Theseus and Hippolyta

I have not seen the 1981 version of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, but earlier today I did watch the 1991 “Hollywood” version (as Professor Britland puts it) with Bale and Flockhart. I know she warned us about how horrible it was, and I completely agree considering it took such a shallow analysis of the play as a whole, but I did think that this particular version had some interesting input in its interpretation. For instance, instead of Hippolyta being completely under Theseus’ control and with no ability to say what she believes, she was portrayed as the one controlling him. I’m not necessarily a huge fan of admitting that Theseus has such absolute control over her throughout the play, even though that may certainly be the case, because it is simply too frustrating. I was able to appreciate then the fact that they had Hippolyta as the person standing up to Theseus and persuading him to excuse the lovers in the end of all they were accused of (even if it was in a sort of a pathetic pouty way that got on my nerves). So really, I was just wondering if anyone else had watched the horrid Hollywood version and if so, what they thought of it. The different ending was pretty thought provoking. As well I wanted to see if anyone else had any input on Theseus and Hippolyta’s relationship, whether it be another viewpoint or just something interesting.