At some point we could have said — no

So the last two posts were leading up to this one so I can talk about a movie I really like: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead. I know, I know. Ask me what time it is and I go off on a sidebar of how to build a clock. I've been accused of that before and all I can say is sorry. To quote the movie: "Words. Words. They're all we have to go on."

Now the movie is based on the 1967 play by Tom Stoppard but I'm going to recommend the movie version (1990). The reason is because they're almost exactly the same and in the movie you've got Tim Roth and Gary Oldman as Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, and Richard Dreyfuss as The Player. Awesome cast. It's also more likely that you can find the movie at Netflix than you'll find the play at your local theater.

The story is the inverse of Hamlet. It takes the two most underdeveloped characters in literature and breathes life into them, shining the spotlight on their existence while placing the other characters and events of Hamlet in the background. It not only inverts the story, but also disconnects from it; Rosencrantz and Guildenstern have their own story where Hamlet himself plays a minor role. Whenever the two stories overlap, the duo remains in character, acting and saying the lines from Hamlet that they are supposed to say. When the two stories break apart, they are left wondering why they said those things, viewing Hamlet's circumstances as completely absurd.

For example, when Claudius summons the two to question Hamlet as to his strange behavior, they understand what they are supposed to do, but fail to understand why, considering the whole thing to be obvious. They debate on how to approach the subject with Hamlet:

Ros: It makes you think.
Guil: Don't think I haven't thought of it.
Ros: And with her husband's brother.
Guil: They were so close.
Ros: She went to him —
Guil: — Too close —
Ros: — for comfort.
Guil: It looks bad.
Ros: It adds up.
Guil: Incest to adultery.
Ros: Would you go so far?
Guil: Never.
Ros: To sum up: your father, whom you love, dies, you are his heir, you come back to find that hardly was the corpse cold before his young brother popped onto his throne and into his sheets, thereby offending both legal and natural practice. Now why exactly are you behaving in this extraordinary manner?
Guil: I can't imagine! (Pause.) But all that is well known, common property. Yet he sent for us. And we did come.

They get what they're supposed to do, and when they're supposed to do it they perform exactly as it is written. They just don't understand why they're doing any of it. They don't exactly, but sort of, realize that they are characters in a story that is predetermined.

Here's part of the blurb from Wikipedia:

The two characters, brought into being within the puzzling universe of the play, by an act of the playwright's creation, and those they encounter, often confuse their names, as they have interchangeable yet periodically unique identities. They are portrayed as two clowns or fools in a world that is beyond their understanding; they cannot identify any reliable feature or the significance in words or events. Their own memories are not reliable or complete and they misunderstand each other as they stumble through philosophical arguments while not realizing the implications to themselves. They often state deep philosophical truths during their nonsensical ramblings, however they depart from these ideas as quickly as they come to them. At times Guildenstern appears to be more enlightened than Rosencrantz; at times both of them appear to be equally confounded by the events occurring around them.

The question that is really posed here is what does happen to our beloved characters when we're not looking, when they're off-stage. Are they aware? Do they know that whatever ambitions they have were already decided and written long ago? Do they conspire against this? Do they plot against the plot? Or do they simply cease to be when the curtain draws?

When does Jack Bauer use the bathroom?

A greater question beyond the literary is whether our plots were written long ago. Is choice just an illusion? Am I a footnote in your story, or you in mine?

Guildenstern: "There must have been a moment, at the very beginning, where we could have said — no. But somehow we missed it."

What I left out in the above is how hilarious the movie is and how clever the dialogue. My favorite scene:

Guil: What a fine persecution — to be kept intrigued without ever quite being enlightened. . . . (Pause.) We've had no practice.
Ros: We could play at questions.
Guil: What good would that do?
Ros: Practice!
Guil: Statement! One-love!
Ros: Cheating!
Guil: How?
Ros: I hadn't started yet!
Guil: Statement. Two-love.
Ros: Are you counting that?
Guil: What?
Ros: Are you counting that?
Guil: Foul! No repetitions. Three-love. First game to —
Ros: I'm not going to play if you're going to be like that.
Guil: Whose serve?
Ros: Hah?
Guil: Foul! No grunts. Love-one.
Ros: Who's go?
Guil: Why?
Ros: Why not?
Guil: What for?
Ros: Foul! No synonyms. One-all.
Guil: What in God's name is going on?
Ros: Foul! No rhetoric! Two-one.
Guil: What does it all add up to?
Ros: Can't you guess?
Guil: Were you addressing me?
Ros: Is there anyone else?
Guil: Who?
Ros: How would I know?
Guil: Why do you ask?
Ros: Are you serious?
Guil: Was that rhetoric?
Ros: No.
Guil: Statement! Two-all. Game point.
Ros: What's the matter with you today?
Guil: When?
Ros: What?
Guil: Are you deaf?
Ros: Am I dead?
Guil: Yes or no?
Ros: Is there a choice?
Guil: Is there a God?
Ros: Foul! No non-sequiters, three-two, one game all.
Guil (seriously): What's your name?
Ros: What's yours?
Guil: I asked you first.
Ros: Statement. One-love.
Guil: What's your name when you're at home?
Ros: What's yours?
Guil: When I'm at home?
Ros: Is it different at home?
Guil: What home?
Ros: Haven't you got one?
Guil: Why do you ask?
Ros: What are you driving at?
Guil (with emphasis): What's your name?!
Ros: Repetition. Two-love. Match point to me.
Guil (siezing him violently): WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE?
Ros: Rhetoric! Game and match!