25 best Shakespeare-to-screen adaptations
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- DirectorJoseph L. MankiewiczStarsLouis CalhernMarlon BrandoJames MasonThe growing ambition of Julius Caesar is a source of major concern to his close friend Brutus. Cassius persuades him to participate in his plot to assassinate Caesar but they have both sorely underestimated Mark Antony.Et tu Brando? Many thought that Marlon the mumbler would try to methodize Joseph L. Mankiewicz's adaptation of Shakespeare's historical drama. But the star's played-straight Mark Antony single-handedly injects passion and anger into this prestige project, blowing away cast members such as James Mason and John Gielgud.
- DirectorTrevor NunnStarsHelena Bonham CarterRichard E. GrantImogen StubbsShakespeare's comedy of gender confusion, in which a girl disguises herself as a man to be near the count she adores, only to be pursued by the woman he loves.Shakespearean comedy being a tough sell, director Trevor Nunn's wintry, bittersweet adaptation of the Bard's cross-dressing romp doesn't strain for laughs—it earns them quietly. A lot of what's delicious about this somber-paletted treatment comes from pitch-perfect casting: Nigel Hawthorne's snobby Malvolio, Helena Bonham Carter's sultry Olivia and Ben Kingsley's touchingly dour clown.
- DirectorPeter BrookStarsPaul ScofieldIrene WorthCyril CusackKing Lear divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia refuses to idly flatter the old man, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters.Craggy, leonine Paul Scofield reprises his haunting onstage turn as the grief-maddened monarch in Peter Brook's film version (modeled after his groundbreaking 1962 Royal Shakespeare Company rendition). Shot starkly in black and white, minimally scored and imbued with an almost Beckettian gloom, the work has a raw, rough-hewn medievalism perfectly suited to the tragedy.
- DirectorDerek JarmanStarsPeter BullDavid MeyerNeil CunninghamBanished to a forsaken island, the Right Duke of Milan and Sorcerer Prospero gets the chance to take his revenge on the King of Naples with the assistance of his airy spirit-servant, Ariel.As was his nature, director Derek Jarman departed radically from the text—Shakespeare, you might recall, didn't write a musical number set to "Stormy Weather" involving a bunch of sailors—but the end result is full of feeling and true to the play's spirit of unruly magic.
- DirectorMichael RadfordStarsAl PacinoJoseph FiennesLynn CollinsIn 16th century Venice, when a merchant must default on a large loan from an abused Jewish moneylender for a friend with romantic ambitions, the bitterly vengeful creditor demands a gruesome payment instead.The painterly lushness of Michael Radford's location cinematography and Renaissance costumes add heft to this carefully judged take on Shakespeare's Jewish-problem play. Al Pacino's Shylock is no stock blood-libel villain, but a tragic antihero driven by rage and hurt to become the monster that his Christian neighbors already believe him to be.
- DirectorWilliam DieterleMax ReinhardtStarsJames CagneyDick PowellIan HunterTwo couples and a troupe of actors have an encounter with some mischievous fairies in the forest.Shakespeare's tale of actors and other wild creatures got the suitably out-there film version it deserved in this giddy golden-age spectacle. Everything from codirector Max Reinhardt's emphasis on surreal set design (lifted from his 1934 Hollywood Bowl production) to the left-of-center casting choices (James Cagney as Bottom; Mickey Rooney as Puck) gives this comedy the proper topsy-turvy spin.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsKenneth BranaghJulie ChristieDerek JacobiHamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.Given all the deep editing these texts often get for the screen, hats off to Kenneth Branagh for filming all four hours of the melancholy Dane. This reverential epic was shot in England's glorious Blenheim Palace and stuffed with star cameos (Gielgud, Heston, Crystal, Williams). The gilded ballrooms and mirrored walls conjure up a Continental candy box—albeit one filled with poison sweets.
- DirectorLaurence OlivierStarsLaurence OlivierRobert NewtonLeslie BanksIn the midst of the Hundred Years' War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.From its theatrical meta-opening to the colorful pageantry of its battle scenes, Laurence Olivier's first foray into film directing set the standard for adapting Shakespeare. His ability to be reverent to the text while cinematically opening the play up became a template for tackling the Bard, and his Saint Crispin's Day speech—addressed to a Britain still reeling from the Blitz—remains a showstopper.
