Reimagined Shakespeare Marathon Overview


May.  It’s the month of flowers that’s brought on by April showers.  It leads everyone into the summer months.  May is awaited by many of the winter detractors because it brings with it the warm weather that gets people out of their relative cold.  May is the month that everyone wishes is perfect but hardly ever is.  That’s life though.  Nothing’s perfect.

May is also bringing one more thing this year.  May is bringing a month long theme marathon of movies for me.  This time, the marathon is the Reimagined Shakespeare Marathon.  The idea behind this marathon is that there are many movies which are adaptations of Shakespeares works; however, there is an even more interesting subdivision of these movies which are re-adapted into different settings, usually with differing dialogue as well.  These movies may not be the exact same as the original source but they follow a very similar story.  It is these movies that the marathon shall consist of.

Before I give a list of the movies that will be included in this marathon, let me preface it all by saying that I have not read all of the original Shakespeare works.  In fact, out of the ten movies that will make up the marathon, I have only read three of the original works.  I don’t believe that having read the original work should affect my watching of the movies.  It’s not about the knowledge of the original and how closely adapted it is.  I’m coming into it looking at how well the material works for me.

Without further adieu, here are the ten films as well as the plays that they are adapted from:

A Midsummer Night’s Rave [2002] (A Midsummer Night’s Dream)
10 Things I Hate About You [1999] (The Taming of the Shrew)
Throne of Blood [1957] (Macbeth)
Forbidden Planet [1956] (The Tempest)
She’s the Man [2006] (Twelfth Night)
Strange Brew [1983] (Hamlet)
King of Texas [2002] (King Lear)
A Double Life [1947] (Othello)
West Side Story [1961] (Romeo and Juliet)
My Own Private Idaho [1991] (Henry IV Part 1, Henry IV Part 2, Henry V)

As you can see, this is an interesting mixture of movies.  Some adaptations were difficult to narrow down to one specific film because there were so many that sounded like they could have been interesting additions to the marathon.  But I wanted only one film per Shakespeare play, and ended up with what I have above.  I also wanted only one Kurosawa film.  That way, the whole list isn’t Kurosawa.

That’s all I really have to say right now.  Like always, if you have an idea for a future marathon theme, feel free to tell me, and I’ll take it into consideration.  If I have a future marathon theme that you know about, go ahead and make recommendations. 

Check out the past entries for the three previous marathons, The Horror-Like Movie Marathon, The Mustache Marathon, and The Snow-Set Movie Marathon.  Or check out anything else throughout the blog.  Leave comments.  Why am I self-promoting?  You’re already here.

Until my next entry, areeva derchi.

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