Shakespeare in Film

You do know it was originally rated G in the U.S.?

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Franco Zeffirelli's versions of Shakespeare are usually pretty subdued. I notice this especially in the Gibson version. It was entirely undecorative and shot so safely that you hardly even noticed it was a film. Compositions aren't really a big thing for him, nor art design, but I think that it gave Hamlet a wonderful realism with its grey skies and ugly castles.

But all in all, I really feel that, even though I've seen now four Hamlets, Tennant's the best one I've seen. The play's the thing scene is the best one out of all of them, by far. Hamlet 2000 was like Zeffirelli in modern times with some actual creative editing.

As for R&J, I much prefered the "updated" batsh*t insane Baz Lurmann Romeo + Juliet. Not that the first one was bad, just that the DiCaprio version was so much more fun.

I guess that's a generational thing. I've seen five cinematic versions of Romeo and Juliet, and I'm happiest with Zeffirelli's. It's really quite visceral and blatantly obvious that it's a "gang flick".

"Gang flick" is an alien term to me. Film is a solitary experience, as I've claimed before.

ahhhh... don't say it's because I'm a snot-nosed gen-y philistine. I just think Lurmann's is the greater film. The 90s were generally a **** period.

"Gang flick" = a film about rival gangs.

o

Are you serious?

They were underage. The girl was 15 and the boy was 17 (well,he was just overage then but she wasn't). And there was brief nudity, so yes, that was a little...uncomfortable.

It's good that they were near the right age though.

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My favorite film versions of Shakespeare:

The 1935 version of A Midsummer Night's Dream with James Cagney as Bottom, Mickey Rooney as Puck, Olivia de Havilland as Hermia, Joe E. Brown as Francis Flute, Dick Powell as Lysander, and Victor Jory as Oberon. The two standouts in the film were Rooney’s totally over-the-top Puck, like a 3-year-old on a sugar high; and Jory who just radiated menace. Many of the actors had never played Shakespeare before, including Cagney and Brown whose performances were praised.

Akira Kurosawa’s 1957 Throne of Blood transposes Macbeth to feudal Japan. It’s one of Kurosawa's best films, which is saying a lot, and regarded by many as the best film adaptation of Macbeth although it does not use the original language.

In 1948, Orson Welles tried to make an epic Macbeth on a small budget for Republic Pictures, using extremely stylized sets and costumes. It was a box-office failure but still fascinating to watch with Welles’ use of long takes and deep focus like he did in Citizen Kane.

The most fun film version of Macbeth, however, was shot in 1990 as a crime drama, Men of Respect, starring John Turturro as Mike Battaglia, an ambitious Mafia hitman under Godfather Charlie D’Amico (Rod Steiger). The film opens with Turturro, backed by pal Bankie Como (Dennis Farina), making a gutsy hit on the top officers of a rival gang. In their escape, they stumble upon the strangest trio of witches ever in a Macbeth play, an old couple and their apparently grown (and maybe feeble-minded) son in a rundown housing project watching a flickering B&W TV. Katherine Borowitz plays Turturro’s wife with more ambition and naked greed than most Lady Macbeths exhibit. The couple’s descent into madness and paranoia after Turturro murders the Godfather and takes his place is something to see. Another standout is Peter Boyle as Duffy, the head of an Irish gang who was in peace talks with Steiger but falls out with Turturro, who then kills his family with a car bomb meant for Duffy. The combination of Shakespeare’s tale of betrayal and murder with all the blood and honor trappings of the Mafia works very well in this film.

Of course, one cannot talk of Shakespeare on film without mentioning Kurosawa’s 1985 epic of Ran, based on a combination of King Lear and some Japanese legends. A great film!

I'm getting fed up with Ken's HD Hamlet not being released yet over here.



It appears to be region free so I might as well order the import.

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I have many years of stage acting experience, read many of the Shakespeare plays and have seen quite a bit of Shakespeare over the years on stage. I'm far from an expert, but I love Shakespeare in any form.

