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Rating:  - BOLD, BRASH, BRILLIANT!!
The Libertine is a wonderful piece of cinema. Fantastic mood, which really draws you in--wonderful cinematographie, sets and costumes. John Wilmot gives a different perspective on Life. While his may seem a sad one, it is a life lived on his terms. He's a bastard, but he relishes it. In our world of PC and positive, happy-happy fakery it is actually refreshing to see someone go all-out in destructive living. Though we may not envy his way of life, we all have a bit of John Wilmot in us that would like to come out far more than we let it. At least for me.
Depp is brilliant, as usual. His Depp-ness is lost in the character, and from the gripping opening monologue you will be hooked. Samantha Morton is an added highlight to this mature film. Though it could be seen as crude, look past this and see a piece of yourself in the Earl. He does not want us to like him, but i ended up enjoying not liking him very much.
Rating:  - My granddaughter and I
My granddaughter, a college student, and I watched this film together and spent nearly 3 hours discussing many aspects of this film ... among them, the history of the period, the cultural climate of England, the larger meaning of Rochester's defense of the monarchy, the psychology of Rochester, and even the sanitary conditions of the day. We looked up some of the poetry of Rochester on the internet and found it to be sensitive and quite moving ... including the line ('Tis all that Heav'n allows.) that was probably the source of the title of a 1955 film All that Heaven Allows. A useful discussion indeed, one engendered by viewing this film.
I think it to be one of the best films I've ever seen. The cast is magnificent, especially Johnny Depp and John Malkovich. It is a dark film to be sure, but not a depressing one because Rochester was so much more than his death, with which the film ends. He was a subject that Shakespeare might have found to his liking ... a brilliant man who died early, never reached his full potential and brought about his own destruction, a wit, a prankster, a lover whose greatest love was his only briefly.
Rating:  - Carrion Crow
"From hence the Critick Vermin sprung
With Harpy Claws, and Pois'nous Tongue,
Who fatten on poetick Scraps;
Too cunning to be caught in Trapps." - Jonathon Swift
Rebellious spirits and agent-provocateurs of all ages will gaze in amazement at the anarchical exploits of the poet John Wilmot, Second Earl of Rochester. Here was a living scandal whose addiction to, and excessive practice of his art led to the consumption of his mortal frame by the syphilitic plague, with a liver shrunken to the width of a walnut he wrote in alcoholic frenzy until his perverse mind drowned in a stagnant sewer. Here is a movie that captures the tumultuous and darkened times of England in the 1600's, that is brutally honest from the beginning and challenges the viewer to find even a morsel of beauty within it.
John Wilmot (1647-1680) evolved as a political cynic, a social satirist and debauchee in the post Puritan restoration in England, during the reign of King Charles II. The 1600's was indeed a century of complete political and social madness. In 1605 Guy Fawkes and his fellow conspirators attempted to blow up parliament and the court of King James in a gunpowder plot which shook the nation. His arrest, conviction and execution are still celebrated today; effigies of Fawkes are placed atop home-made bonfires and burned every November 5th. Mid-century the relationship between the state and the monarchy dissolved the entire country into civil war; ending monarchial absolutism in 1649 with the beheading of King Charles I. There followed a period puritanical rule under Oliver Cromwell as Lord Protector until the restoration of Charles in 1660. London was burned to a cinder in the great fire of 1666. The century drew to a surrealistic end in 1690 with a Dutch noble, William of Orange assuming the role of King, invading Ireland and defeating the Catholic Scottish Jacobites at the Battle of the Boyne on July 1st of that year. The symbolic importance of this event is still celebrated in Irish Protestant culture as the `Orange-Men' march throughout the land. Fortunately this chaotic fluidity was solidified in the first quarter of the next century, with the adoption of the first British Prime-Minister Robert Walpole in 1720. However, the reign of King Charles II was much criticized and maligned by the populace, often in verses which remain whith us today:
"A carrion crow sat on an oak,
Fol de riddle, lol de riddle, hi ding do...
Watching a tailor shape his cloak,
Sing heigh ho the carrion crow...
Wife bring me my old bent bow,
That I may shoot yon carrion crow...!
And so we arrive in a twilight age... of smoke and dust like character, of adulterations and dangerous sentiment. King Charles was charged with a monumental task; of restoring the royal majesty of an ancient realm, whilst also attempting to forge a modern system of administration and justice. He was standing on the cusp of a scientific age, he understood it and wanted to press forward and bring his country into a brilliant technological era... and yet he was opposed by many, too many obsessed with their own egotistical concerns and plans. The remnants of devout Roman Catholicism still pursued a voice in government, Puritans still clung to silly prohibitions like the banishment of sweet-meats at Christmas time, and many libertarians simply wanted to destroy the monarchy altogether. This was no time for exploration, creativity or discovery.
Such an age was consumed with contradictions, lulled into turpitude and inspired by folly. Following the death of Cromwell in 1658, and the gradual decline in puritan influence there was increasing liberty, and individuals such as John Wilmot took advantage of this freedom. Perhaps it was within this environment, loosened of religious bonds that Wilmot exploited his satirical art, embracing the vulgar and obscene with a grammar of graphic sexuality and perversity as fuel for his poetic proclamations. Ultimately he was a man who reflected the society in which he lived, who dared mock the transient morality and fluctuating politics of that time. If he left any legacy, or a sense of reputation then maybe it was his own inimitable version of honest truth... played on a stage of his own construction and acted with passion.
Anyway, we pray that at least his sooty and troubled spirit has found some eternal solace in a licentious and bawdy tavern, amongst solicitous souls on the edge of oblivion... yet not quite infinite darkness, but with some small flickering light to guide his way to a soft divan!
All that remains is for you too to see the movie... and marvel at the depravation of the human soul. Oh, John Malkovich plays an emotionally pensive King, and Johnny Depp the masochist bard with self loathing and despair... prepare to be dragged down to depths of disgust.
Rating:  - "I have to make my entrance right now!"
I agree with some of the other reviews; in that, Johnny Depp delivers yet another tour de force performance. And if you're a Depp fan (and I am) then you'll enjoy this movie. If; however, you are not overly enthusiastic about Johnny Depp then you will not have the patience to sit through this movie.
Rating: - Johnny Depp is amazing!
Johnny Depp delivers a very moving performance playing John Wilmot, who is a 17th century royal heir, second Earl of rochester, related to King Charles II (played brilliantly by John Malkovich). Depp falls in love with an actress whom he helps train (played by Samantha Morton). Depp is rejected from the royal family for creating and staging a controversial play (full of extreme sexual content) mocking King Charles II.
The ending is very shocking and sad. The movie shows Depp begin as a healthy and wealthy man fall from grace as his drinking begins to ravage his health. Basically, Depp is his own worst enemy in this compelling 17th century masterpiece.
The movie is a little long. However, the actors are so good that I rate The Libertine with 5 stars.
Be warned, you may not like John Wilmot (Depp's character) in this movie. Depp himself begins the movie with a very personal monologue in which he tells the viewing audience "I don't want you to like me". He ends the movie with another monolgue asking the challenging question "do you like me now". It is difficult to like this Depp's character in the movie because he is self absorbed and very rude. At the same time, he does have some redeeming good qualities which may make it difficult for some viewers to hate him. Emotions will run high.
Don't miss The Libertine!!
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