Best of Shakespeare on Film

Top ten Shakespeare Movies!

1. Macbeth (Polanski)

Simply put, it is the greatest Shakespeare adaptation ever. The scenes that Polanksi improvises around the plays text are breathtaking (especially the ending – WOW).

2. Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Dead (Mamet)

Less an adaptation of Hamlet than a new invention out of the bard’s original cloth, it stands as an amazing and humour filled work that owes a direct debt to the bard.

3. Ran (‘King Lear’) (Kurosawa)

Considered one of the all time great movies, ‘Ran’ is the tale of King Lear told as a Samurai epic. Unlike his other major Shakespeare adaptation ‘Throne of Blood’ (Macbeth) Ran is in full colour and much more restrained in it’s acting. The scenery, the devastating cinematography (the entire film is in mid to long-shot – not a single close-up), and the few tweaks he makes to the plot (he adds a fascinating character foil) all add rather than detract from the Bard’s work. I saw this film well prior to ever seeing the play performed, and I’ve yet to see it’s anything approaching its equal.

4. hamlet (Almeyreda)

My favourite Hamlet, it stars Ethan Hawke in the title role, and is a ‘modern’ version using the original text. My only quibble is the decision to do a sword fight rather than modernize that as well. Of special note are Hamlet’s soliloquies which rather than delivered by Hamlet to the camera (and audience) are instead played back from Hamlet’s own tape recording of events - the effect of which is that we get to hear his interior monologues and witness his own reactions to them as they play back.

5. Romeo and Juliet (Luhrman)

Visually stunning, and thoroughly conceived it takes the Bard’s most lyrical work and makes it sing for the entire length of the movie. The character of Mercutio is reconceived as a cross-dressing dandy – lending their scenes and added emotional edge as it becomes clearer that Mercutio did not just ‘love’ Romeo, but was also ‘in love’ with him.

6. Othello (Parker)

Fisburne delivers on the apoplectic rage and jealousy, but Bob Hoskins’ ‘Iago’ is truly a villain for the ages.

7. Titus (‘Titus Andronicus’) (Taymor)

Shakespeare’s story of revenge is transformed into a sumptuous feast of imagery and gut wrenching violence. Anthony Hopkins as the General Titus is excellent, but Jessica Lange steals the film with her hyper-sexualized Tamora.

8. Richard III (Loncraine)

Ian McKellan (in a pre ‘Magneto’ performance) owns the film as the villainous Richard. Set in a fictional fascist England of the 40’s it contemporizes the themes of the play without moving into a full-blown modernization ala the Hamlet I mention above. McKellan is simply mesmerizing throughout.

9. Looking for Richard (Pacino)

Al Pacino directs this documentary that examines the plight of American actors tackling Shakespeare. In it he deconstructs the Richard III play to its basics and provides an invaluable lesson in understanding what Shakespeare was aiming for with the play.

10. Henry V

Despite not being a play of the calibre of the ones I list above, Kenneth Branagh’s Henry V is a gem from start to finish, and contains a cast of Shakespearian actors to die for. Not even Emma Thompson’s undisguised mustache can’t bring down this ebullient vision of Shakespeare’s play.