Pacino's 1996 docudrama Looking for Richard reshapes and deconstructs Shakespeare's illustration of the rampantly Machiavellian Richard's illegitimate pursuit of monarchical authority in Richard III and his subsequent defiance of divinely sanctioned principles of retribution in the strongly Protestant Elizabethan era. Paralleling moral notions of the punishment of sin and the corruptive nature of power, Pacino undermines the monopolizing ascendancy of British literary culture and highlights the diminishment of piety in 1990s America. Flaunting his post-structuralist creative license, Pacino interprets Shakespeare's historical tragedy in a hybrid text that combines performance and analysis, which explains the linguistic and theatrical complexities of Shakespeare's text to a postmodern audience. In hindsight, Pacino reshapes Shakespeare's discourse of Richard's dual strategies for royal power into an individualistic quest to alleviate cultural ignorance. In King Richard III Shakespeare presents the timeless notion of the inevitable connection between the moral rectitude of political power and the condition of the state. illustrating the tragic consequences of Richard's fraudulent quests for power. Set in the Elizabethan era after the Yorkist victory in the Wars of the Roses, the 16th-century doctrine of royal absolutism is exemplified by Buckingham's hyperbolic exaltation of "the supreme seat, the majestic throne." Through this, Shakespeare illustrates a hierarchical society that strictly upholds the canons of the divine right of kings and the great chain of being. However, through the diabolical image of Richard as "a tyrannical villain", the play reflects the politically correct endorsement of the Tudor form... middle of paper... d individualistic. Furthermore, the timelessness of the punishment for immorality is portrayed through the crescendo of a requiem and a descending long shot that accentuate the stark reality of Richard's pitiful demise. Thus, Searching for Richard allows us to discern the sacrilegious nature of the contemporary world, leading us to reevaluate our spirituality and the inevitable consequences of sin. Through this comparison between the context of King Richard III and contemporary culture, Pacino highlights the change in attitudes towards social class and religion. The analytical docudrama addresses postmodern audiences with a new perspective on the timeless notions regarding the corruption of power and the punishment of sin, presented by Shakespeare, allowing audiences to draw connections and reevaluate the meaning of both texts..