Richard III

8/27/2022

Co-writers Ian McKellen and Richard Loncraine (who also directs) set their Richard III in 1930s Britain, and make the infamous hunchback a fascist warmonger plotting to usurp the throne. Today's English monarchy is, at best, nominal, but even way back in the 1930s there wasn't much to be gained by usurping it. Then again, the film takes place in an alternate reality where the War of the Roses occurs 450 years after the true historical conflict did. I don’t mind so much that royalty has endured those four centuries and a half; what does bother me is that language has not evolved in the interim at the same rate as, say, warfare. Why on Earth would Richard (McKellen), who is neither dumb nor crazy, use the expression “my kingdom for a horse” when he could be asking for a tank instead? T