, most silent film footage is indeed very old . . . and Disney's depiction of Native Americans in PETER PAN a generation later is every bit as racist--and gratuitously so! As to being tacky, the paintings of Giotto...

Click to Editorial Reviews