- DirectorBaz LuhrmannStarsLeonardo DiCaprioClaire DanesJohn LeguizamoShakespeare's famous play is updated to the hip modern suburb of Verona still retaining its original dialogue.Baz Lurhmann's modern-dress take on those feuding Capulets and Montagues may be a whirlwind of stylistic sound and fury. But his ADD-afflicted aesthetic only heightens the breathless, fluttering teen romance that lies at the heart of this tale of star-crossed lovers, dreamily played by Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsKenneth BranaghEmma ThompsonKeanu ReevesYoung lovers, and soon to wed, Hero and Claudio conspire to get verbal sparring partners and confirmed singles, Benedick and Beatrice, to wed as well.The Bard's delightful romantic roundelay gets the Kenneth Branagh treatment (his second Shakespeare feature after Henry V). The star-director and Emma Thompson are a wonderful Benedick and Beatrice, the sun-dappled settings are swoonworthy, and even Keanu Reeves acquits himself nicely as the villainous Don Pedro.
- DirectorJulie TaymorStarsAnthony HopkinsJessica LangeOsheen JonesTitus returns victorious from war, only to plant the seeds of future turmoil for himself and his family.Broadway's Spider-Man may have permanently soured her career, so let's go back to when Julie Taymor was a beacon of hope for stage and screen. From its Ancient Rome--meets-Mussolini--era production design to Anthony Hopkins's fiery lead performance, this take on Titus Andronicus is a bloody marvel.
- DirectorRichard LoncraineStarsIan McKellenAnnette BeningChristopher BowenThe classic Shakespearean play about the murderously scheming 15th-century king is reimagined in an alternative setting of 1930s England as clouds of fascism gather.Director Richard Loncraine's swift, stylish take on the Bard's matchlessly vitriolic play recasts the malformed king as an English Hitler in an alternate 1930s. The bravura opening sequence—in which a wormy Ian McKellen begins his winter-of-discontent soliloquy as a public address and continues it alone in the loo, sputtering into a urinal—is typical of the film's invigorating wit.
- DirectorMichael AlmereydaStarsEthan HawkeKyle MacLachlanDiane VenoraModern-day New York City adaptation of Shakespeare's immortal story about Hamlet's plight to avenge his father's murder.Medieval castles are traded for modern-day skyscrapers in Michael Almereyda's masterful, Manhattan-set update of Shakespeare's hallowed tragedy. Almereyda cleverly transposes the action to the cutthroat world of big business (Ethan Hawke is the slacker film-student prince trying to bring down his CEO uncle) where murder isn't the only thing most foul.
- DirectorFranco ZeffirelliStarsLeonard WhitingOlivia HusseyJohn McEneryWhen two young members of feuding families meet, forbidden love ensues.Perhaps you had to watch it in high school, thanks to a lazy lit teacher. You could have done far worse: Franco Zeffirelli's vigorous, youthful version—starring teenagers Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey—infused the love story with passion and (controversially) a bit of nudity.
- DirectorLaurence OlivierStarsLaurence OlivierJean SimmonsJohn LauriePrince Hamlet struggles over whether or not he should kill his uncle, whom he suspects has murdered his father, the former king.Writer-director-star Laurence Olivier's atmospheric version of the Prince of Denmark tragedy takes some purist-baiting liberties (no Rosencrantz and Guildenstern, for example). But it hardly matters in light of the ethereal black-and-white visuals—heavily influenced by Citizen Kane—and Olivier's hypnotic lead performance. Oscar fell head over heels, awarding the film Best Picture and Actor.
- DirectorLaurence OlivierStarsLaurence OlivierCedric HardwickeNicholas HannenShakespeare's powerful tale of the wicked deformed King and his conquests, both on the battlefield and in the boudoir.Neither as immediately beloved as his Henry V nor as moody as Hamlet, Laurence Olivier's third effort directing the Bard left many viewers cold. Regardless, it's come to be seen (rightly) as the star's finest performance. Millions watched the movie's TV broadcast, including a future Johnny Rotten, cribbing notes for punk attitude.
- DirectorKenneth BranaghStarsKenneth BranaghDerek JacobiSimon ShepherdIn the midst of the Hundred Years War, the young King Henry V of England embarks on the conquest of France in 1415.Kenneth Branagh's ballsy directorial debut was a metal-studded glove thrown down at the feet of Laurence Olivier's supremacy. Aiming for battlefield realism (mud, blood and moral chaos), Branagh found the sweet spot between British jingoism and imperialist critique that would have been unthinkable in Olivier's famed World War II--era treatment.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesMicheál MacLiammóirRobert CooteThe Moorish General Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his Lieutenant Michael Cassio when in reality, it is all part of the scheme of a bitter Ensign named Iago.Filmed sporadically over three years in Morocco and Italy, beset by financial woes and poorly received in America, Orson Welles's 90-minute account of the Venetian Moor who loved not wisely but too well is another of his famously troubled projects. And yet despite (or because of) its feverishly disjointed, patchwork quality, the final cut is riveting: a black-and-white Gothic cathedral of low-angle swoops, metaphorical shadow-play and obsessive visual motifs of bars and cages. Welles is monumental in the title role, his wistful dignity making you forget the use of blackface (itself tastefully restrained). And although he may have been a bit too old for the role, Irish actor Michel MacLiammir is cold-bloodedly perfect as the pathologically evil Iago. They don't film Shakespeare like this anymore, and that's the real tragedy.
