--- title: Will Power: 10 Great Shakespeare Movies description: With Joss Whedon's 'Much Ado About Nothing' in theaters, we take a look back at 10 memorable big-screen adaptations of William Shakespeare plays canonical: https://time.com/archive/7118653/will-power-10-great-shakespeare-movies/ author: TIME Staff article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2013-06-10T09:45:18.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-03-16T05:39:36.771Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Will Power: 10 Great Shakespeare Movies og:description: With Joss Whedon's 'Much Ado About Nothing' in theaters, we take a look back at 10 memorable big-screen adaptations of William Shakespeare plays og:url: https://time.com/archive/7118653/will-power-10-great-shakespeare-movies/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc04fa101b69a6ad/698a8ec7db2987c5952714c3/richard-iii.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1200 og:image:height: 675 og:image:alt: Ian McKellen in Richard III og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Will Power: 10 Great Shakespeare Movies twitter:description: With Joss Whedon's 'Much Ado About Nothing' in theaters, we take a look back at 10 memorable big-screen adaptations of William Shakespeare plays twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc04fa101b69a6ad/698a8ec7db2987c5952714c3/richard-iii.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  * [Entertainment](/section/entertainment/) # Will Power: 10 Great Shakespeare Movies > Sponsored content. 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William Shakespeare wrote 38 plays — and perhaps a couple more for which there's circumstantial historical evidence, but no surviving copies. The magnitude and influence of the Bard's output, even if we leave aside the brilliance of his sonnets, cement his reputation as the single greatest writer the English-speaking world has produced. (Note to those who believe that Francis Bacon, Christopher Marlowe or other Elizabethan scribes penned some or all of the works: your arguments are compelling. They're also wrong.) But as moving as Shakespeare's plays can be when seen on stage, it's arguably in the movies that the breadth of his genius is allowed its most vibrant, varied expression. Virtually every season brings a new film version of one (or more) of his comedies, histories and tragedies — from strictly literal costume dramas to radically updated adaptations that scandalize Shakespeare purists — and, every once in a while, breathe new life into the 400-year-old texts.



The most recent of these films, Joss Whedon's low-budget, marvelously paced (108 minutes!) Much Ado About Nothing, is notable not only for the frugality of its execution — it was shot in 12 days, in black and white, at Whedon's Santa Monica home.



Here, in light of Whedon's bold foray into the genre, TIME counts down the 10 greatest Shakespeare films of all time. And for those who disagree? At the risk of butchering one of the Bard's greatest lines: Speak what you feel, folks, not what you ought to say … in the comments. bdcosgrove ## Richard III (1995) 
One of most purely entertaining of all Shakespeare films, Richard Loncraine's Richard III is a giddy, thrilling explication of evil. In one of his greatest screen roles, Ian McKellen is reptilian and seductive as the deformed Richard: when he addresses the camera directly, as he does throughout the film, it's difficult not to sense the clammy allure that being very, very bad has for him. Set in an alternate England that feels very much like 1930s Nazi Germany, the film moves like an express train, and when it's over the viewer feels exhausted and — having spent so much time in the presence of McKellen's lizard king — perhaps a little dirty.



See also: Laurence Olivier's Richard III (1955), a quite good movie that's especially notable for Olivier's characterization (and vocalization) of Richard — a persona that John Lydon claimed inspired his own twistedly charming alter ego, Johnny Rotten. bdcosgrove ## West Side Story (1961) 
Above and beyond the genius move of setting a modern Romeo and Juliet among the gangs of 1960s New York, West Side Story is a perfect storm of theatrical and cinematic talent. Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, with a screenplay by Ernest Lehman (the man who wrote North by Northwest!) and that immortal score by Sondheim and Bernstein, the movie pays tribute to Shakespeare by treating his 1590s tragedy as 20th-century melodrama — and creating a second masterpiece from the first. Some of the film's elements haven't aged as well as others (Natalie Wood is not Puerto Rican, and she never will be), but for sheer emotional sweep, few adaptations of the Bard can touch it. Don't trust anyone who doesn't like this movie. Just. Don't.



See also: Baz Luhrmann's Romeo + Juliet (1996) starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes is a visually imaginative take on the story (although far too self-consciously hip for some tastes) while Franco Zefferelli's 1968 version will always hold a special place in the hearts of teens everywhere for its brief but quite excellent nudity. bdcosgrove ## Coriolanus (2011) 
Ralph Fiennes is an actor who can seethe with the best of them, and in this film — which he directed; the screenplay's by John Logan — he plays a man who appears to be on intimate terms with rage. When he and Gerard Butler share scenes together, meanwhile, the testosterone is so thick it threatens to distract from Shakespeare's hypnotic language. But what's ultimately most riveting about Coriolanus is that, as one of those Shakespeare plays that hardly anyone, even English majors, ever reads, it feels wholly and bracingly new. Unlike the experience most of us have while watching Hamlet or Lear or A Midsummer Night's Dream or The Merchant of Venice, while watching Coriolanus we don't know what's going to happen next; we only know that, with Fiennes, it will be well worth seeing, and hearing.



See also: Julie Taymor's adventurous, blood-spattered and, at times, woefully pretentious Titus (1999). bdcosgrove ## Ran (1985) 
Akira Kurosawa's adaptation of King Lear — made three decades after the great director's harrowing take on Macbeth in 1957's Throne of Blood — is an overwhelming movie experience. What sets Ran apart from all the other cinematic Lears (and weirdly, there aren't that many good ones) is the audacious scale of Kurosawa's vision, and the masterful, sorcerer-like control he wields over monumental battles scenes and penetrating moments of intense personal grief, alike. If you've seen Ran before, see it again. If you've never seen it, see it now. See it on the big screen, if at all possible. But see it.



