Best Shakespeare adaptations on film

[canbelto]

I like Roman Polanski's Macbeth too. I thought it was pretty faithful to the play, very well-acted, and the scenery and costumes were wonderful. I thought it was an overall good job.

I'm having buyer's remorse here. I bought a "Much Ado About Nothing" that looks good on paper -- its with Katherine Widdoes and Sam Waterston. Should I open it?

[dirac]

I would put in a good word for Roman Polanski's MacBeth. (I didn't see this film mentioned on the prior five discussion pages.)

At times, it plays more like a horror movie than a dramatic film which is probably why horror fans regard it so highly. (The Passion of the Christ is another such dramatic film that found favor with gore hounds.)

miliosr, hello. The Polanski version was mentioned earlier, but very briefly, so it was easy to miss.

I thought the central gimmick – that is, casting a young couple as the Macbeths – worked very well. As bart mentioned earlier, Jon Finch wasn’t quite up to the job, but he’s all right. Lady Macbeth’s nude sleepwalking scene is entirely unsensational. I didn’t agree with the end (Macduff heading out for a visit with the witches, implying that the whole cycle of events is repeating itself), which implicitly robs Macbeth of his uniqueness and thus dramatic interest. I really didn't find it to be all that bloody, although there were some giggles in the repertory theater where I first saw it during Macbeth's last fight, which is a bit much.

canbelto, the Waterston television version was mentioned early in the thread – click around and you’ll find the comments. You can open it without fear.

[miliosr]

Polanski's MacBeth was considered violent at the time but given what was to come in the 1970s (i.e. Texas Chainsaw Massacre, Dawn Of the Dead, etc.) it now looks quiet tame. And given how things are today, where studio-sanctioned exploitation films like Saw and Hostel push the violence to the absolute limit, MacBeth looks positively chaste.

[tra-ta]

There have been so many Shakespeare clunkers, but a lot of good adaptations too. What are your favorites?

My favorite is "Hamlet 2000" with Eathen Hawk. I saw it about 5 times when it came out. I remember that by the end of the film I was shook to the core. It stirred so many emotions... no Shakespeare play or film or adaptation did it for me like this one. I have a very hard time with the old English and had to read him only in cont. interpretations. So forget the language appreciation for me here, but the plot and settings are different story and "Hamlet 2000" did it. They put the story in such a perspective that I could watch it not as some antique amusement but a contemporary drama I could associate with. And the language was not a problem.

Nice topic!

[dirac]

I enjoyed that “Hamlet,” too. Tra-ta is speaking of the version directed by Michael Almereyda and starring Ethan Hawke, with Denmark changed, quite plausibly, to Denmark Corp., an Ophelia who begins going to pieces on the spiral staircase of the Guggenheim, and “To be or not to be” is staged in a Blockbuster store (the “Action” section). You wouldn’t go to this version for a “Hamlet” whole – it’s very short – but it’s done with considerable style. It’s also on the superficial side, however, and Hawke isn’t up to the finish. But very much worth seeing.

The “play within a play,” which here is a video put together by Hamlet, was especially clever.

[Cygnet]

I'm sorry I'm late to this thread! My favorites are:

Branagh's "Henry V," (any Shakespeare film with both

Ian Holm and Dame Judi Dench in the cast is worth the price of admission).

Helena Bonham Carter's Olivia, and Imogen Stubb's Viola in

Trevor Nunn's "Twelfth Night."

Mel Gibson's "Hamlet" (with Glenn Close as his mom).

-Kate Winslet's thoroughly depressed Ophelia in Branagh's "Hamlet"

-Branagh's Iago in "Othello." Someone else mentioned earlier that he

saved the day - I totally agree with that.

-Kevin Kline's genius rendition of Bottom in Hoffman's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."

-"Best Mumbling in a Shakespearean Role:" Rupert Everett's Oberon

in the same film.

- Olivia Hussey & Leonard Whiting's "Romeo & Juliet" is still the gold standard for me.

-Liz Taylor and Richard Burton in Zeferelli's "THE TAMING OF THE SHREW." That was real - they weren't acting.

- I totally agree: Polanski's "Macbeth" was a tour de force for Francesca Annis.

-Sir Anthony Hopkins in the title role of Julie Taymor's "Titus"

(The final scene with Hopkins dressed as the sous chef was priceless).

-Jessica Lang's merciless Empress Tamora (also in "Titus")

-Al Pacino's brilliant Shylock in "The Merchant of Venice."

The battle for the worst? IMO Leonardo Di Caprio and Alec Baldwin. They tie for first for their performances in Lurhmann's R&J (Di Caprio), and Baldwin as the Duke of Clarence in Al Pacino's "Looking For Richard," (Richard III documentary 1996).