The Tempest | |
---|---|
Directed by | Jack Bender |
Produced by | James Bigwood |
Starring | Peter Fonda |
Cinematography | Steve Shaw |
Edited by | Stephen Lovejoy |
Music by | Terence Blanchard |
Production companies | Bonnie Raskin Productions NBC Studios |
Distributed by | NBC |
Release date |
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Running time | 85 minutes |
Country | United States |
Language | English |
The Tempest is a 1998 American drama film directed by Jack Bender. It is a modernized adaptation of the William Shakespeare play The Tempest set in Mississippii during the Civil War starring Peter Fonda as Gideon Prosper, a character based on Shakespeare's Prospero.
Gideon Prosper, a Southern slave-owner, is forced off his plantation by his younger brother Anthony shortly before the outbreak of the Civil War. Surviving in the Mississippi bayou, Prosper uses magic that he learned from one of his slaves to protect his teenage daughter and to assist the Union.
Filming took place at Cypress Gardens in Charleston, South Carolina.[1]
The film was broadcast on NBC at 9:00 p.m. Eastern Time on Sunday, December 13, 1998.[2]
In his 2001 book Shakespeare in the Movies: From the Silent Era to Today, author Douglas Brode wrote that "Jack Bender's film emerged as yet another offbeat variation on Will's theme, but with the Bard's immortal poetry entirely excised."[3]
In a negative review for the Los Angeles Times, reviewer Daryl H. Miller wrote, "A miscalculation of epic proportions, this revision of one of the Bard’s masterworks is at times laugh-out-loud awful, at times offensive."[4]
In a negative review for People, reviewer Terry Kelleher wrote, "The low-key style that served Fonda so well in his Oscar-nominated Ulee’s Gold role doesn’t work for Prosper/Prospero, who needs a charisma that the actor can’t provide. The script gives Fonda two lines of actual Shakespeare at the end, and we admit he seems less than comfortable with the language."[5]
In a review for Variety, reviewer Laura Fries wrote, "What makes this production universally appealing is that it lacks the pretenses that usually come with a literary-based telepic. Writer James Henerson plays on such ’90s issues as lost faith, selfishness, vengeance and loyalty to propel this Civil War-era saga."[6]