- Movie Versions Of Macbeth Crossword
- Film Versions Of Macbeth
- Movie Versions Of Macbeth 1
- Movie Versions Of Macbeth
Joe MacBeth (UK, 1955) is a film noir resetting of the story as a gang war in Chicago. Ken Hughes director; Paul Douglas as Joe MacBeth; Ruth Roman as Lily Macbeth; Throne of Blood (a.k.a. Cobweb Castle or Kumonosu-jo) (Japan, 1957) is an adaptation of the Macbeth story to a Japanese setting.
- Macbeth (Michael Fassbender), Duke of Scotland, receives a prophecy from a trio of witches that one day he will become King of Scotland. Consumed by ambition and spurred to action by his wife Lady Macbeth (Marion Cotillard), Macbeth murders his king and takes the throne for himself.
- 18 Shakespeare Film Adaptations, Ranked From Worst To Best. By Julia Seales. June 27, 2016. The taglines for this movie were gross. Romeo and Juliet. Macbeth (2015) Emotional.
Promoting its review of the new movie version of Macbeth, the Daily Telegraph asked, on its front page: “Has Shakespeare ever been better on the big screen?”
Such a question is clearly intended to provoke a response, and the gist of mine, revealed in the personal Top 10 below, would be: yes, but not very often. In the arbitrary rules to which such surveys are prone, I have decided that a play can only be represented once (which turns out to be especially foul and unfair for Macbeth) and that directors are restricted to a single entry, in order to prevent the list being dominated by multiple cinematic Bardists such as Kenneth Branagh, Julie Taymor, Orson Welles and Laurence Olivier, although the last has the bigger problem of having been omitted completely.
I appreciate that this decision is controversial but my conclusion, after literally re-viewing the work, is that Olivier’s filmed Shakespeares have suffered from either changes in taste – which now rightly questions white actors making up for Othello – or by a subsequent superior piece: Branagh, though sometimes criticised for shadowing Olivier’s career, overshadowed him with movies of both Hamlet and Henry V.
The endurance of Shakespeare in theatre is mainly attributable to the magnificence of his language and the talent-defining roles offered to performers. But while the latter factor also applies to the cinematic versions – the desire of actors to record great stage roles is one reason that the shows have been filmed so often – the poetic speech can become problematic on screen, with the success of movie versions greatly depending on how they deal with the verse and soliloquies.
Conversely, though, the playwright’s structural decisions anticipated by three centuries many standard elements of film’s visual grammar – such as cross-cutting and location-hopping – and the Stratford dramatist’s frequent use of 17th-century special effects, such as ghosts and magic, has become progressively more appealing to a medium which, through digital technology, is ever more suited to illusion.
After which prologue, comes the countdown.
10.The Tempest (2010)
Among the visualisations of the island-exiled magician Prospero, I struggled to separate two finalists. In his magnificently wacky 1979 punk version, Derek Jarman applied casting (poet Heathcote Williams, singer Toyah Willcox) and soundtrack (Stormy Weather) unlikely to be found at the National Theatre, at least at that time. In contrast, Taymor made only one radical alteration for the 2010 version – Prospero becoming Prospera, played by Helen Mirren – otherwise offering a classically well-spoken and artily filmed account of the play which showcases Mirren’s vocal colours and Taymor’s visual panache and places it above the director’s other Shakespeare-based works, Titus (1999) and A Midsummer Night’s Dream (2014).
9. Othello (2001)
With the screen portrayals of the persecuted moor of Venice by Olivier (1965), Welles (1952) and Anthony Hopkins (1981), all disqualified by my law against cosmetic assistance, the bench-mark for naturalistic Othellos was Laurence Fishburne, opposite Kenneth Branagh as the scheming lieutenant Iago, in Oliver Parker’s Othello (1995). But, while that is the strongest account of the recognised text, the themes and implications of the play are most powerfully expressed for me in two modern-day updates both first seen in 2001: the Hollywood teen-flick O, which shifts the action to a high-school basketball team, and an adaptation made for ITV television under the original title, scripted by Andrew Davies. In the latter, Commander Othello is the first black leader of the London police force and Iago the frustrated deputy who connives against the boss and his wife, Desdemona. Powerfully acted by Eamonn Walker, Christopher Eccleston and Keeley Hawes, this is the Othello that most makes the play live for today.
