A Definitive List of the Best Shakespeare Film Adaptations

With Willard White as Othello and Ian McKellen as Iago, this is a must-see production. Adapted from a stage version, this is very clearly a play that was reformatted for television release. They move the setting to Cyprus, and all of the characters look like they stepped out of the American Civil War. If you’re like me and first found Ian McKellen as Gandalf and Magneto, it’s extremely exciting to see him as an intensely conniving villain. Sir Willard White is a similarly electrifying actor who brings a nuanced performance to the role of Othello. What else can I say? British actors are generally very good at Shakespeare.

This version sets itself in the period of the original play and hews closely to the classic ideal of a Shakespeare production. However, it was sort of an outlier at the time because it was the first production to use teenage actors close to the age that they were supposed to be portraying, hence its major popularity among teenagers. Leonard Whiting and Olivia Hussey have amazing chemistry and speak the lines with a kind of ease that makes the movie come alive.

Although Whedon has been continuously chipping away at his reputation for the past several years, this adaptation of “Much Ado” still numbers among my favorites. Shot in black and white in 12 days, the movie has an intimacy that often missing when film productions go hard on the period set design. Set in modern times with a bunch of favorite actors from Firefly, Avengers, and Angel, the movie sticks close to the original characters and language. Since the actors seem so comfortable with each other, it really does feel like a weekend trip where everyone gets a little drunk and loose. There’s very little capital-A acting (outside of the one scene where it’s revealed that Hero might have had sex) so it’s a perfect cozy couch watch.

Shakespeare’s bloodiest revenge play (Titus Andronicus) gets the surrealist treatment from Julie Taymor. Starring Anthony Hopkins, Jessica Lange, Alan Cumming, and a bunch of puppets, the movie goes hard on the generational trauma of war and how it breeds constant bloodshed, even off the battlefield. Taymor also plays with presentation, confusing her audience about the time period and setting. There isn’t a happy ending waiting at the end of all of this bloody business, but it’s a good tragedy to watch on a dark and stormy night.

If you’re in the mood for a cinephile, extra dramatic, war tragedy sort of movie, this is the one for you. Adapted from King Lear, Kurosawa’s interpretation has three sons who turn against their aging warlord father, Ichimonji Hidetora. Despite the gender swap, the story hews pretty closely to the tragic story of the original play. Kurosawa focuses in on the horrors of war and the general chaos that power causes. The samurai imagery is also hugely influential—it’s one of those movies that rewards many watches, like Shakespeare rewards rereads.

Based on the play by Tom Stoppard, this film adaptation takes the perspective of the side characters who die offstage in Hamlet. If you’ve ever mocked Hamlet for having wild plans and no follow through, this is probably the movie for you. Rosencrantz (Gary Oldman) and Guildenstern (Tim Roth) have big parts to play in Hamlet, but it’s mostly offstage. This is an absurdist take on Hamlet and the horror of existence in general. Most of what happens in the play occurs in between Hamlet scenes from Rosencrantz’s and Guildenstern’s perspective, so it’s perfect for true Hamlet heads.

This cartoon lion epic is the definitive Hamlet interpretation of the 20th century. That might be an overstatement, but this is certainly among the most widely known. Moving the drama of Elsinore to the Pride Lands, the movie starts with a bit more explanation about the kingdom and why we should care about the father Mufasa’s death that kicks Simba into action, as opposed to starting with Hamlet’s depression. Jeremy Irons as Scar takes the Claudius character in both hilarious and evil directions, and he’s afforded more explanation for his evil plan in the iconic song “Be Prepared.” For this adaptation, they chose to focus mostly on the family drama and eschew most of Hamlet’s failed plans in Simba’s journey—he fights Scar and the hyenas directly in the first place instead of testing Scar with a play (although I would have loved to see Simba set up a play to incite guilt in Scar and prove his evil).

Twelfth Night gets a pretty faithful adaptation in the form of this high school comedy. The cross-dressing premise leads to delightfully overdone explorations of boys vs. girls, especially in Amanda Bynes’s performance as Viola Hastings. This movie that furthered the rise of Channing Tatum as Duke Orsino, which is a great service. Viola impersonates her brother Sebastian for two weeks in order to play soccer at Illyria, and her rise to popularity as her brother is also pretty fun and campy. At the end, the point is that Viola can not only play soccer as well as the boys, but also that being a boy for a little bit helped her be more comfortable as a girl.

This reimagining of The Taming of the Shrew is much easier and more pleasant to watch than a straight reading of the play. Patrick Verona (Health Ledger) is a far more handsome and sympathetic version of Petruchio, and Kat (Julia Stiles) gets to have more adventures and explanations about what she wants and who she is outside of her relationship and prickly personality. It’s a teen classic for good reason, with some great Shakespeare nerd jokes thrown in.