# Oddball Shakespeare Adaptations
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [July 8, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711 "2019-07-08T14:54:40Z")
**Posts on this page:** 20
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 2:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/1 "2019-07-08T14:54:40Z")
So in the most expensive Shakespeare thread they’re posting about straight Shakespeare plays. The oddball ones are left to the wayside.
But I’ve found them fun in my day. And thought it might be fun for us to discuss them.
So what do you guys know and like/hate?
I’ll toss the easy one out there:
Ten Things I Hate About You
A surprisingly good adaptation of Taming of the Shrew, it’s set in a Seattle high school and centers on a baby Joseph Gordon-Levitt trying to date a girl who’s older sister has to date before she can. Enter bad boy Heath Ledger. It’s really fun and the cast sells youthful energy very well.
Scotland, PA
MacBeth. But this time it’s set in a 1970s working class town in Pennsylvania. Instead of playing for a kingdom the players are competing for control of a McDonald’s-like fast food place. Look for Christopher Walken as a visionary fast food manager who envisions drive-thrus and keep an eye peeled for the three witches as stoners.
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### Author:  [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 3:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/2 "2019-07-08T15:02:53Z")
_Forbidden Planet_, of course.
_My Own Private Idaho_ was based on several of Shakespeare’s histories: _Henry VI_ (both parts) and _Henry V_.
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 3:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/3 "2019-07-08T15:34:54Z")
**Prospero’s Books** , the oddest movie adaptation of any Shakespeare play, let alone _The Tempest_ – [Prospero's Books - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prospero%27s_Books)
I take issue with identifying _Forbidden Planet_ with _the Tempest_. Even though the screenwriters said that was true, and you can draw a one-to-one identification between the characters, their _motivations_ are completely different. Morbius isn’t Duke Prospero, cheated out of his kingdom because he neglected his earthly duties for his sorcery – Morbius, the philologist, is doing exactly what his job requires. And he’s dissuading his “Miranda” (Altaira) from getting romantically involved with the Captain, rather than encouraging it. Cookie, the Drunken Sailor, isn’t being traitorous, and, in any case, he’s carousing with FP’s Ariel, not its Caliban.
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### Author:  [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 3:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/4 "2019-07-08T15:49:14Z")
_[Ran](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film))_. Start with Lear, add some Japanese mythology and of course it’s a freakin’ Kurosawa film!
(_Rashomon_, _Seven Saumurai_, etc. got adapted in the West. So turnabout is fair play.)
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### Author:  [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 4:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/5 "2019-07-08T16:14:12Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> _[Ran](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film))_. Start with Lear, add some Japanese mythology and of course it’s a freakin’ Kurosawa film!
>
> (_Rashomon_, _Seven Saumurai_, etc. got adapted in the West. So turnabout is fair play.)
Kurasawa had earlier adapted the Ed McBain Police Procedural _King’s Ransom_ into the very Japanese film **High and Low** (_Tengoku to Jigoku_)
> **[High and Low (1963 film)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_and_Low_(1963_film))**
>
> High and Low (Japanese: 天国と地獄, Hepburn: Tengoku to Jigoku, literally "Heaven and Hell") is a 1963 Japanese police procedural crime film directed and edited by Akira Kurosawa and written by Kurosawa, Hideo Oguni, Eijiro Hisaita, and Ryûzô Kikushima. The film is loosely based on the 1959 novel King's Ransom by Ed McBain (Evan Hunter). It follows the story of a board member for a Japanese company who is forced to make a decision between using a vast amount of wealth to gain executive control and hel...
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### Author:  [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 4:20pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/6 "2019-07-08T16:20:11Z")
> [@ftg](#):
>
> _[Ran](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ran_(film))_. Start with Lear, add some Japanese mythology and of course it’s a freakin’ Kurosawa film!
Kurosawa also did _Throne of Blood_, a samurai version of _Macbeth_.
Then there was _King of Texas_, with Patrick Stewart as a cowboy King Lear.
_A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ inspires a lot of psychedelia, especially in TV movies. You invoke the audience’s “willing suspension of disbelief”, and cheap special effects become “surreal” instead of “shoddy”.
Then there was _A Midsummer Night’s Cream_, a porn film that incorporated a surprising amount of Shakespeare’s dialog.
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### Author:  [@Edward\_The\_Head](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Edward_The_Head)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 5:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/7 "2019-07-08T17:14:18Z")
Troemo and Juliet. That was one strange movie, even for a Troma movie.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 5:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/8 "2019-07-08T17:33:37Z")
I love the 1995 version of [Richard III](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_III_(1995_film)) with Richard as a fascist dictator in 1930s Britain.
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### Author:  [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/9 "2019-07-08T18:23:42Z")
Then there’s [Chimes at Midnight,](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chimes_at_Midnight) Orson Welles’ retelling of several Shakespeare plays from Falstaff’s point of view.
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### Author:  [@DocCathode](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DocCathode)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 7:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/10 "2019-07-08T19:54:44Z")
This was on stage, but I think it may still qualify.
Stuffed Puppet Theatre’s shows consist of one man and some puppets (all of whom are given voice and motion by the one guy onstage) and that’s it. Most of the time, he was Macbeth. Other times, only the audience could see him. Besides the usual characters, there was a snake representing Macbeth’s ambition and inner voice.
I’d seen SPT once before (The one act plays Manipulator and Underdog). Those utterly blew me away.
Macbeth disappointed only in that it was very very good but fell short of being great.
[http://www.stuffedpuppet.nl/neville.html](http://www.stuffedpuppet.nl/neville.html)
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### Author:  [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/11 "2019-07-08T20:02:18Z")
I guess Romeo + Juliet, the Leo DiCaprio / Claire Danes version from 1996, can be seen as odd in a lot of ways, but damn it’s a terrific version. I don’t even like Romeo and Juliet in general (and I love Shakespeare) and I thought that was a first rate Shakespeare-on-screen work all the way.
