Ross Lawhead

I’m a nut for Shakespeare, even though I rarely read it. Shakespeare wrote his plays to be performed, and so over the years I’ve tried to keep track of the best adaptations, and this is what I’ve collected, in no particular order.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999, Michael Hoffman)
This is one of my least favorite plays, but the movie is simply brilliant. The casting may seem a bit strange at first, but it’s inspired. The actors really spark off of each other, particularly the four lovers. The one who really carries it though is Kevin Kline as Bottom. The donkey-acting with prosthetics is neither here nor there, but he puts in a masterwork in the Pyramus and Thisbe set piece at the end of the movie which is genuinely funny and stays completely on text.

Much Ado About Nothing (1993, Kenneth Branagh)
I’ll be up front — Kenneth Branagh is going to crop up in this list more than a few times. He has tons of experience in Shakespeare, he founded his own company The Renaissance Theatre Company and was instrumental (along with others such as Richard Eyre) for developing Shakespeare performance into its modern form, removing a lot of the formality that actors and directors such as Laurence Olivier and Orson Welles approached it with. This is one of my favorites of his. It’s a straightforward presentation which nonetheless sparkles through its performances, particularly Michael Keaton and Emma Thompson.

As You Like It (2006, Kenneth Branagh)
I had trouble with As You Like it before I saw this version of it. It’s an oddly paced play and has all of the stereotypes about separations and cross-dressing. The movie is well conceived and the Imperial Japan setting gives it a fresh vibe. Also: ninjas. Ninjas in Shakespeare. How awesome is that?

Richard II – Hollow Crown, Episode 1 (2012, Rupert Goold)
This is one of my favorite plays, but I have never seen it well performed until last year. The Second Henriad is wonderful when contemplated as a long storyline, so I’m very glad that they were all adapted at the same time. Ben Wishaw gives a powerhouse portrayal of the fickle Richard who is almost completely ruled by whimsy. He is pitch-perfect throughout – and the scene with the monkey is profoundly outrageous.

Henry V (1989, Kenneth Branagh)
I remember watching this in school and just not getting it. At all. It was only after I’d watched his Hamlet a few times that I understood that the words people were saying could actually be understood and I came back to this and understood its brilliance. It’s powerful, but with such a light hand. Obviously a low-budget production, it is unhindered by empty, dimly-lit sets. The editing is excellent and the edits Branagh makes to the script are perfectly judged. The muddy battle at the end is one of my top movie moments ever, and Branagh the song, Non Nobis, Domine, which plays as Branagh triumphantly walks across a desolate battlefield (carrying a young Christian Bale!) is incredibly moving.

King Lear – Ran (1985, Akira Kurosawa)
This is not in my top five of Kurosawa movies, but it is the best Lear adaptation I’ve seen. Kurosawa is one of those special and rare directors who can deliver spectacle, and always puts at least one thing in each movie that no one has ever seen before. He was a famous Shakespeare fan himself and he made this labor of love at the age of 75. You don’t enjoy Shakespeare’s text with this movie, but visually it will be like little else you’ve ever seen.

Macbeth – Throne of Blood (1957, Akira Kurosawa)
This is Kurosawa’s first attempt at Shakespeare, and he plays it fairly loose. It’s mostly a reinterpretation of the plot while using the same themes and characters. Not so high in fidelity, but completely riveting — as anything with the immeasurable Toshiro Mifune is — and the small departures are not for no reason. I’ve seen it just a couple times, but every shot of the arrow scene at the end is engraved on my brain.

Othello – O (2001, Tim Blake Nelson)
This movie is everything that a modern Shakespeare retelling should be. Transferring the setting into a private high school is a brilliant move, heightening both drama and tension. The plot so tightly follows Shakespeare’s original, you can almost believe it’s a scene-by-scene adaptation, but the invented material — particularly the relationship between Hugo (Iago) and his father. There are some great, intense performances, particularly by Josh Hartnett. Julia Stiles is also commendable.

Hamlet (1996, Kennth Branagh)
You never lose your love of the work that opened Shakespeare up to you, and that’s what this was for me. I was so surprised that I was actually catching the gist of what was happening in the scenes for the first time — I could actually follow the plot, mostly. And that credit is due to Branagh — and all the more since it’s completely unabridged (which I think I read was the first movie adaptation of Hamlet to do so). It’s wonderfully directed and shot on 70mm film to give incredible panorama and depth to the scenes.

Romeo and Juliet – Romeo + Juliet (1996, Baz Lurman)
Romeo and Juliet is a pretty overexposed play, and this is the best edition of it. It’s flashy and over-the-top, but brought Shakespeare to a whole new generation of moody teenagers. Nice soundtrack.

Macbeth – Shakespeare Retold (2006, Mark Brozel)
The BBC Shakespeare Retold series was pretty good. Not all of them were hits, but The Taming of the Shrew worked well (Shirley Henderson needs to headline more stuff), and then there was Macbeth. James McAvoy plays a chef working in a celebrity cook’s star restaurant, making the dishes that his boss takes all the credit for. It’s a fast, intelligent, and emotional rollercoaster ride which doesn’t disappoint even if you know exactly what’s going to happen. And McAvoy butchers a pig’s head live on camera which, bizarrely, completely ties into the show’s theme.

Richard III (1995, Richard Loncraine)
There’s a lot about this adaptation that wouldn’t seem to work, on the face of it, but it all manages to hang together. Mostly because of Ian McKellan, of course, but the European civil war setting gives it a lively ambiance. Definitely one to put on your list.

The Taming of the Shrew – 10 Things I Hate About You (1999, Gil Junger)
You wouldn’t think that Shakespeare would make a good light teen rom-com, but it totally does. It all works fantastically. It is impeccably cast and rolls right along. If you don’t take it too seriously, it’s really quite delightful.

Titus Andronicus – Titus (1999, Julie Taymor)
This film suffers from a little too much artism. It’s grandly staged and the actors really trumpet out their performances, but it manages to stay just shy of way-too-much. It’s a good way to see an underperformed play. It stars Anthony Hopkins and he does a solid job.

The Merchant of Venice (2004, Michael Radford)
A by-the-numbers adaptation, but a decent one nonetheless.

That is all.

Coriolanus (2011, Ralph Fiennes)
I equivocated in including this one because at the moment it’s the play I love the most out of all of his, and I’m still not sure what I think about this take on it. Fiennes’ earnestness is laudable, but the tone never lets up; it needs a lighter touch in certain areas. Still, Coriolanus is awesome.

The Tempest – The Forbidden Planet (1957, Fred M Wilcox)
I’m going to round the list out with what is truly a cinematic cornerstone – Forbidden Planet! The movie that gave us Robby the Robot. Again, like the best modern retellings, it works just as well if you have no knowledge of the play whatsoever, as I didn’t when I saw it at the age of eight years old. That such a story can make an under-ten be completely fixated for an hour and half shows the immortal power of Shakespeare’s writings. In addition: Leslie Nielson. Need I say more?