History Film / RichardIII

** Tyrell "only" kills the princes in the original version. In this one, he kills every person that Richard wants dead. Furthermore , in the original play he regrets killing them , and hates Richard for ordering him to kill them . Here he just keeps on killing .

** Tyrell "only" kills the princes in the original version. In this one, he kills every person that Richard wants dead.

* AdaptationalNationality: Elizabeth Woodville and her family are Americans in this take, when they were English both historically and in the original play. This is a subtle way of getting the class distinctions of the 15th century across. The Woodvilles were commoners before they were raised to high status by Edward IV marrying Elizabeth. Many members of the nobility and the Plantagenets resented them, and in RealLife, after Edward IV died, Richard III was determined to not let the Woodvilles run the show. In this film, making the Woodvilles an American family helps connote their outsider status in the government and royal family of Britain.

The film (like the stage production before it) [[SettingUpdate updates the setting]] to 1930s-era England, creating an AlternateHistory where [[UsefulNotes/RichardIII Richard Gloucester]] (Ian [=McKellen=]) seizes power from his ailing brother Edward IV, changing the country's leadership into a militaristic Fascist regime, with many overtones of [[PuttingOnTheReich Nazi Germany]]. It is also notable for making Queen Elizabeth and her family American, both as a way to modernize the resistance the English establishment would have to the marriage, and to invoke the controversial relationship between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson during the historical 1930s.

* AsideGlance: Richard is washing up after peeing, while delivering his opening monologue, when he notices the camera behind him. For the rest of the movie all of his soliloquies are delivered straight at the audience.
* BadBoss: [[spoiler:Richard shoots Tyrell in the middle of battle.]]
* BaitAndSwitchComment: Richard's "Now is the winter of our discontent" monologue starts off as a speech praising the victorious King, before a MoodWhiplash ConversationCut to Richard sneering at the King in the privacy of the upstairs loo.

* ChainedToABed: Earl Rivers is [[KinkyCuffs handcuffed to a bed]] enjoying the attentions of an air hostess, a cigarette and a favourite beverage when [[spoiler:he is stabbed to death from below the bed]].
* ConversationCut: The opening lines of the play, namely Richard's "Now is the winter of our discontent" monologue, are presented as Richard giving a triumphal speech at what appears to be a victory ball being thrown by his brother, Edward IV. Right in the middle of the soliloquy, right before Richard starts talking bitterly about how he doesn't fit in with happy times ("But I, that am not shaped for sportive tricks..."), the scene cuts mid-sentence to to him walking through a restroom door and standing in front of a urinal to pee.

* {{Dieselpunk}}: The film ''lives and breathes this trope'', both in an elegant and gruff way. Probably the most British-flavoured rendition of the trope ever put on screen. It's not limited to the costumes, vehicles and atmosphere: even the individual architecture that's supposed to be really historical -- e.g. the Tower of London -- is portrayed by shots of purely period public buildings, often 1930s functionalist structures. Creator/{{Ian McKellen}} himself referred to the production design of the film as "being rooted in a semi-mythical portrayal of the late interwar UK".

** River's lover [[ScreamingWoman screaming]] as he's murdered in front of her cuts to the sound of a train whistle, as in ''Film/The39Steps1935''.

* UndyingLoyalty: Ratcliffe always has Richard's back in this adaption from begining to end, being his faithful servant and right hand man despite his horrible actions, and also making an attempt to comfort Richard during his VillainousBreakdown. He even uses his last breath to implore Richard to escape to safety. Richard [[UngratefulBastard repays him by]][[spoiler: abandoning him to his death on the field.]]

[[quoteright:324:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/richardiii1_451.jpg]]
[[caption-width-right:324:[[Theatre/RichardIII Winter of our discontent?]] No, [[Film/TheProducers Springtime for Richard.]]]]

* SpiritualSuccessor: Just like this movie adapted Richard III to a 1930's Britain and made the story a metaphor for the rise of Fascism, the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Macbeth_(2010_film) 2010 Macbeth adaptation]] by Rupert Goold adapts Macbeth to a 1960s-ish Britain and frames the story on the rise of the communists; Creator/PatrickStewart's Macbeth is clearly channeling Nicolae Ceaușescu.

* HistoricalVillainUpgrade: The Movie. Being based off of Shakespeare's ''Richard III'' (a play that makes a point of vilifying one side of a brutal [[GreyAndGrayMorality Grey and Grey]] CivilWar and whitewashing the other) made it inevitable, but the film goes beyond. Rather than turning Richard into a medieval tyrant, he gets turned into a Nazi.

The film (like the stage production before it) [[SettingUpdate updates the setting]] to 1930s-era England, creating an AlternateHistory where Richard Gloucester (Ian [=McKellen=]) seizes power from his ailing brother Edward IV, changing the country's leadership into a militaristic Fascist regime, with many overtones of [[PuttingOnTheReich Nazi Germany]]. It is also notable for making Queen Elizabeth and her family American, both as a way to modernize the resistance the English establishment would have to the marriage, and to invoke the controversial relationship between Edward VIII and Wallis Simpson during the historical 1930s.

* AdaptationalNationality: Elizabeth Woodville and her family are Americans in this take, when they were English both historically and in the original play.