Do you like Shakespeare? (3 Viewers)

[Geldo]

What a great thread! Love the OP and had that same Eureka moment with Shakespeare myself while reading Anthony's tribute to the dead Caesar.
Elizabethan English is certainly a tough one but we should never forget the man's incredible influence on modern story-telling:

Romeo and Juliet = West Side Story
King Lear = Kurosawa's magnificent samurai epic 'Ran'
Hamlet = The Lion King
The Tempest = Forbidden Planet

• The magnificent tormented characters: Richard III, Lady Macbeth, Falstaff, Hamlet...
• The incredible speeches: Hamlet's Soliloquy, Henry V's rousing battlefield addresses.
• The unforgettable one-liners: Oh what light from yonder window breaks; the lady doth protest too much; We happy few, we band of brothers....

Discovering the real meaning of the words makes it come alive even more:
"Once more unto the breach, dear friends, once more;
Or close the wall up with our English dead....
I see you stand like greyhounds in the slips,
Straining upon the start. The game's afoot:
Follow your spirit, and upon this charge
Cry 'God for Harry, England, and Saint George!'

The breach was the crack in the wall of a castle and those rushing through it faced near certain death as they would face a reign of arrows, boiling oil, fierce front-line defenders....but the first through the breach also got honours, titles, the pick of the spoils....high stakes, high risks. The imagery of blood-spattered battle-hardened vets armed with swords straining in the slips like salivating greyhounds ready at any moment to spring to life and chase their prey to its death is incredible.
And then God for Harry, England and St George....for your king, your country and for God. (Of course no mention of the Welsh archers who won most of Tudor England's battles but I digress)

Shakespeare has dominated literature, film, and even our interpretation of history for centuries. he may be occasionally unfathomable but he is indeed a master of the story-telling art.

 

[soupcan dan]

'Pleasure and action make the hours seem short'

 

[Zack Lee]

good adaptations, where forth art thou.

 

[livefromDC]

I get it. I respect it. I don't dislike it. Yet still not a big fan.

They make a decent rod and reel. I have several ugly sticks that I've had for years. My son has a few ugly sticks also. I bought him a $200 Lew's bait caster last year and can't tell you I notice a huge difference between it and some of the Shakespeare stuff I have.

Lord what fools these mortals be!

I didn't see "A Midsummer Night's Dream" posted yet. That's a favorite of mine. It was a highlight of my time in DC to go to an outdoor production of it every year.

 

[Consigliere]

Big fan here. Everybody talks about the comedies and the big three tragedies. But the Histories are my favorite. As said above, you need really good actors to do them right. Richard III and Henry IV part I are particularly good. If you are ever in Atlanta (for a Saints game) try the Shakespeare Tavern, it is fairly close to their Mercedes Dome. You can eat and drink during the performance and the food/drink is far better than that in their Dome.

 

[GeauxWhoDats]

Shakespeare? F that guy. What a hack.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

good adaptations, where forth art thou.

Was that rhetorical?
Scotland PA is an incredible adaptation of the Scottish play

 

[Xeno]

good adaptations, where forth art thou.

Any of the Kenneth Branagh adaptations if you want something that stays as true to the source as possible.

Romeo + Juliet is an excellent musical adaptation with a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

There's a WW2 adaptation of Richard III with Ian McKellen as Richard III and Robert Downey Jr. Without a doubt the best adaptation of the line, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

Titus with Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus is also very, very good. The opening scene gives me chills.

There's a decent modern adaptation of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke as Hamlet.

I'm definitely forgetting a bunch but those are all solid movie adaptations.

 

[Boy_of_wonder75]

and you are correct

I assigned (yes, I give summer reading to my kids) The Piano Lesson to

Any of the Kenneth Branagh adaptations if you want something that stays as true to the source as possible.

Romeo + Juliet is an excellent musical adaptation with a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

There's a WW2 adaptation of Richard III with Ian McKellen as Richard III and Robert Downey Jr. Without a doubt the best adaptation of the line, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

Titus with Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus is also very, very good. The opening scene gives me chills.

There's a decent modern adaptation of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke as Hamlet.

I'm definitely forgetting a bunch but those are all solid movie adaptations.

The Lion King was a pretty good Hamlet.

 

[Optimus Prime]

Wasn't there some debate/controversy/knife fights over whether or not Shakespeare actually was the one who wrote the plays?

 

[Xeno]

I assigned (yes, I give summer reading to my kids) The Piano Lesson to

The Lion King was a pretty good Hamlet.

I both agree and disagree lol. I agree, The Lion King is very much Hamlet but it also strays far enough that I don't consider it an adaptation in the same sense as what I listed. Those all (mostly) use the original script and adapt the setting. Well, except for the Branaghs and Titus. Those are just straight up make the play into a movie. And Romeo + Juliet is unique with its setting, anachronisms and that they managed to turn it into a musical.

 

[Boy_of_wonder75]

Wasn't there some debate/controversy/knife fights over whether or not Shakespeare actually was the one who wrote the plays?

Addressed here:

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Wasn't there some debate/controversy/knife fights over whether or not Shakespeare actually was the one who wrote the plays?

A rose by any other name…

 

[Zack Lee]

Was that rhetorical?
Scotland PA is an incredible adaptation of the Scottish play

Is there another form of?

I don’t run in these circles but sometimes somebody might leanrt me something. Probably needs to be something other than Scottish though. Sounds dreary already.

 

[guidomerkinsrules]

Any of the Kenneth Branagh adaptations if you want something that stays as true to the source as possible.

Romeo + Juliet is an excellent musical adaptation with a young Leonardo DiCaprio.

There's a WW2 adaptation of Richard III with Ian McKellen as Richard III and Robert Downey Jr. Without a doubt the best adaptation of the line, "A horse! A horse! My kingdom for a horse!"

Titus with Anthony Hopkins as Titus Andronicus is also very, very good. The opening scene gives me chills.

There's a decent modern adaptation of Hamlet with Ethan Hawke as Hamlet.

I'm definitely forgetting a bunch but those are all solid movie adaptations.

*dips quill*
Since there aren’t really any settings in Shakespeare’s plays, it’s not really an adaptation if a play is ‘re-set’ in a more modern setting Shakespeare text with Shakespeare characters is just a production
An adaptation (of Shakespeare) needs to have some recontextualization
West Side Story is an adaptation
Romeo + Juliet is a production
(R+J is a deconstruction)