8. Julius Caesar (1953)
US actors often draw a blank with iambic pentameters (with the recent exception of Kevin Spacey on stage) but Marlon Brando, in the days when he was still taking acting seriously, is an impressive Mark Antony in Joseph Mankiewicz’s vision of the Shakespeare work that has always spoken powerfully to the US, thanks to that country’s history of assassinations. A bonus is that the cast also includes John Gielgud as Cassius and James Mason as Brutus.
7. Chimes at Midnight (1965)
Although vulnerable to a stewards’ inquiry from purists on the grounds that it is not a Shakespeare play as such, Orson Welles’s anthology of scenes from four plays featuring Sir John Falstaff, with himself as the gluttonous knight, achieves the unlikely paradox of being a scholarly romp. It just edges, in the specialised category of history play mashups, The Hollow Crown (2012), the BBC’s medley of the Henries and Richards, with Simon Russell Beale a tremendous Falstaff.
6.Coriolanus (2011)
The recent popularity of filmed Shakespeare has been encouraged by the prevalence of English classic actors who also have Hollywood heft: Branagh, Mirren, Ian McKellen and, in this case, Ralph Fiennes, who chose to make his movie-directing debut by filming himself in a version of a play (WS’s second-best Roman political tragedy after Julius Caesar) in which he had appeared on stage. Cannily adapted by screenwriter John Logan, this Coriolanus, set in a present-day Italian state, is spoken with great clarity by a cast that also includes Vanessa Redgrave, and the battles are viscerally thrilling, with the presence of Gerard Butler from the 300 franchise acknowledging that the more combative plays in the canon may draw in some action-movie 15-24 audiences.
Movie Versions Of Macbeth Crossword
The 10 best modern takes on Shakespeare – in pictures
5. Macbeth (2015)
In answer to the Telegraph question: not, in my opinion, the best filmed Shakespeare ever, but impressively straight in at No 5 on release. While the war sequences nod vigorously (as with No 6) to the blood-thirsty younger audience, director Justin Kurzel also intelligently develops themes in the text of bereavement, trauma and faith, although relocating several interior scenes outdoors in order to show off the Scottish landscape. Michael Fassbender’s Macbeth achieves the perfect combination of clout and doubt, while Marion Cotillard is clear and moving despite the decision to downgrade the role of Lady Macbeth, possibly from a misguided fear of perpetuating a stereotype of the controlling wife. Though last to the party, this account easily takes the prize from the Orson Welles version of 1948 and Roman Polanski’s splatter-movie adaptation of 1971.
4. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
Super-purists might object to the inclusion of projects that replace the original text and even the title with contemporary language. This Gil Junger romcom, though, is a brilliantly original re-imagining of The Taming of The Shrew, as Heath Ledger’s Patrick Verona reluctantly woos the Kat Stratford of Julia Stiles in a story that miraculously transfers to a US high school the courtship conventions and contests of the original.
3.Hamlet (1996)
Teachers and students of A-level Englishmust annually give thanks to Branagh for a screen Hamlet that is unusually complete (justifying its four-hour length) and delivers narrative and language with immaculate classical clarity, not least in the director’s own handsome, haunted performance in the title role. Able to call in favours from all parts of the showbiz spectrum, Branagh casts actors you might expect (Derek Jacobi, Judi Dench) alongside many you wouldn’t: Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, Ken Dodd. The great US novelist John Updike credited this film with inspiring his Elsinore-sequel novel, Gertrude and Claudius.
