Tuesday, September 28, 2010

The IMDB Shakespeare Quote Game

I'm always looking for new angles on our favorite topic. Today while hunting around for new Shakespeare movies (I did not find any, I think we're all caught up), I did find out that I can search the Internet Movie Database's list of quotes from movies that contain the word Shakespeare.


This is fascinating to me, because it's not quotes from Shakespeare movies, and it's not people in movies quoting Shakespeare plays. It's people in movies who used the word Shakespeare. In whatever context they needed.


So sometimes you get, "Shakespeare said blah blah blah."


Other times you'll get, "What are you, frickin Shakespeare over here?"


Sometimes you'll get very large quotes, or very large paragraphs about the subject. It's always different.


And that's what fascinates me. Here in one shot is a way to cut across dozens of movies that you may have never seen, pull out a single reference, and then work backwards.


So there's the game. Flip through the quotes a bit. Find a quote from a movie that you've never seen, that makes you say "Ok, now I want to see this movie to understand where this quote came from." Maybe because it's just a weird enough quote that you have no idea, or maybe it's because the quote sounded so good that you can't wait to see it the way it was intended.


Although it won't make me run out and get the entire season on DVD, I can't resist pasting this quote:


Full House (1987 TV Series)

Episode: Michelle Rides Again: Part 2 (1995)Duane here is a Shakespeare freak. Aren't you, my little Hamlet-and-cheese?Duane, you're into Shakespeare?

:) Yes, Yes I am. Had they only said "geek" it would have been that much more awesome.



1 comment:

Sean O'Sullivan said...

Gnomeo, Gnomeo!
Just came across this upcoming
animation on a Shakespeare theme:

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0377981/

Patrick Stewart is covering all
Shakespearian bases these days.Some very talented actors on
this kidult film.Let's see if the
script and direction does them credit- could be fun.