Acting in Film

The plays of Shakespeare are rife with brutes and murderers--why shouldn't they be played by brutes and murderers? In the Shakespeare Behind Bars program at Luther Luckett Prison in Kentucky, the actors are convicted felons who murdered their wives and abused children--but the documentary Shakespeare Behind Bars, like Shakespeare himself, sees these men in three dimensions, taking the time to explore the complex mixture of remorse, anger, and yearning that consumes their lives. The production of The Tempest, a play explicitly about forgiveness, is only the frame for an examination of how these men struggle to forgive themselves. That may sound sentimental and bleeding-heart on the surface, but watch the movie: There's nothing sappy about staring into the face of a child molester as he articulates, with sad but clear and undeluded eyes, his forlorn hope that his life might be remembered for something more than the worst things he did. The actual performance of the play is less important than watching these men connect with Shakespeare's characters, from the villainous Antonio (two actors cast in this role end up dropping out because they're put in solitary confinement) to the virtuous 15 year old Miranda. Shakespeare Behind Bars captures, with almost disturbing intimacy, the humanity of men that most of society would like to dismiss as monsters. A remarkable documentary. --Bret Fetzer

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