Adrian's Top Five
Five of what I think are the best film adaptations of Shakespeare's plays.
There are a few subjects I love to teach. I’m a history-nerd and a Howard Zinn-ophile, so I love teaching my fifth-graders about the American Revolution, especially from the perspective of those marginalized by society.1 I love teaching my students creative writing and poetry. Thanks to John Warner, I’ve discovered a new love of non-fiction writing experiences. However, if I could only teach one subject, I would choose Shakespeare. In college, my wife and I would attend summer plays performed by the Colorado Shakespeare Festival. Once our kids were a bit older, we would take them to see any play we thought they would enjoy. One summer, I even convinced my students’ parents to allow me to organize a non-sanctioned field trip to see Shakespeare performed on the stage. It was a great experience!
Although The Bard’s birthday (and DOD) isn’t until April, I decided to rank order my favorite film adaptations that I show my students when teaching Shakespeare’s plays.
5. Twelfth Night, or What You Will (1996)
Twelfth Night is my go-to play for introducing Shakespeare to students. It has a hilarious plot, a crazy love triangle, dueling, and incredible performances by Helena Bonham Carter as Olivia and Sir Ben Kingsley as Feste. If you are looking for a good introductory resource for teaching Twelfth Night, I recommend the resources of the Folger Shakespeare Library. They have incredible lessons for teachers, including lesson plans, activities, and teacher resource guides for many of Shakespeare’s plays.
4. Romeo + Juliet (1996)
When Baz Luhrmann adapted Romeo and Juliet, setting it in mid-90s LA, I was thrilled. I saw it in the theater and remember my date jumping to grab my left bicep in the final scene. Since then, I have used this adaptation to show my students a number of scenes, including when the star-crossed lovers meet, the balcony scene and the gas station scene (Do you bite your thumb at us, sir?) Bonus: It has a killer 90s soundtrack!
3. The Taming of the Shrew (1967)
If I be waspish, best beware my sting.
Katherina, Act 2, Scene 1
I can’t help it. When I think of Katherina and Petruchio, I think of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. They are perfectly cast in their roles as dueling characters. For obvious reasons, I’ve never taught the entire play of Taming of the Shrew to my fifth-graders. However, I do love showing them scenes of Petruchio and Kate engaging in their remarkable battle of wits. When studying figurative language, their lengthy verbal duels, with elaborate puns, each one building beautiful metaphors from the other's comments, is a great way to teach similes and metaphors!
2. Much Ado About Nothing (1993)
If you love a good Shakespearean witty war of words, then Benedick and Beatrice are the perfect pair. Whenever I hear someone say that they just don’t get Shakespeare, I often refer them to this film adaptation. With any Shakespeare play, you need to see it performed to fully appreciate how the language moves the plot and develops the characters. Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson are two of my favorite Shakespearean actors; they make Shakespeare’s language magically come alive.
Fifth-graders especially love the love-hate relationship between Benedick and Beatrice. They get so invested in watching Don Pedro and the other characters trick them into falling love with each other. Love me? Why, it must be requited! Branagh’s delivery of one of my favorite lines is incredible! He is such an incredible orator.
1. Hamlet (1996)
Hamlet is my favorite Shakespeare play. Branagh’s adaptation is a masterpiece! Now, I’m no film critic,2 but I adore this film. It was shot in 70 mm film on location at Blenheim Palace as the exterior for Elsinore Castle. The staging is incredible3. The costumes are incredible. The acting is phenomenal, including legendary Shakespearean actors such as Derek Jacobi as Claudius, Brian Blessed as the Ghost of Hamlet, and Dame Judi Dench as Hecuba. There are so many recognizable faces in this film. Billy Crystal is fantastic as the First Gravedigger and Kate Winslet’s Ophelia is brilliantly mad. Richard Attenborough has a cameo as the English Ambassador, while Jack Lemmon, Robin Williams, and Rufus Sewell also make appearances.
