The Leaving Cert is upon us once again, and while for many of us Shakespeare is a distant memory, thousands of young people around the country will have his quotes drilled into their heads at the moment.
Most people will swear that they’ll never have anything to do with Shakespeare and his plays after the exam is over but what many people don’t know is that some of their favourite films are actually based on the plays we all resented during our school years.
Here are seven films that are based on Shakespearean plays, with a surprising amount of chick-flicks making the list.
The Lion King
Based on: Hamlet
The Lion King doesn’t differ much from the play other than the species swap.
Some of the the most obvious similarities include; Scar being the evil uncle who kills his own brother to become king just like Claudius in Hamlet, both evil uncles send their nephews away and Mufasa appears as a ghost to Simba just like Hamlet’s father in the play.
10 Things I Hate About You
Based on: The Taming of the Shrew
The names of the main characters only change slightly for the film. Katherine becomes Kat, Petruccio becomes Patrick, and Kat’s sister is still called Bianca.
In both versions, the father of the main character demands that Bianca cannot be in a relationship until her sister is too. The men in both pay a friend to go out with Kat so they have a chance with Bianca. Both plots take of from there with very similar results.
Warm Bodies
Based on: Romeo and Juliet
It may seem pretty obvious considering the main characters names are R and Julie. This movie is basically just the classic story of star crossed lovers but Romeo is a zombie.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5lJELsqo3E4
Forbidden Planet
Based on: The Tempest
The films setting, Planet Altair IV is similar to Prospero’s island, Dr. Edward Morbius lives there with just his daughter like Prospero and Miranda.
The film see’s Morbius master technology to control things whereas Shakespeare’s Prospero acquires magic.
While the lessons learned by the end of each version are quite different, the similarities between the premise of the film and the play, are hard to ignore.
She’s the Man
Based on: Twelfth Night
The basic plot, and many of the characters names are the same. Viola, the main character in both, is disguised as a man when she falls in love with Duke. The movie however, is heavily based around Viola’s love for football, which obviously isn’t in the play.
Men of Respect
Based on: Macbeth
This is basically Macbeth but with gangsters. In the film, Mike listens to a spiritualist who tells him he can become head of his ‘family’ – much like the Weird Sisters tell Macbeth he will be king. So naturally his only option is to kill loads of people, much like the tormented Macbeth in the play.
And although it’s an obvious one, this next one deserves an honourable mention.
Romeo and Juliet
Based on.. you guessed it.
Baz Luhrmann’s modern-day adaption of the famous play deserves a mention for its sheer brilliance. Although the storyline and plot remains the same, everything from the soundtrack to the setting to the costumes breathes new life into the story without abandoning the original script and language.
If you haven’t seen it, you should, even if you hated the play in school.
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