2.Romeo and Juliet (1996)
Among productions that modernise the setting but preserve the original words, Joss Whedon’s low-budget Much Ado About Nothing (2012) is easily beaten in the final runoff by Baz Luhrmann’s invigorating shifting of the story of the Montagues and Capulets to the gang wars of Venice Beach, California. It can be argued that the Australian director had the advantages of a recognisable cinematic genre (teen tragedy) and the example of West Side Story, but his consistent finding of plausible modern interpretations for both story and speech manages to be simultaneously radical and respectful.
1.King Lear (1971)
The biggest loser from the stipulation that each play is represented only once is Akira Kurosawa, whose 1985 film Ran enthrallingly exported King Lear to the world of Japanese warlords. However, the clear victor in this category – and the whole competition – is Peter Brook’s magnificent black-and-white film adaptation of his 1962 RSC staging, with Paul Scofield as the king whose regime is ended by Daughtergate. Nine years closer to Lear’s likely real age than when he played the role on stage at 40, Scofield brings a musicality and depth of meaning to every line and also scores points between the words with scorched or scorching glances and grimaces. Fassbender, in the new Macbeth, looks to have learned from Scofield’s stillness and chilly diction.
I’m a pretty big nerd when it comes to Shakespeare, no matter how crazy his plays can get. I have my mom’s college copy of The Riverside Shakespeareon my bookshelf, and I sometimes take it out for a bit of light reading from time to time. This “light reading” usually turns into solo performances of my favorite Shakespearean monologues. Who hasn’t done a Lady M speech or two when insomnia strikes at 3 a.m.? Just me? Okay then, never mind...
The problem with reading Shakespeare is that it’s not meant to be read — it’s meant to be performed. There’s a reason why so many high schoolers dread the day they have to plod through Hamlet. They’re struggling to read words that are supposed to be spoken (shout out to all those awesome English teachers who forced us to do reader's theater for Shakespeare — you all are true stars).
For those who want to truly enjoy Shakespeare, but 1) aren't actors and 2) can't go to the Globe every night to see a show, there are movies based on Shakespeare's plays. By watching them, we can enjoy the works the way they were meant to be enjoyed — though, sadly, if we’re not watching the plays live we can’t yell at the actors like the peasants of the past. Darn.
In addition to making Shakespeare’s plays more accessible, film adaptations also show just how amazing his work really was. These stories are still relevant today, even when translated into different countries, time periods, or settings. And there are a lot of Shakespeare films out there. If you don’t even know where to begin, here’s a ranking to help you get started. To watch or not to watch, that is the question…
18. The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton star as Kate and Petruchio in this version of Taming of the Shrew. They have great chemistry, but Elizabeth Taylor's very serious delivery of Kate's final speech knocks the film down several notches for me (other actresses have given the speech a more sarcastic, wink-wink tone, playing up the comedy and staying true to Kate's spirit and strong character). Also, the taglines for this movie were gross.
17. Romeo and Juliet(2013)
This adaptation is pretty and sparkly and glamorous. It also changes Shakespeare's words. Yes, Romeo and Juliet has been adapted many times and subsequently changed around, but in this version, most of the lines are the same. So why change just some of them??? It was branded as Romeo and Juliet for 'the next generation,' but there are some writers whose words are timeless no matter your age. Shakespeare is one of them.
16. Hamlet (1948)
Laurence Olivier directed this version of Hamlet. He also played Hamlet. He also made a ton of changes to the script, cutting out entire characters, and had Eileen Herlie playing Hamlet's mother Gertrude even though she was eleven years younger than Olivier. So... there are a lot of things going on in this version.
15. Hamlet (1990)
Zeffirelli, an icon of the Shakespeare world, directed this version of Hamlet. It has a star-studded cast (Mel Gibson plays Hamlet, Glenn Close plays Gertrude, Helena Bonham Carter is Ophelia) and definitely plays up the vibes between Hamlet and Gertrude. You mostly remember this one, though, because Cher talks about it in Clueless.
14. Titus (1999)
Julie Taymor, another Shakespeare film icon, directed this adaptation of Titus Andronicus. Most would agree it's very well done, but I think most would also agree that the subject matter would stop you from rewatching it over and over. And it will also stop you from ever eating pie again.
