Best Shakespeare adaptations

I have not seen The Lion King.  What Shakespeare play is it based on?

I'm still not sure what you mean by "Shakespeare adaptations." If you mean movies that use plot points from Will's plays in another story, then I don't have any favorites, in fact, I avoid them. BUT, if you mean plays adapted for film, then I've got you covered.

“I love Shakespeare. He wrote some of the rawest stories, man. I mean look at Romeo and Juliet. That's some serious ghetto shit." - Tupac

In Titus / Julie Taymor (1999). Taymor (a name that will come up two more times in this list) makes a case for one of Shakespeare’s earliest and most reviled plays. Taymor ups the visual interest to 11 while retaining much of the dialog. The cast is near perfect. Anthony Hopkins is the title character, Alan Cumming plays Saturninus as an entitled spoiled brat, and Harry Lennix chews some scenery marvelously as Aaron. But it is Jessica Lange who will chill you, thrill you and fulfill you as the evil Queen Tamora.

Romeo And Juliet / Franco Zeffirelli (1968). This film had a profound influence on a generation and beyond. Not only did it turn on its generation to Shakespeare, it replaced “Julius Caesar” as the go-to play to teach in high school. As, now, a play of its time in the late ‘60s, schools dumped one of Shakespeare’s few plays with no sex to one with tons of sex.

Romeo + Juliet / Baz Luhrman (1996). R&J for the next generation. This film startled and shook up some Shakespeare purists, but, for me, it is a real thriller and truly tragic (made even more so – and more cruel - by a slight tinkering with the final death scenes.)

The Taming Of The Shrew / Franco Zeffirelli (1967). La Liz and Dickie (for the younger set, that's Elizabeth Taylor and her husband Richard Burton) in Shakespeare's anti-feminist romp (or is it subtly subversive of the patriarchal society of the Early Modern Period?).

A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Peter Hall (1968). Excellent film of a RSC production with a top-flight cast. Helen Mirren, David Warner, Michael Jayston, and Diana Rigg as the four lovers from Athens, Ian Holm as Puck, Paul Rogers as Bottom, and best of all, Ian Richardson and Judi Dench as the sexiest King and Queen of the Fairies that you will ever find. Can’t miss.

A Midsummer Night’s Dream / Julie Taymor (2014). This is a film of a production at the Theater for a New Audience in Brooklyn in 2013. It was shot with multiple cameras over four nights and then edited like a regular movie. Highly recommended, especially if unfamiliar with the play. A good time will be had by all. This is now out on DVD and, I think, Blu-ray.

The Merchant Of Venice / Michael Radford. (2004). Al Pacino gets his chance at a full-length Shakespearean movie role and he nails it so completely that he may have ruined it for every other actor. “Merchant” is the Bard’s most controversial and disturbing play because of the portrayal of the Jewish money lender, Shylock (Pacino), in Venice.

Much Ado About Nothing / Kenneth Branagh (1993)
Much Ado About Nothing / Joss Whedon (2012)

The world’s first rom-com and one of my favorite plays is given two top-notch film productions, just about 20 years apart. The 1993 “Much Ado” is on my Top 10 of the ‘90s. The Whedon film is a truly amazing work that gave me chills of horror when I first heard it announced, but came to looking forward to its release and left the theater walking on air. Amy Acker (Beatrice) is a true discovery. Nathan Fillion (Firefly, Castle), who had never acted Shakespeare before and was very doubtful about accepting the role, is impossibly funny as the vocabulary challenged constable. He is my personal Best Supporting Actor of 2012.

Twelfth Night, or What You Will / Paul Kafno (1988). Although Kafno is credited as director of the television film, what is being performed is a stage production directed by Kenneth Branagh. Branagh makes more of a serious dramatic play from the materials than is usual. I have seen a couple of university stagings that were hilarious, but the Branagh’s actors find a more serious, perhaps melancholy, path

Julius Caesar / Joseph L. Mankiewicz (1953). Mankiewicz had to shoot this on the cheap (using sets left over from “Quo Vadis”) to get the project approved. The biggest budget item were two British actors, James Mason and John Gielgud as Brutus and Cassius. In what some considered stunt casting, Marlon Brando in only his fourth film got the call as Marc Antony. Brando triumphs, proving once and for all that he could act in more than modern drama and that The Method was viable even in Shakespeare - and this has proved to be so to this day (see also Al Pacino, above).

The Hollow Crown.

