Trivia

In the play and film Rosencrantz & Guildenstern are portrayed as bumblers who are trying to understand the goings-on while being slowly guided to their fate. In Hamlet, the two are agents of the usurper, King Claudius. Their mission is to renew their childhood acquaintance with Hamlet so that the king can spy on him, report on his madness, and relate any information that would show him to be a threat.Shortly before Hamlet's speech about the positive and negative capacity of man, he comes to see that his two friends are not friends after all. Claudius then has them accompany Hamlet to England with a note to the British monarch requesting that Hamlet be killed. Hamlet finds the letter and changes it so that Rosencrantz & Guildenstern should be killed rather than him. The title of this film and the play it is based on, is the line from Hamlet reporting the fate of the two false friends. See more