It seems a number of Congressman and women who are having problems with unfriendly crowds at Healthcare Town Hall Meetings. Turning an unfriendly crowd is an art of considerable difficulty. In the spirit of being helpful here is a You Tube demonstrating how to do it.
Marlon Brando as Marc Anthony in Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar.
It would help if the the congressmen and women can find a speech writer of Shakespeare’s caliber and develop the stage presence of a Marlon Brando.
Remind people of something they know, don't try to convince them of something they reject.
Some good starting lines:
Friends, Americans, Countrymen and Women, lend me your ears.
I have not come praise Obamacare but to bury it.
The good the current health care system does will soon be forgotten, the results of a Obamacare will haunt us forever.
Yes, Obamacare is ambitious, but the noble Obama is an honorable man.
Just trying to help.
Updated 9/14/2009
10 months ago
3 comments:
Thanks for that, Hank, I shall link to it over at my place. That is one of my favourite pieces of film Shakespeare - simply superb - director, setting, crowd, timing, camera angles and, of course, Brando at his very best.
What a forensic eye Shakespeare had for the ways of Man and how uncomfortable it is when he holds the mirror up for us to see ourselves.
David
Thanks
When the idea hit me I looked at several videos of that speech. Many were excellent readings with costume, with no feeling for the circumstances of the speech.
In this clip the acting and the directing are almost of the genius of the text.
The tragedy is not that our politicians (of both parties actually) have no idea what to with a hostile crowd, but that the genuinely have no idea why the crowd is hostile.
Indeed, and many of them can barely string a sentence together without a teleprompter!
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