Movies Inspired by Shakespeare - Films Based on William Shakespeare's Plays
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15 Movies You Won't Believe Were Inspired by Shakespeare
Including zombies, mobsters, and, yes, The Lion King.
The Bard abides! Joel Coen’s The Tragedy of Macbeth is the latest to bring Shakespeare to the screen, but it certainly isn't the only one. These centuries’-old plays have inspired hundreds of films, many direct adaptations, and some entirely unexpected. Here are 15 that cleverly take Shakespeare where he has never gone before, from the Wild West to outer space and even high school.
This grade-A adaptation of Taming of the Shrew is a Millennial touchstone with a Most Likely to Succeed young cast. Julia Stiles stars as the fiercely-strung Kat, whose popular younger sister Bianca (Larisa Oleynik) is forbidden by their single father (Larry Miller) to date until Kat does. Enter high school bad boy Patrick (Heath Ledger in his first American film), who is hired by Cameron (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) to woo Kat with some spirit so he can take Bianca to the prom.
A Thousand Acres, based on Jane Smiley’s Pulitzer Prize-winning novel, reimagines King Lear as the power struggle between two of three sisters (the third wants no part of it) for control of their father’s thousand-acre Iowa farm. Also taking inspiration from Lear? Promethean Japanese director Akira Kurosawa with his masterpiece historical epic Ran about a feudal lord and his three sons vying for control of it.
Perhaps best known for Robby the Robot, this sci-fi classic is a—wait for it—out of this world re-imagining of The Tempest, with Walter Pidgeon’s Dr. Morbius standing in for Prospero, who lives on a remote planet with his daughter (Anne Francis). Surely that can’t be Leslie Nielsen leading a team to rescue the long missing Morbius; yes, that is Nielsen…and don’t call me Shirley.
A spoonful of sugar helps the Shakespeare go down. Twelfth Night inspired 1985's Just One of the Guys, starring Joyce Hyser as an aspiring journalist stymied by sexism, who enrolls at a rival high school to try life as a boy. Sound familiar? Twelfth Night also serves as the inspiration for 2006's She's The Man, a rom-com starring Amanda Bynes as Viola, a prep school soccer player who believes she can play with the guys.
The Bard goes Broadway with this Cole Porter musical also inspired by Taming of the Shrew. Howard Keel and Kathryn Grayson get their Petruchio and Katherine on as Fred and Lilli, an acting couple appearing in a musical version of—you guessed it—Taming of the Shrew.
This Oscar-winning Disney animated classic takes its inspiration from one of Shakespeare’s signature plays. Let’s get out our Hamlet checklist: Beloved king, check; Evil brother who murders him, check; Spirit father who urges his son the prince to reclaim his birthright, check. Singing Meerkat and warthog sidekicks? Well, like the song says, "Hakuna Matata."
Perhaps the most stealth Shakespeare on this list is this rollicking John Wayne western that takes its inspiration from The Taming of the Shrew. Shakespeare’s original has some classic dialogue, but nothing with the punch of Wayne’s classic, oft-quoted exchange with a troublesome homesteader: "Pilgrim, you caused a lot of trouble this morning, might have got somebody killed... and somebody oughta belt you in the mouth. But I won't. I won't… the hell I won't."
William Reilly’s 1990 crime drama takes a stab at Macbeth, with John Turturro as Battaglia, a rising star in the D’Amico crime family. But his rise is not fast enough to suit his wife (Katherine Borowitz). "All of these guys is of woman born," Battaglia states. "They can’t do shit to me." Shakespeare couldn’t have said it better.
The film that put director Gus Van Sant on the map takes its cue from both parts of Henry IV and Henry V. River Phoenix stars as Mike, a drifter and sex worker, with Keanu Reeves as Scott Favor, a fellow hustler, but from a wealthy family. William Richert also appears as the Falstaffian mentor figure, Bob.
Hamlet or not Hamlet, that is the question. We may be really reaching here, but this comedy cult classic starring Rick Moranis and Dave Thomas as bickering and bantering brothers Bob and Doug McKenzie, the breakout SCTV characters, takes place at Elsinore brewery, so that’s good enough for us.
Shakespeare’s romantic tragedy of doomed lovers Romeo and Juliet has proven to be fertile ground for adaptation, perhaps most famously with the Tony-winning Broadway musical, West Side Story. The story was adapted for the screen in both 1963 and 2021and recast the star-crossed lovers from rival families as culture-crossed lovers; she, the sister of a leader of the Puerto Rican gang, the Sharks and he a white former member of the rival gang, the Sharks. The cult favorite Warm Bodies takes a more fantastic approach: Julie is human; R is a zombie. The animated and more family-friendly Gnomeo and Juliet boasts a more fairy tale ending in which two garden gnomes from rival Stratford-upon-Avon neighbors live happily ever after.
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