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Rating: 
Summary: Awful at any price
Review: One star is too high a rating for this production of Taming of the Shrew. It was so campy and cheap that it was a torture to watch. I wanted to throw something at the screen everytime Grumio mugged directly into the camera lens. The tinny and repetitive synthesized music is also extremely grating on the nerves. The cover literature of this cheaply packaged disc makes a point of stating that "English accents... are absent from this series" in order to achieve "clarity of both language and story." Translate this as: "Dumbed-down for North Americans." I'm insulted! This disc is awful at any price.
Rating: 
Summary: This Shrew is hardly tamed...
Review: This production was a video taped stage production that made an early appearance on the PERFORMING IMAGES laser Disc series. And now it makes a low budget bow on DVD. And if truth be told, the laser disc was better quality. The DVD has video drop-out about once every minute making for sudden jumps in video.THE TAMING OF THE SHREW is as politically incorrect as they come, wherein a man, Petruchio manipulates and disrespects the angry shrew, Kate until her shrewish spirit is broken (funny, she doesnt look shrewish). And when her character is shattered, what is left is a passive woman who believes herself lucky to have a man. This story has inspired the great musical comedy, "Kiss Me, Kate". But, besides that, it remains a low point for female respect. The production values are very nice for staged Shakespeare and it suggests that the Bard wrote broad comedies worthy of the Marx Brothers. Some of the performers are pretty good, most notably Bruce Davison as the false Tranio. The productions are carried off without heavy english accents making them easier to follow. But, overall, this is only worth a look if you want to see a taped stage production. The Elizabeth Taylor/Richard Burton film makes for much better entertainment. You can probably save some cash by going with a VHS version.
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