12 Best Film Adaptations Of Shakespeare's Tragedies

Based On: Hamlet

Adaptation:

An uncut, four-hour adaptation of the play set inside a colorful and theatrical palace in the 19th century. Kenneth Branagh both directs and stars as Hamlet, while Shakespearean veteran Derek Jacobi plays Claudius, Julie Christie plays Gertrude and Kate Winslet plays Ophelia.

Hamlet is often considered Shakespeare's masterpiece and given how incredible it is, it's hard to argue with that statement. As long, complex and difficult as the play is, this wonderful adaptation fully brings out the play's greatness and makes four hours disappear like nothing.

Although the scene with the ghost of Hamlet's father is overdone and some good actors are wasted, this for the most part does the brilliant play justice like few other adaptations. By retaining every single line of the play, the characters are beautifully rendered in all their complexity and all the different themes and messages of the play are brought brilliantly to life. The performances are also uniformly fantastic, with Kenneth Branagh as Hamlet and Derek Jacobi as Claudius being particularly great.

The retaining of the full script and the great performances ensure this is an exceptionally powerful and complex adaptation, but it's also a fantastic cinematic work. The film's expressive, symbolic mise-en-scene combined with the film's stunning cinematography further enhance the play's dialogue and make this, while ultimately a very sad film, an enormously enjoyable one at the same time.

An adaptation which both does justice to the play and triumphs as a generally great movie... what more could you want?