In 1996, Branagh won Best Adapted Screenplay for the film. This film is not for the faint of heart. The play is over 4000 lines and Branagh decided to adapt the entire play for the film, clocking in at 242 minutes. Here is Branagh discussing making the film.
When I teach Hamlet, I use this adaptation in class. I love teaching Hamlet! The plot is so engaging for ten-year-olds, that they immediately get hooked. They love watching Hamlet slowly go insane (or does he?) as he seeks revenge for his father’s murder. What can Hamlet do? Who can he trust? Students love endlessly discussing the mysterious conspiracy, deception, and tragic consequences of Hamlet’s indecision.
There are so many resources to use when teaching Hamlet to your students. From Crash Course to No Fear Shakespeare to wonderful picture books of the play. If you only have one play to show students each year, I highly recommend it be Hamlet.
Wait! Where’s 10 Things I Hate About You? or Clueless? Yes, these are some of my favorite 90s movies, but I decided to limit the list to Shakespeare adaptations that use Shakespearean English. If not, I would have had to include Akira Kurosawas’s Ran and both the original and Spielberg’s adaptation of West Side Story.
This really should have been a Top 10 list so that I could have included A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1999), Othello (1995) and Henry V (1989). Branagh’s Iago is villainous, Laurence Fishburne as Othello gives me goosebumps every time, and I love Branagh’s Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more speech, even if it’s a bit grandiloquent.
What are some of your favorite Shakespeare plays, either to read or see performed on stage? Don’t think kids can handle reading and studying Shakespeare? Henry Oliver from The Common Reader does a much better job convincing you than I ever could.
If you teach Shakespeare, what are your favorite resources to help make the plays accessible to students? Which plays do you teach? Let me know in the comments!
Have a great week!
— Adrian
Resources
Being a teenager in the 90s (with a girlfriend whose father was a Shakespeare scholar and creative writing teacher) meant that I watched a lot of Shakespeare movies so that I could contribute at the dinner table. Why were there so many Shakespeare adaptations during that glorious decade? This video is fascinating!
To Teach or Not To Teach: Is Shakespeare Still Relevant to Today’s Students?
I appreciate how this article in The School Library Journal discusses why many high school teachers feel like they should abandon teaching Shakespeare. Yet, Shakespeare’s plays can “make spaces more identity-affirming and equity driven.”
BBC Bitesize | Shakespeare Resources
If you are looking for something you can use in your classroom tomorrow, scroll down to the BBC’s Shakespeare teacher resources. They have videos, plot summaries, activities, study guides, a much more for Macbeth, The Tempest, Romeo and Juliet, Twelfth Night, A Midsummer Night’s Dream, Much Ado About Nothing, Richard III and The Merchant of Venice.
Study Guide | Romeo + Juliet | ACMI
Check out this free study guide and questions from Australia's National Museum of Screen Culture (ACMI).
There are so many great ways to use this adaptation in the classroom. Here is another teacher’s guide from The Film Space.
In case I didn’t make a strong enough case for you to read Hamlet, here is a TED-Ed video explaining why understanding Hamlet’s humanity is so important.
Once again, Henry Oliver does a beautiful job of simply explaining why we should all be able to read and understand Shakespeare. Read, watch, act. It’s that simple!
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Want some more of Adrian’s Top 5? Check out a few of my archived posts.
One of my favorite resources is Howard Zinn’s A Young People’s History of the United States. If only I could get a class set of these books! Imagine the discussions we would have.
I would love to hear what someone with more expertise (perhaps Cole Haddon) has to say about this film.
I love that you put HAMLET as #1. Because that's where it belongs on any list of Shakespeare adaptations...though I think ROMEO + JULIET could vie for that spot in my world. I think both go a long way to making the Bard accessible to the masses.
I love this list! 10 Things I Hate About You (1999) is based on Shakespeare’s Taming of the Shrew, although not a direct adaptation as you’ve listed here. 🎭