13. A Midsummer Night's Dream (1968)
Judi Dench plays Titania in this adaptation, and she should just be a queen forever because she's a star. Overall, though, the quick pace and lack of laughs make this version less memorable.
12. Othello (1995)
Though it adds a few scenes that aren't in the play (and you can tell how I feel about unnecessary additions or subtractions of Shakespeare's work), this is a solid adaptation of Othello. Laurence Fishburne is excellent in the titular role, and iconic Shakespeare actor Kenneth Branagh is great as usual in the role of Iago.
11. Romeo + Juliet(1996)
Baz Luhrmann. Leo DiCaprio. Claire Danes. You probably watched this modernized version of Romeo and Juliet a lot during your teenage years. It's worth going back for Mercutio, who's the real star.
10. Much Ado About Nothing (2012)
Joss Whedon's black and white adaptation of this classic Shakespeare comedy is the perfect film to watch on a calm summer night. It's set in modern times, but retains Shakespeare's original script, and even has original music for two songs Shakespeare wrote into the play. If you're a Whedon fan, you won't be disappointed.
9. Macbeth(2015)
Emotional and visually beautiful, this adaptation of one of Shakespeare's most well-known works is definitely worth a watch. And it stars Michael Fassbender and Marion Cotillard, in case you needed more encouragement to watch it.
8. The Tempest (2010)
Prospero becomes Prospera in this Julie Taymor-directed adaptation of The Tempest, starring Helen Mirren. It's visually stunning, like all Taymor's projects, and the twist keeps the story fresh and interesting. This is one of Shakespeare's more bizarre tales, but if anyone can handle telling it, it's Taymor.
7. Richard III (1995)
This adaptation is set in 1930s Britain. It stars Ian McKellen. It's extremely well done. Go watch it.
6. 10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
The Taming of the Shrew gets remade into a '90s teen movie, and it's fantastic. The lines may be different, but the spirit of the original play is there. And if you listen closely, you'll hear one 'I burn, I pine, I perish.'
5. Hamlet(1996)
Kenneth Branagh knows Shakespeare, which is why his version of Hamlet is my favorite. He shines as the titular role, and the star-studded cast even includes the talented Kate Winslet as Ophelia. It's visually stunning, unabridged, and just all around extremely well done.
Film Versions Of Macbeth
4. She's The Man(2006)
Movie Versions Of Macbeth 1
Teen movies mix well with Shakespeare, apparently. Twelfth Night becomes She's the Manin this modern adaptation. Amanda Bynes is hilarious as the soccer-playing, feminist Viola — I like cheese, and I like this movie.
3. Shakespeare In Love (1998)
I'm cheating by putting this movie on here, because it's not ~really~ an adaptation — it's an imagining of Shakespeare's inspiration for Twelfth Night. But it also kind of retells Twelfth Night and Romeo and Juliet. It's equal parts funny and tragic and romantic, and I think Shakespeare would approve.
2. Romeo and Juliet (1968)
You had to watch this in high school, and you couldn't get over how much Romeo looked like Zac Efron. Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet will always be iconic.
1. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
Movie Versions Of Macbeth
What can I say, I love Kenneth Branagh. In my mind, his beautiful adaptation of Much Ado About Nothing is the perfect Shakespeare film. It's funny and bittersweet. Emma Thompson and Branagh have the perfect banter. The whole thing is shot in Tuscany, and it's just so beautiful that it will make you want to sit on a hillside reading sonnets forever.
Images: Columbia Pictures (3), Relativity Media (1), Universal-International (1), Warner Bros. (1), Fox Searchlight Pictures (1), CBS (1), 20th Century Fox (1), Lionsgate (1), The Weinstein Company (1), Walt Disney Studios (1), United Artists (1), Buena Vista Pictures (1), DreamWorks Pictures (1), Miramax Films (2), Paramount Pictures (1), The Samuel Goldwyn Company (1)