Shakespeare in film

Shakespeare’s plays have been put to the screen more times than can be counted. Rather than damaging the Bard’s literary eminence, the advent of cinema merely gave him a new platform from shine, with many of the most famous directors and auteurs producing at least one Shakespeare film during their lifetime. Kurosawa himself produced three such adaptations: Throne of Blood (Macbeth), The Bad Sleep Well (Hamlet) and Ran (Lear).

As is the case for theatre performances, silver-screen Shakespeare is often used as an entirely different means for artistic expression than films based on original screenplays or those adapted from non-Shakespeare sources. While West Side Story and Kenneth Branagh’s Hamlet were both nominated for Oscars in the category for adapted writing, usually the artistic merit of Shakespeare productions comes from the performance: acting, directing, stage composition, cinematography and even costumes are among the outlets of artistic expression that do not relate directly to the writing. Even performances which remain true to Shakespeare’s Elizabethan lexicon will often explore modern dress and settings, for example.

With a good script, a good director can produce a masterpiece. With the same script, a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script even a good director can’t possibly make a good film — Akira Kurosawa

It’s no surprise that Kurosawa’s three Shakespeare films fall firmly in the other category — that of loose adaptations. The director believed that the screenplay is the foundation of a film: “With a good script … a mediocre director can produce a passable film. But with a bad script, even a good director can’t possibly make a good film.” In his three adaptations of Shakespeare, Kurosawa recognised that a story translated without alteration to an entirely new location and era doesn’t always retain its original quality. Changes must often be made to the story and characters so that the themes adequately fit the setting — in Kurosawa’s case, feudal and post-war Japan.