Renaissance Man is a 1994 American comedy film directed by Penny Marshall, and starring Danny DeVito, Gregory Hines, James Remar and Cliff Robertson.

Initially unenthusiastic, Rago finds that he has only six weeks to teach a group of undereducated soldiers the basics of comprehension and use of English language.

Unable to connect with his pupils and desperate to spark their interest, Rago quotes from his favorite play, Hamlet by William Shakespeare.

He casts each student as a character in a classroom reading, then takes everyone on a field trip across the Blue Water Bridge to Stratford, Ontario Canada, to a live performance by Shakespearean actors.

Despite the disapproval of their hard-as-nails Drill Sergeant Cass, and the loss of one of the trainees, Private Hobbs, who is revealed as a drug dealer hiding under an assumed identity, Rago sets an end-of-term oral examination.

Even the friendly Captain Murdoch, who is in charge of the project doesn't expect the soldiers to pass Rago's class, adding that if they fail they will be discharged from the Army.

Hobbs says he read Othello in the prison library (the librarian said he was the first inmate in 16 years to request Shakespeare) and was thinking about taking college classes once he's released.

It results in Private Davis being presented with the Silver Star medal his father was to have been awarded posthumously, after he was killed in Vietnam.

Marshall requested rewrites to make the script funnier, not merely by adding more jokes but by "deepening the characters and finding all the humor and heart in them."

"[12][13] Janet Maslin of The New York Times praised the likable cast but called it "Inherently condescending, and finally awash in warm-bath sentimentality, this setup never goes out of style.

The site's consensus states: "Renaissance Man tries to simultaneously be a literary comedy, an inspirational drama, and a star vehicle that caters to Danny DeVito's strengths, but proves to be a master of none.