Hieronimus Recommends “Anonymous”

Anonymous Film Review by Dr. Bob Hieronimus
21st Century Radio on WCBM 680 AM Baltimore

Click here for the official movie website

When I attended the preview screening a few years ago for the Roland Emmerich film “2012” and learned that the director of blockbusters like “Godzilla”, “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow” was about to tackle one of my favorite real-life mysteries, I could hardly wait! The wait is over, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! They called this film “Anonymous” and gave it a tag line of: “Was Shakespeare a Fraud?”

It’s one of those questions that until you examine it closely, sounds completely absurd. We are all so completely indoctrinated in school that to question the identity of the greatest writer in the English language is tantamount to blasphemy. On the other hand, those brave enough to examine this question closely quickly realize that the hard evidence available to disprove the man named William Shakespeare was the actual author of the works bearing his name, far outweighs any evidence used to prove he was the author. Some of the greatest minds of our age, including many serious Shakespearean actors and fellow great writers, have come forward to proudly proclaim they are “Shakespeare doubters” otherwise known as “anti-Stratfordians”.

“Anonymous” is not a high-speed, adrenaline-rush, science fiction, adventure movie like Emmerich’s previous works, but his adept filmmaking and story telling skills keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end, as he unfolds a fictionalized version of why the most likely candidate for authorship needed a front man to disguise his identity. I’d say it’s probably 30% guesswork with the rest based on fact. Emmerich used his “poetic license” to answer some of the ticklers in such a compelling way that even today’s jaded movie-going audience will love it.

I say this based on my decades of examining the Shakespeare authorship question. We have spent several hours on 21st Century Radio interviewing researchers proposing one candidate or another as the proper author of these great works. What it comes down to is this: the author was probably one of Queen Elizabeth’s illegitimate children, and that is one of the reasons he needed to remain anonymous. Some proposed as the true genius behind these plays are Ben Johnson, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Francis Bacon. But the best candidate for the authorship claim is Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, and it is this theory that is played out in “Anonymous”.

His direct descendant, Charles Vere, the Earl of Buford, is one of the guests we’ve featured on 21st Century Radio in the past. Others include journalist Joe Sobran who wrote a book called Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time; David Ovason, author of Shakespeare’s Secret Booke: Deciphering Magical and Rosicrucian Codes; Ruth Loyd Miller, chronicler of J.T. Looney's research into the de Vere authorship; and Penn Leary, author of The Second Cryptographic Shake-speare. I am not alone in this fascination. Other notable minds who have publicly doubted Shakespeare was the author include Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Benjamin Disraeli, Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, and noted Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi.

Castle Hedingham in Essex, ancestral home of the Earls of Oxford

Derek Jacobi is used, in fact, in a most clever device at the beginning and ending of this film “Anonymous” where he gives an introduction to lay the case for the authorship question. In a series of “Why’s” he ticks them off: Shakespeare’s last will and testament demonstrates his inability to write his name the same way twice (there are six surviving signatures, and each one is spelled differently); he left no books behind in his will, no manuscripts, and no quills, all supporting the claim that he was, in fact, illiterate; there was no mention of his fame during his lifetime or for generations afterward, not by his fellow playwrights, by his Stratford neighbors, or by the court. After asking all these “why” questions, Emmerich’s film “Anonymous” plunges you into the court intrigue and incest and murder of Elizabethan England, and suddenly everything starts to make sense.

Hieronimus & Co., Inc.

Hieronimus Recommends “Anonymous”

Anonymous Film Review by Dr. Bob Hieronimus
21st Century Radio on WCBM 680 AM Baltimore

Click here for the official movie website

When I attended the preview screening a few years ago for the Roland Emmerich film “2012” and learned that the director of blockbusters like “Godzilla”, “Independence Day” and “The Day After Tomorrow” was about to tackle one of my favorite real-life mysteries, I could hardly wait! The wait is over, and I can’t recommend it highly enough! They called this film “Anonymous” and gave it a tag line of: “Was Shakespeare a Fraud?”