“Strange Brew” is loosely based on Hamlet. The movie is terrible, but it’s fun in a silly way.
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### Author:  [@Dropo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dropo)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/12 "2019-07-08T20:08:50Z")
_Hamlet_ (1921) – From IMDB: “Danish silent movie-star Asta Nielsen formed her own production company to make this film, in which new elements are combined with features (and a few lines) familiar from Shakespeare’s version of the legend. The most important of these changes sees Hamlet made into a female character - a princess forced to masquerade as a man by her scheming mother; from this follows Hamlet’s secret passion for Horatio and rivalry with Ophelia for his love.”
_A Midsummer Night’s Dream_ (1935) – Unique-looking film with top Hollywood talent in front and behind the camera.
_Strange Illusion_ (1945) – B-movie version of _Hamlet_.
\*Teenage Gang Debs \*(1966) – Haven’t seen this, but supposedly based on _Macbeth_.
_Johnny Hamlet_ (1968) – From IMDB: “Back from the Civil War, Johnny Hamilton learns that his father was murdered by Santana the bandit and that his mother Gertrude married his uncle Claude but Johnny is determined to find out the truth.
_Black Commando_ (1982) a.k.a. _Othello_. Haven’t seen this one either. Bernie Schwartz plays Iago.
> **[Black Commando (1982) - IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084453/?ref_=nm_flmg_wr_794)**
>
> Black Commando: Directed by Max H. Boulois. With Tony Curtis, Joanna Pettet, Max H. Boulois, Ramiro Oliveros. The Moorish general Othello is manipulated into thinking that his new wife Desdemona has been carrying on an affair with his lieutenant...
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 8:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/13 "2019-07-08T20:40:40Z")
**Cal** , I’d say that _Forbidden Planet_ is at least as close to _The Tempest_ as _West Side Story_ is to _Romeo and Juliet_, and that’s usually described as an adaptation, too. Sure, there are some significant differences, but there are even more significant similarities.
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### Author:  [@Mr.Bill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Bill)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 8:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/14 "2019-07-08T20:46:07Z")
The basic plot set-up for Sons of Anarchy is straight out of Hamlet.
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### Author:  [@Derleth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Derleth)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 8:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/15 "2019-07-08T20:52:04Z")
> [@CalMeacham](#):
>
> Kurasawa had earlier adapted the Ed McBain Police Procedural _King’s Ransom_ into the very Japanese film **High and Low** (_Tengoku to Jigoku_)
>
> [High and Low (1963 film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_and_Low_(1963_film))
I see you stay true to form.
Fixed link: [High and Low (1963 film) - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/High_and_Low_(1963_film))
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> _My Own Private Idaho_ was based on several of Shakespeare’s histories: _Henry VI_ (both parts) and _Henry V_.
The only Shakespeare adaptation named after a Devo song.
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### Author:  [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 9:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/16 "2019-07-08T21:03:57Z")
\*The Lion King _is Hamlet, of course
\*
A Thousand Acres_ was \*King Lear \*with a stellar cast
There have been many [Bollywood](https://www.rediff.com/movies/report/bollywoods-most-memorable-shakespeare-adaptations/20140930.htm) Shakespeare adaptations. With all the dancing and singing, yes.
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### Author:  [@MacSpon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MacSpon)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 10:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/17 "2019-07-08T22:59:30Z")
Does “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” by the Reduced Shakespeare Company count?
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### Author:  [@The\_Other\_Waldo\_Pepper](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Other_Waldo_Pepper)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 11:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/18 "2019-07-08T23:03:49Z")
> [@MacSpon](#):
>
> Does “The Complete Works of William Shakespeare (Abridged)” by the Reduced Shakespeare Company count?
If so, then: Vincent Price, in _Theatre of Blood_.
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### Author:  [@Robot\_Arm](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Robot_Arm)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 11:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/19 "2019-07-08T23:30:51Z")
I think most of the Shakespeare productions I’ve seen have been at least a half-bubble off plumb. I’ve been going to the free summer performances by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company on Boston Common for the last few years. They did _The Two Gentlemen of Verona_ and set it in Rat-Pack-era Las Vegas, and added a few songs.
But the winners have to be the shows put on by a theater company called Greek Active in Seattle in the '90s. Dan Savage (the sex-advice columnist) was their artistic director (I think), and the shows had a strong gay/lesbian/crossdressing component. In their version of _Romeo and Juliet_ (didn’t see it, but friends described it) the Capulets and Montagues were rival lesbian softball teams. They did the shows in the back room of a bar, and for their production of King John they passed out cocktail toothpicks with British or French flags on them, and we were supposed to wave the flags for our side during the battle scenes.
I’ve mentioned them before, but there wasn’t any way to demonstrate just how much fun they were. I recently discovered some videos that have been posted. [This](https://youtu.be/q8DcVCw_tl8) is from their version of _Macbeth_. Ross was played with a laughable Scottish accent that got thicker and thicker as the play went on. By the end, he was incomprehensible, but incomprehensibly Scottish.
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### Author:  [@JeffB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/JeffB)
#### Post date: [July 8, 2019, 11:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/oddball-shakespeare-adaptations/836711/20 "2019-07-08T23:43:20Z")
> [@RealityChuck](#):
>
> _My Own Private Idaho_ was based on several of Shakespeare’s histories: _Henry VI_ (both parts) and _Henry V_.
> [@Derleth](#):
>
> The only Shakespeare adaptation named after a Devo song.
B-52’s song.
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