Favorite Versions of Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet?

[jmcpher_007]

I've been tasked with ordering several copies of film adaptations of William Shakespeare's Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet for a secondary school. These are mainly meant as supplements to the reading and a sort of "reward" for finishing the play.

I checked IMDB and there are 55 Hamlet titles listed along with 32 of Romeo and Juliet. Quite a selection. :D

I can't recall seeing any film versions myself, but I have Hamlet (1990) and Romeo and Juliet (1968) both by director Franco Zeffirelli highly recommended to me.

Anyway, which are your favorites and why?

[ComeNightfall]

For me, the best version of Romeo & Juliet, hands down, is the 1968 Franco Zeferelli version. This is the one we watched in school. It's beautifully filmed, acted, and the music is gorgeous.

You might want to try West Side Story too. It's based on Romeo & Juliet, and many teachers also reccommend you watch this too, to get a different feel for the same theme.

I'm sure a lot of people will tell you to see Baz Luhrman's version with Claire Danes & Leonardo DiCaprio. I'm not a huge fan of either actors, so I stayed away from this. But you might want to check this out too.

My favorite version of Hamlet is the one starring Kenneth Branagh and Kate Winslet as Ophelia. I sat through all four hours of it and actually enjoyed it.

[Briare Rabbit]

Check out Olivier's Hamlet! :thumbsup:

It won best picture.

[Hannibal21]

Favorite version of Romeo and Juliet is probably the musical, modernized version of it, West Side Story. The beautiful music, style, song and dance numbers just grow on me with more viewings and enthrall me to no end, and it's a magnificent way to get the point of the story across, with a change in the ending.....but I actually like the ending to this one better!

Franco Zefrelli's version comes close too.

Olivier's Hamlet is excellent. The dark atmosphere, the incredible acting, Olivier's direction, etc...

[jmcpher_007]

Thanks for the input guys. Picked up Olivier's Hamlet and Zeffirelli's Romeo and Juliet.

[ilovemovies]

I hated West Side Story and the 1968 version of Romeo and Julliet bored me from what I saw. I didn't see alot of it so I won't rate it until I see the whole thing. But my expectations are low despite the fact that everyone LOVES it! (Then again every one loves West Side Story and I really hate it!).


So that means the only versions of Romeo and Julliet Ive seen that I've liked is the 1996 Leonardo Dicaprio and Claire Danes version as well as Shakespeare in Love, if that counts.


Sorry to say that I have not seen any version of Hamlet. I did have the Kenneth Branagh version taped from TNT once but that thing is more than 4 hours long so I never got around to seeing it.

[optimusprime]

I've seen no versions of those. I've seen The Tragedy of Macbeth from Roman Polanski though. Which is alright.

[Lazy Boy]

I loooved Branagh's version of HAMLET (four hours never went by as fast), but it was slightly jarring to see Robin Williams, Billy Crystal and Jack Lemmon, all of whom were distracting.