See also: Richard Eyre's searing 1998 Lear, an excellent BBC-WGHBH production that aired on Masterpiece Theater in the States, starring Ian Holm. bdcosgrove ## Macbeth (1948) 
No major acting and directing talent in movie history had as uneven a career behind and in front of the camera as Orson Welles. The man responsible for masterpieces like Citizen Kane and Touch of Evil (and the movie-stealing small role of Harry Lime in The Third Man) struggled mightily to maintain control over projects that got away from him (Othello, Don Quixote) and, despite the "genius" label hung on him in his early 20s, continually had to scrape, beg and borrow money for the films he wanted to make. His Macbeth, meanwhile, is a creepy, atmospheric roller coaster of dark magic and murder, and worth seeing for the Weird Sisters alone — as frightening a trio of hags as any of us is ever likely to see. If we're lucky.



See also: Billy Morrissette's bizarro, contemporary Scotland Pa. (2001), with Christopher Walken as "Lieutenant McDuff." bdcosgrove ## Henry V (1989) 
Kenneth Branagh has been around long enough by now that some of his earliest starring film roles have something almost quaint about them. But there's nothing at all quaint about his Henry V. Both the film, which he directed, and his performance as Henry are so self-assured and spirited that even his St. Crispin's Day speech, delivered against a predictable backdrop of heroic strings and horns, still manages to inspire. Above all, one senses Branagh's — and the whole cast's — unabashed love for Shakespeare. Then again, offered the chance to give voice to words like those in the "band of brothers" speech, who can blame them?



See also: Olivier's 1944 version and Gus Van Sant's at-once gritty and ethereal My Own Private Idaho. bdcosgrove ## Forbidden Planet (1956) 
Loosely based on The Tempest, the 1956 sci-fi classic still feels bold and unexpected in its conception today, seven decades after it was first released. But what lands Forbidden Planet a spot on this list is the elegance with which director Fred Wilcox and writers Cyril Hume, Irving Block and Allen Adler manage to translate the eerie beauty and unease that defines what might well have been the last play Shakespeare ever wrote.



See also: Derek Jarman's deeply weird and sexy Tempest (1979), starring Hearthcote Williams as Prospero and Karl Johnson as Ariel, the "airy spirit."



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bdcosgrove ## Julius Caesar (1953) 
In its review of Joseph L. Mankiewicz's Julius Caesar TIME magazine called it "the best Shakespeare that Hollywood has yet produced." That's no longer true, of course: in the 60 years since its release, Hollywood (not to mention England, Japan and other moviemaking meccas) has surpassed Caesar with several stronger productions of other plays. But even today, this occasionally overwrought, frequently magnificent movie remains both formidable and (dare we say it?) fun. The cast is superb — John Gielgud, James Mason, Greer Garson, and Oscar-nominated Marlon Brando as Mark Antony — while Mankiewicz gets out of the way often enough to let the Bard shine through.



See also: The 1971 version starring Charlton Heston, John Gielgud, Jason Robards and many other "name" actors. Not because it's good, but because it's so mind-bendingly bad. A seminar in how not to make a Shakespeare movie. Fie, fie! bdcosgrove ## Much Ado About Nothing (1993) 
Star-studded and bursting with energy, Branagh's 1993 Much Ado might be the single best screen version of any of Shakespeare's comedies — and that's saying something, considering how many strong films have been made from As You Like It, A Midsummer Night's Dream, The Taming of the Shrew and the rest. But forget all the other talent on screen: the movie is stolen by the magnificent Emma Thompson, who was seemingly born to play the strong, smart, funny Beatrice and whose rendition of the plays' famous "Oh, god, that I were a man, I would eat his heart in the marketplace!" speech is absolutely hair-raising.



See also: Whedon's, of course. Alas, there aren't that many worthwhile big-screen versions of this rambunctious play. bdcosgrove ## Hamlet (1948) 
This Hamlet, which earned Laurence Olivier two Oscars, for Best Picture and Best Actor, is one of the most intensely (and self-admittedly) psychological film productions ever made of any classic play. At two-and-a-half hours, it's also long — despite the fact that Olivier excised significant characters from the text, including Rosencrantz and Guildenstern entirely. But long or not, this is a fascinating and rewarding film; watching a lithe, relatively young, obviously fully invested Olivier tackle this most complex of all Shakespeare's roles is like watching a legendary athlete in his prime. No one else can touch him.



See also: The BBCs' 1980 version, starring Derek Jacobi, is terrific, as is Kenneth Branagh's stellar 1996 production, in which Jacobi plays Claudius, and Julie Christie is the most seductive Gertrude ever. bdcosgrove ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118653/will-power-10-great-shakespeare-movies/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118653/will-power-10-great-shakespeare-movies/"},"headline":"Will Power: 10 Great Shakespeare Movies","datePublished":"2013-06-10T09:45:18.000Z","dateModified":"2026-03-16T05:39:36.771Z","description":"With Joss Whedon's 'Much Ado About Nothing' in theaters, we take a look back at 10 memorable big-screen adaptations of William Shakespeare plays","url":"https://time.com/archive/7118653/will-power-10-great-shakespeare-movies/","keywords":[],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc04fa101b69a6ad/698a8ec7db2987c5952714c3/richard-iii.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"TIME Staff","url":"https://time.com/author/time-staff/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/bltcc04fa101b69a6ad/698a8ec7db2987c5952714c3/richard-iii.jpeg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Ian McKellen in Richard III","caption":"","creditText":"United Artists","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/archive/7118653/will-power-10-great-shakespeare-movies/","name":"Will Power: 10 Great Shakespeare Movies"}}]}] ```