It’s one of those questions that until you examine it closely, sounds completely absurd. We are all so completely indoctrinated in school that to question the identity of the greatest writer in the English language is tantamount to blasphemy. On the other hand, those brave enough to examine this question closely quickly realize that the hard evidence available to disprove the man named William Shakespeare was the actual author of the works bearing his name, far outweighs any evidence used to prove he was the author. Some of the greatest minds of our age, including many serious Shakespearean actors and fellow great writers, have come forward to proudly proclaim they are “Shakespeare doubters” otherwise known as “anti-Stratfordians”.

“Anonymous” is not a high-speed, adrenaline-rush, science fiction, adventure movie like Emmerich’s previous works, but his adept filmmaking and story telling skills keep you on the edge of your seat from beginning to end, as he unfolds a fictionalized version of why the most likely candidate for authorship needed a front man to disguise his identity. I’d say it’s probably 30% guesswork with the rest based on fact. Emmerich used his “poetic license” to answer some of the ticklers in such a compelling way that even today’s jaded movie-going audience will love it.

I say this based on my decades of examining the Shakespeare authorship question. We have spent several hours on 21st Century Radio interviewing researchers proposing one candidate or another as the proper author of these great works. What it comes down to is this: the author was probably one of Queen Elizabeth’s illegitimate children, and that is one of the reasons he needed to remain anonymous. Some proposed as the true genius behind these plays are Ben Johnson, Christopher Marlowe, and Sir Francis Bacon. But the best candidate for the authorship claim is Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, and it is this theory that is played out in “Anonymous”.

His direct descendant, Charles Vere, the Earl of Buford, is one of the guests we’ve featured on 21st Century Radio in the past. Others include journalist Joe Sobran who wrote a book called Alias Shakespeare: Solving the Greatest Literary Mystery of All Time; David Ovason, author of Shakespeare’s Secret Booke: Deciphering Magical and Rosicrucian Codes; Ruth Loyd Miller, chronicler of J.T. Looney's research into the de Vere authorship; and Penn Leary, author of The Second Cryptographic Shake-speare. I am not alone in this fascination. Other notable minds who have publicly doubted Shakespeare was the author include Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Benjamin Disraeli, Henry James, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Sigmund Freud, Orson Welles, and noted Shakespearean actor Derek Jacobi.

Castle Hedingham in Essex, ancestral home of the Earls of Oxford

Derek Jacobi is used, in fact, in a most clever device at the beginning and ending of this film “Anonymous” where he gives an introduction to lay the case for the authorship question. In a series of “Why’s” he ticks them off: Shakespeare’s last will and testament demonstrates his inability to write his name the same way twice (there are six surviving signatures, and each one is spelled differently); he left no books behind in his will, no manuscripts, and no quills, all supporting the claim that he was, in fact, illiterate; there was no mention of his fame during his lifetime or for generations afterward, not by his fellow playwrights, by his Stratford neighbors, or by the court. After asking all these “why” questions, Emmerich’s film “Anonymous” plunges you into the court intrigue and incest and murder of Elizabethan England, and suddenly everything starts to make sense.

One of the crests of the 17th Earl of Oxford. Note the lion “shakes” a “spear” that is broken.

I especially enjoyed the way they chose to portray the actor William Shakespeare as a canny opportunist who seized the chance for his greatest role – pretending to be the “anonymous” author of the popular plays and then blackmailing the true author to keep silent. But this film is really driven by the character of Ben Johnson, a fellow playwright and friend of Shakespeare’s, who basically had to be “in on” the plot to cover up the true author. This film is a terrifically entertaining explanation of why a rival writer might have agreed to be involved in such a conspiracy. And of course, true to Emmerich style, the sets, costumes and reality of the experience are exquisite. It was thrilling to see what the original Globe Theater might have looked like – a vision that will stay with me for a long time. I felt like I was there!

It’s not so much a documentary as a beautiful and compelling way of answering so many of these questions. It has the potential for changing our paradigm once and for all on who really wrote “Shakespeare”. Despite the powerful vested interests who have centuries of reputation and tourism dollars invested in identifying the unschooled, illiterate country bumpkin as the author of Hamlet, Macbeth, and King Lear, perhaps this film will remove the blinders of indoctrination and allow many more people to consider the Earl of Oxford as the true author. It’s not just lovers of great literature who desire the truth.

Now, I can’t wait for the DVD to come out so I can watch it again and again! I’m sure there are many hidden gems I missed the first time.