Best Adaptations of Plays for the Screen

Hi, i'm putting together a compendium of worthwhile and entertaining adaptations of plays. My cousin is a drama student and as a late Christmas present I'm sending him a USB stick full of the best adaptations of plays I can think of. Got Al Pacino as Merchant of Venice (anyone seen this? I pissed myself the whole way through, he seems to have heard "you're playing a Jew" and decided that means a Woody Allen impression is in order), Henry V with Branagh, Patrick Stewart's Stalinist Macbeth, Waiting for Godot with McKellen and Stewart, Rozencrantz and Guildernstern are dead with Tim Roth and Gary Oldman, Death of Salesman with Hoffman and Malkovich, Luhrmann's Rome and Juliet, anyone got any obvious ones I'm missing out on? (I know Mel Gibson is a great Hamlet, but I only have 16GB here). Also, there are many great films based on Shakespeare to some extent or less, "Scotland PA" being a personal favourite, Macbeth set in the Northeastern United States in a diner in the 70s with Christopher Walken as a vegetarian Macduff, great stuff, but I want just films in which the actual script of the play, not just the plot, is used, please. Thanking you very much.

Apparently no-one thought that maybe perhaps Stewart and McKellen in Waiting for Godot would be worth making a film out of.

Glengarry Glen Ross. It's so good that you can pretty much close the thread.

Especially the Alec Baldwin scene:

Knew it was a great film, did not know it was adapted from a play. This is why I asked the internet. Thanks. It might be good enough to close the thread, if they didn't make USB sticks 32 bloody GB now, so I have to look far and wide. Keep 'em coming, if you can.

my favourite movie of all time:



alasdair

Also, can't forget Streetcar Named Desire with Brando.

And Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf

And Mourning Becomes Electra

This was always one of my favorite Poitier roles

23536 said:

And Mourning Becomes Electra

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I meant to say Long Day's Journey into Night. I haven't seen Mourning.

Best thread on F&T right now.

23536 said:

Glengarry Glen Ross. It's so good that you can pretty much close the thread.

Especially Alec Baldwin's scene

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One of my favorite films of all-time. Hello AmorRoark.

Fun Fact: Blake's character was not in Mahmet's original play. His lines are the best in the movie though. DAT MONOLOGUE. FUCK.

alasdairm said:

my favourite movie of all time

alasdair

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It my top five, no doubt. Whenever I find other[younger generation] who like it I know they're good peeps.

23536 said:

Also, can't forget Streetcar Named Desire

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Uh, better yet THE SIMPSONS VERSION? (A Streetcar Named Marge). 18% of the references on this show go over people's head, I swear.

Anyway, Streetcar is the best Brando role behind from Godfather & The Wild One.

Bardeaux said:

This was always one of my favorite Poitier roles

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Shout out to Lorraine Hansberry.

J'ai le peur que je parle pas le Francais suffis pour avoir un bon comprension d'un film au cette langue, malhereusement, mais merci tout la meme.

Merci to everyone else, too, for posterity I'll record some of the best things I've found. Ian McKellen as Richard III, Orson Welles's Chimes at Midnight, Closer, which I remember being recieved lukewarmly but which I rather enjoyed when I first saw it, and Joss Whedon's production of Much Ado About Nothing from last year. Everything mentioned in the thread so far is being included, everyone's contributions are warmly and gratefully recieved.

(the great) sidney lumet again:



alasdair

Thanks, everyone. It was tough, but I got it down to 31 GB, that I can fit on a flash drive. I thought I would share the list, in case anyone was interested, and for posterity:
12 Angry Men; A Raisin in the Sun (with Sidney Poitier, not Puff Daddy, though it was a difficult call), Streetcar, Amadeus, Carnage, Closer, Coriolanus (Fiennes), Death of a Salesman (Dustin Hoffman), Chimes of Midnight, Glengarry, Olivier and Branagh's Hamlets, Branagh's Henry V, Inherit the Wind, Looking for Richard (the cast of Glengarry exploring Richard III), Macbeth with Patrick Stewart, Branagh and Joss Whedon's Much Ados, Richard III with Ian McKellen (possibly the jewel in the crown), Ziffirelli and Luhrmann's Romeo & Juliets, Rozencrantz and Guildernstern are Dead, The Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino, Polanski's Macbeth, Waiting for Godot (2001), and Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf.

Also-rans: Arsenic and Old Lace, Equus, Mourning Becomes Electra, Secret Honor, The Philadelphia Story, Vanya on 42nd St. I am not saying these aren't as good, but that, for my specific purposes, they weren't the best fit. It was an arduous and and agonising editing process. Thanks to everyone who helped out.

^ polanski's macbeth is, strictly speaking, not an adaptation.

it is a great film, though

alasdair

Right you are. I really liked the idea of giving him multiple versions of the same play, though, particularly Shakespeare, as is obvious. I thought this would help advance his understanding of, and capacity to distinguish between, what is inherent in the text and what is emergent from the interplay between the script and the theatrical production, and hopefully, furthermore, what is emergent at a higher level from the translation of a play for the stage to the medium of film.