Richard II
Henry IV parts 1 and 2
Henry V
Henry VI parts 1, 2, and 3
Richard III

The BBC undertook a series of Shakespeare’s War Of The Roses historical chronicles and has turned in a major triumph on every front. “Richard II” stars Ben Whishaw as Richard, Rory Kinnear (The Imitation Game) as Richard’s usurper, David Suchet as York, and Patrick Stewart as John of Gaunt. Tom Hiddleston carries the next three plays as, first, as Prince Hal who cavorts at the Mermaid Tavern with Sir John Falstaff (Simon Russell Beale) but who converts into the heroic King Henry V. But Henry dies young, leaving an infant son as his heir. Henry VI grew to be a weak, easily led monarch who was unfit for rule. Many military battles and internal power struggles leaves the evil Richard of Gloucester as King. There is lots of location filming, wonderful natural acting, understandable spoken language, and many thrills and horrors. Capping the series is Benedict Cumberbatch’s definitive Richard. He is so great that I get goose bumps just thinking about it. One thing I learned from this production was how important Henry VI, part 3 is to Richard III. It is essential to Richard’s backstory. It explains who all these people at the beginning of “Richard III” are: why they are quarreling, why they hate each other, and who that crazy woman is who roams the castle ranting curses at people. See them all. See them now.

Hamlet / John Gielgud (1964)
Hamlet / Gregory Doren (2009)

In 1963 Richard Burton attacked the title role in a Broadway production directed by John Gielgud. This movie is a film of one of the actual nights with the sounds of the New York audience very much in evidence. Burton’s voice and portrayal are very muscular and masculine. The Gregory Doren film, starring David Tennant (the tenth Doctor on “Doctor Who”) and Patrick Stewart as King Claudius, is a film of a stage production that played to critical acclaim and sold-out houses during one summer at the Globe in Stratford. When the play moved to London’s West End in the Fall, the entire run of the play was booked between 6:00 am and lunchtime on the first day tickets were available. From the evidence of this film, the support was deserved. Nothing is done by rote. Every character, his/her motivation, thoughts and feelings have been carefully re-thought in light of modern psychology and acting styles. Tennant gives us a Hamlet for this time in history. Patrick Stewart is the best King Claudius I have ever seen. Period. Very, very highly recommended.

King Lear / Edwin Sherin (1974). This was filmed live in front of an audience as part of Joseph Papp’s New York Shakespeare Festival at an outdoor theater in Central Park. James Earl Jones plays the title King and, as far as I am concerned, he is definitive until proven otherwise. His towering portrayal of Lear is of a commanding man who, because of slights and degradations both real and imagined that come from those closest to him, is reduced to a sad and impotent figure still trying to hold on to some majesty. Raul Julia makes a fine sarcastic villain in Edmund. Rosalind Cash plays the eldest evil daughter, Goneril, while Lee Chamberlin (most well known for her seasons paired with Morgan Freeman on “The Electric Company”) essays Cordelia. Paul Sorvino is Gloucester; Rene Auberjonois, Edgar. As in all productions I admire, there is truthfulness in acting (in a modern sense) and the text is respected. Wonderful.

A Performance Of Macbeth / Philip Casson (1979). Ian McKellen steps up as the noble Thane who is tempted into murder. His performance stands with one foot in the older declamatory style but with another in modern style, especially in those moments of heightened tension. Roger Rees is a standout as Malcolm. Ian McDiarmid (Emperor Palpatine!) doubles as a nobleman, Ross, and scores as the Porter in the famous comedy interruption that comes between the King’s murder and its discovery. Judi Dench, though, as Lady Macbeth is the true revelation of this production. It is magnificence, indeed. She digs into the character with all her ambiguities, forcefulness, doubts and guilt.

The Tempest / Julie Taymor (2010). In switching protagonist’s gender from Prospero to Prospera and getting Helen Mirren to play the part, Taymor came up with a great idea which works. One reason is that turning Prospera/Miranda into a mother/daughter relationship makes a lot of sense and fits the lines they are given to speak. Mirren is terrific as are fellow Brits Alfred, Tom Conti, Alan Cumming, and Ben Whishaw. American actors David Strathairn and Chris Cooper comport themselves like experienced Shakespeareans, which they may very well be. This was my first encounter with Russell Brand. Speaking lines from “The Tempest” made him barely tolerable. This is a solid and very enjoyable version of the Jacobean masterwork.