Shakespeare Films 

 

“something wicked this way comes”

Shakespeare is the greatest writer of the English language.  I'm taking that as a given.  Yet so many people are bored by his plays and even more so by the films made from them.  So what's wrong?  If not Shakespeare, then is it the lack of sophistication of the audience?  Hardly.  Shakespeare did not write plays to be studied by intellectuals in towers; he wrote for the common man.  His stories are filled with violence, sex, adventure, slapstick, and crude jokes—the stuff we all enjoy.  It is the directors who change excitement to boredom by missing what The Bard was trying to do.  They give us slow, proper Shakespeare when rapidity and wild abandon (be it emotional expression or slapstick humor) should be the name of the game.  

I've started with a few easy-to-find films.  I'll be adding more as I can.

As You Like It Forbidden Planet Hamlet Julius Caesar Kiss Me Kate A Midsummer Night's Dream Much Ado About Nothing

Othello '65 Othello '95 Prince of Jutland Richard III '95 Romeo and Juliet '36 Romeo and Juliet '68 Romeo and Juliet '78

Romeo + Juliet '96 The Taming of the Shrew Titus The Tragedy of Macbeth The Tragedy of Othello '52 Twelfth Night: Or What You Will West Side Story

 

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Sorted by date:

1930s
As You Like It (1936)
Romeo and Juliet (1936)
1940s
Hamlet (1948)
1950s
The Tragedy of Othello (1952)
Julius Caesar (1953)
Kiss Me Kate (1953)
Forbidden Planet (1956)
1960s
West Side Story (1961)
Othello (1965)
The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Romeo and Juliet (1968)
1970s
The Tragedy of Macbeth (1971)
Romeo and Juliet (1978)
1990s
Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Prince of Jutland (1994)
Othello (1995)
Richard III (1995)
Romeo + Juliet (1996)
Twelfth Night: Or What You Will (1996)
A Midsummer Night's Dream (1999)
Titus (1999)