Measure for Measure
2006: Bob Komar

This production is one of only a handful currently available. But it runs to only eighty minutes, and its brutally trimmed frame is dominated by a conception that is, I think, thoroughly and aggressively wrong-headed. Finally, it is transferred to a modern British military setting, where the cultural and moral significance of its original context are stripped away. It cannot help but go astray.

This version of the play begins with a ludicrous set of scenes that find the Duke drug-addled and in flagrante delicto in a brothel (never explicit in the play, or even really suggested), running over with cocaine and alcohol. As the friar he is decked out in a stringy wig and little oval dark glasses, looking like nothing so much as a parody of John Lennon. The scene in which Angelo propositions Isabella is shown to be overheard by a third party, which rather undermines his menacing “but who would believe thee?” The prison is shown as a completely abusive environment, as well, with people randomly beating prisoners (including Claudio) for no particular reason. It's all about presenting a horrific vision of modern military justice run amok, which, for all its box-office value, just isn't what the play is about.

The film also establishes Isabella’s rejection of the Duke — never at all explicit in Shakespeare’s text — by an unspoken but hostile interchange. Yes, this is possible within the strict scope of the script, inasmuch as Isabella has no lines after the Duke proposes to her. It nevertheless seems inconsistent, I think, with the tonal and thematic pattern Shakespeare has actually set up, though there are some Shakespeare scholars who disagree with me on that score. It also seems inconsistent with the cultural suppositions of the time as well. It’s important to appreciate — even if one does not share the supposition — that a monarch in the sixteenth century was not merely responsible for the secular management of his people, but was in some dimension answerable for their spiritual welfare as well. On such terms, the Duke’s admittedly devious testing of all the major characters in the play — including, but not limited to, Isabella — is not a sleazy sport or a usurpation of powers that do not belong to him: it’s testing them for their own benefit. At every turn, the Duke has his people’s best interest at heart (down to the convicted criminal, whom he refuses to see executed, because “to transport him in the mind he is were damnable”).

Likelihood is high that Isabella had entered the convent (where she had not, it should be noted, taken final vows) out of necessity rather than out of a compelling sense of a call. We hear of her inclination to purity, but never anything about her compulsion to become a nun. Given what Claudio has to say about his own marriage prospects, it seems likeliest that Isabella’s family was unable to provide her with a dowry, making her unmarriagable in most contexts. When the Duke offers his hand without any consideration of a dowry, she has the option to accept or reject him freely. He’s done her a great honor in the process, therefore, irrespective of her decision. That he makes the offer purely out of regard for her moral worth (which he has tested down to the end) is even more significant, and (contrary to a number of feminist readings I have encountered) suggests an unusually high personal respect for her.

The film also eliminates entirely the sub-plot with Pompey and the rest of the comic characters. There are characters with those names, but the matters are cut from the production.

The acting is generally adequate, but not particularly remarkable at any point, and the production is basically utilitarian but uninteresting. Mariana speaks with some kind of foreign accent, which doesn't particularly trouble me, except for the fact that she has an unfortunate tendency to run syllables together sloppily.

I have only been able to find this for sale on DVD in Britain, but it is available for streaming on Amazon. I can’t particularly recommend it. Both the Globe production (good) and the older BBC production (better, if one can find it) are far superior renditions of the play.

Watch Measure for Measure on streaming video from Amazon