Was anyone else a bit... Lost?


I find myself loving and hating this movie. There's wonderful acting and quite a few well-written scenes that I loved, but I was more than a bit lost. Nothing was explained. I understand that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern never remembered everything, but it left me frustrated with so many loose ends.
And can anyone explain to me why the actors killed them? I didn't understand their significance at all except for them foreshadowing coming events.

Arthur: Quick, give me a kiss.

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The whole movie is about existentialism and based on Hamlet...so it really helps if you are versed in those two things...

"but why is all the rum gone???"

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Ah, I see. Philosophy isn't really my cup of tea. :/
I still don't understand the importance of the actors at the end though.

Arthur: Quick, give me a kiss.

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Have you read, watched or studied Hamlet? it will help.




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I've read/studied Hamlet in my Theatre appreciation class.






Jayne: Time for some thrilling heroics.

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In a way it signifies that everyone dies. It is also a parallel between the two overlapping realities that are going throughout the movie. Mid-movie there is a play where just about everyone dies, including the random hanging of the last two actors...I suggest going back and watching that scene. R&G ask why the actors were hanged and the answer they get is pretty pivotal to the point of the movie.

"but why is all the rum gone???"

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Exactly, the play in question is Hamlet itself, its ending to be precise.

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All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first, the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
Then the whining schoolboy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honor, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slippered pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side;
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank, and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything.

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You should credit this to the related play, november. Posting it the way you did, it makes it appear to be from "Hamlet," when, in reality, it is from "As You Like It."

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YES SO CONFUSED

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