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The title comes from one of the final lines of William Shakespeare's "Hamlet", where a British ambassador enters the Danish court to find Hamlet, Claudius, Gertrude, and Laertes all dead. The ambassador's line is, "...To tell [the King] his commandment is fulfilled, that Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are dead."
Originally, the two leads (who appropriately spend the movie mixing up their own names) were cast the other way around.
Richard Dreyfuss' part was to be played by Sir Sean Connery, who abandoned the film for a bigger paycheck in The Hunt for Red October (1990).
This movie is based on the original Broadway production of "Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead" by Sir Tom Stoppard and opened on October 9, 1967 at the Alvin Theater, ran for 420 performances and won the 1968 Tony Award for Best Play.
The opening song at the beginning of the movie is Pink Floyd's "Seamus" (Meddle, 1971). The version included in the movie is an instrumental version. The album version has vocals. During the theatre company's performance of pseudo-Hamlet, a sound bit from Pink Floyd's "Echoes" (also from Meddle, 1971) can be heard. The sound of the rapier sword is the first note heard in "Echoes".
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What is the Spanish language plot outline for Rosencrantz & Guildenstern Are Dead (1990)?
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