to meow or not to meow

There are so many "gimmicky" appropriations of Shakespeare.

Including advertisements. Last night, I saw an advertisement for the PS3 Gaming System that was a series of clip excerpts that seemed to be taken from "kids" war games and "grown up" war games. The sound overdub was a passionate, edited reading of the St. Crispin's Day speech from Henry V (see below for textual comparison). The speech is one that conjures sentiments of honor and patriotism, and, coupled with the games, I think the idea behind the advertisement is that, by playing, you can not only vicariously KILL-KILL-KILL, but feel good about it too. (And with the kids war games you can bop, boff, tickle and tazer with the same feel good feel.) Alas.

Sony's text:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he today that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother;
And gentlemen now abed
Shall think themselves accursed they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon this day!

The actual:

We few, we happy few, we band of brothers;
For he to-day that sheds his blood with me
Shall be my brother; be he ne'er so vile,
This day shall gentle his condition;
And gentlemen in England now-a-bed
Shall think themselves accurs'd they were not here,
And hold their manhoods cheap whiles any speaks
That fought with us upon Saint Crispin's day.

First observations? All direct references to Englishness are cut, which, in itself, makes sense, the gaming system being marketed globally, and not exclusively to England. Perhaps more significant is the cut "be he ne'er so vile,/ This day shall gentle his condition," a passage directed to the low-born, landless masses fighting alongside the aristocratic military elite, including the king. Is it just cut because it is obscure, the syntax a touch difficult? Or is it cut from a fear of potentially alienating a large, if not the largest, segment of the product's market, the lower (economic) class?

I also saw last night an old short, "Master Will Shakespeare." Essentially an advertisement for MGM's early Romeo and Juliet, starring Leslie Howard and Norma Shearer. The thrust of the short seems to be that Shakespeare was predestined to come into being as the greatest playwright of all time but that fate, ever cruel fate, bore him into a time of infant-like staging techniques, and MGM, by creating its lavish, oh so realistic film, was at last righting this tragic wrong.

The following clip is cute, if only for a cat lover. I would not label it as an adaptation of Shakespeare; it is only an amusement. Hope you like it! (And hopefully it doesn't make you want to KILL-KILL-KILL, vicariously or otherwise!)