- DirectorRoman PolanskiStarsJon FinchFrancesca AnnisMartin ShawA ruthlessly ambitious Scottish lord seizes the throne with the help of his scheming wife and a trio of witches.A tragedy was born out of tragedy: Reeling from the murder of his wife Sharon Tate by members of the Manson cult, Roman Polanski embarked on this harrowing adaptation of Shakespeare's tale of a doom-laden Scottish royal (Jon Finch). Right from its "fair is foul" opening with the trio of witches, the film seems caked in nauseating layers of grime and grit. There is no escape from the disgust and horror: The famous "out, damned spot" sequence with Lady Macbeth (Francesca Annis) is skin-crawling in its literal and emotional nakedness, while a memorably gruesome decapitation climaxes with a shot from the severed head's point of view. Polanski's squalid visuals make for a brilliantly unsettling combination with the play's poetry; it's high art as primal scream.
- DirectorOrson WellesStarsOrson WellesJeanne MoreauMargaret RutherfordWhen King Henry IV ascends to the throne, his heir, the Prince of Wales, is befriended by Sir John Falstaff, an old, overweight, fun-loving habitual liar. Through Falstaff's eyes we see the reign of King Henry IV and the rise of Henry V.Atop our list sits Orson Welles, further negating the perception that Citizen Kane was his only masterpiece. (Chimes was the director's personal favorite of all his films—the one he hoped to "get into heaven" with.) The script comes from Welles's own condensation of both parts of Henry IV, along with a few other Shakespeare works, which he first mounted onstage in 1939 to a disastrous reception. Ever confident of his own correctness, Welles tended the flame until an opportunity arose decades later to capture the play on celluloid. Though cash-poor, his production is incredibly vivid, featuring noirish camera angles and battle scenes that clearly influenced Braveheart. Enlivening the whole is Welles's immortal portrayal of Falstaff, transposed from a vain buffoon to a perceptive central figure. Finding the movie on DVD is tricky (rights are still in dispute) but the effort is worth it.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsToshirô MifuneMinoru ChiakiIsuzu YamadaA war-hardened general, egged on by his ambitious wife, works to fulfill a prophecy that he would become lord of Spider's Web Castle.Filmmaker Akira Kurosawa did more than just change the geography of Shakespeare's tale regarding a weary warrior who would be king. His samurai-epic take on Macbeth not only nails the tragedy's theme—how ambition can curdle into corruption—but grounds the work in a new cultural context that turns a centuries-old work into a critique of Japan's postwar imperialism. Toshiro Mifune's power-hungry lord driven to extreme measures in the name of personal empire-building cast a harsh light on those leaders who'd just sent a nation into war, grasping for glory yet leaving ruins in their wake. All this, plus a truly spooky Lady Macbeth (courtesy of Isuzu Yamada in Noh makeup) and one of the greatest screen deaths ever filmed.
- DirectorAkira KurosawaStarsTatsuya NakadaiAkira TeraoJinpachi NezuIn Medieval Japan, an elderly warlord retires, handing over his empire to his three sons. However, he vastly underestimates how the new-found power will corrupt them and cause them to turn on each other...and him.If King Lear moves us at the sight of humanity laid bare, Akira Kurosawa's epic offers the colder discomfort of humanity stripped away. Merging Lear with legends of an actual 16th-century Japanese warlord, Kurosawa marshals more than a thousand extras into a magisterial pageant of blood: bright primary colors clashing on behalf of leaders who are uniformly unworthy. The central character (played by Tatsuya Nakadai with Noh stylings) is a brute in the throes of comeuppance, and the film has no room for samurai heroism; the warriors are slain from afar, in flurries of arrows or crackles of early guns. "As flies to wanton boys are we to the gods / They kill us for their sport," says Shakespeare's Lear. In Ran's even grimmer view, the flies butcher each other in swarms, as the helpless gods watch from a distance.