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TheaterSeptember 2010 A hypothetical Jew On Al Pacino as Shylock, Freud's Last Session, & Hater. Until I was four or five years old, I was under the mistaken impression that the scenes in movies were acted out by live performers behind the screen. The purpose of the screen, I thought, was to act as a kind of magnifying glass to help the audience to better see the action on stage. (It is probably worth noting here that the first movie I remember being taken to see was One Flew Over the Cuckoo’s Nest, when I was three years old; it is satisfying that such neuroses as I have date to that golden age of American cinema.) In 2000, Ethan Hawke starred in a film version of Hamlet, and in my mind’s marquee it is always titled: Hamlet Starring Bill Murray as Polonius. It was a mediocre film, but there was a sly something to Mr. Murray’s performance, a poignancy—which has since thickened into treacle—in the famous clown’s refusal to play the clown as a clown. He let Hamlet be Hamlet rather ... This article is available to subscribers and for individual purchaseSubscribe to TNC (Print and Online editions) Subscribe to TNC (Online only) This article originally appeared in The New Criterion, Volume 29 September 2010, on page 32 Copyright © 2012 The New Criterion | www.newcriterion.com http://www.newcriterion.com/articles.cfm/A-hypothetical-Jew-6275
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