Titus - Anthony Hopkins
This was an amazing production of Titus Andronicus. The play is rarely done on stage. The movie version was staggeringly good I thought, Hopkins was excellent and the art direction was amazing. This is one of the best film versions of Shakespeare I've seen.

Merchant Of Venice - Al Pacino
I own this dvd, an outstanding production of Merchant Of Venice, Pacino is excellent in (corrected) one of the lead roles, as is Jeremy Irons.

Hamlet - Kenneth Branagh
I liked this version, it is well done with an excellent performance by Branagh.

Henry V - Kenneth Branagh
Very good movie version of the play, with an excellent performance by Branagh. Shakespeare's history plays can be difficult to follow, this screenplay worked very well, keeping the audience engaged.

I'm planning on viewing Derek Jacobi's Hamlet in the coming weeks on Netflix, really looking forward to it.

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Pacino doesn't play the title character; Jeremy Irons does. Antonio is the merchant of venice; Shylock is a moneylender.

Whoa, forgot about this one till you mentioned it. This is excellent! It's such a brutal play and the film was well done. An incredibly disturbing story! Don't forget a wonderful Jessica Lange and also Angus MacFayden (the Bruce in Braveheart).

Yes, highly recommend this one.

Here's Jessica:



Anyone seen Ian McKellan's Richard III? I didn't much like it; it was told as a modern facist story (very Hitler-like), and there's a young Robert Downey Jr. among the cast. The "My kingdom for a horse" bit turned silly because there was no horse!

I didn't mind the Richard III fascist stylee but style often overtook substance.


Has anybody seen A Waste of Shame? It was a TV series based on Shakespeare and his sonnets. Looks kind of creepy to me.

"My kingdom for a tank or a troop carrier," wouldn't have worked very well either, but when you're the most hated man in the country and the enemy is closing in on you, even a little burro would do!

I really liked that production--Richard III has all the prerequsites for a Facist of Hitler's type. I think the 1930s Facist setting really communicated how evil became ingrained into the government itself to the point where Richard could use the government to further his own evil plans. Plus McKellan is a hell of an actor!!!

I think Jacobi should do a comedy version of Hamlet in the character of Claudius Caesar!

The Boys From Syracuse (1940) with Martha Raye and Joe Penny was based on Shakespeare's A Comedy of Errors and done first as a successful Rodgers and Hart Broadway musical. But the script was shortened for the movie and only four of the Rodgers and Hart tunes were retained including Sing for Your Supper, and the smash hits, This Can't Be Love and Falling in Love With Love. It wasn't a big hit as a movie, certainly didn't come close to the popularity of the original play, but it was funny and fun.

I also enjoyed Kenneth Branagh's more recent adaption of Love's Labors Lost, which he did as a 1930s musical. Were all the tunes by Cole Porter or did it just seem that way? Anyway, it was packed with some of the best show tunes of that era and well performed. A very enjoyable film, especially since it's one of Shakespeare's plays that is not done as often as his tragedies.

Another Shakespeare musical—Kiss Me Kate. About a formerly married couple, Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson as Broadway performers who are co-starring in a play-within-the play, a musical version of Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew, which includes a key line with the movie’s title. Co-stars are Ann Miller and Bobby Van. It’s not High Art, of course, but it’s fun and funny, especially when Keenan Wynn and James Whitmore as a gambler’s strong-arm collectors get involved and end up doing a song-and-dance number, “Brush Up Your Shakespeare.” Music by Cole Porter, dances by Bob Fosse, what’s not to like? This was a success both on Broadway and as a movie, being released in 3-D.

In stage productions Shylock is thought of as the lead, its a major role in Shakespearean plays, but yes, in the play Shylock is the moneylender.

I wasn't that fond of the movie Richard III starring Ian McKellan, thought he was great, but didn't like the production. Love the play itself though.

I think the McKellan Richard III would work better on stage.

I need to get round to finishing Shakespeare in Love. I stopped at the annoying mistake they made about Sonnet 18- Shakey wrote it to a man, hence 'and often is his gold complexion dimmed'