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1. Throne of Blood (1957), Directed by Akira Kurosawa and starring Toshiro Mifune. Perhaps the greatest example of film “adaptation” in world cinema, Kurosawa’s version of Macbeth brilliantly captures the spirit and psychological darkness of Shakespeare’s great tragedy.

2. Falstaff, aka Chimes at Midnight (1967), Directed by and starring Orson Welles. Welles’ epic narrative of Sir John Falstaff, combining scenes from the Henriad and The Merry Wives of Windsor. Features the battle scene to end battle scenes.

3. King Lear (1970), Directed by Peter Brook and starring Paul Scofield. Brutally minimalist and incomparably dark film, cut to emphasize the despair that makes Lear the most painful play in our language.

4. Richard III (1995), Directed by Richard Loncraine and starring Ian McKellen. Proof that modernization is more stimulating and provocative than periodization. A complex web of allusions to Renaissance drama and American movies that serves to accommodate the play’s metatheatricality exceptionally well.

5. Henry V (1944), Directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. Wartime propaganda commissioned by the British government—much like Shakespeare’s own history plays—this was the film that legitimized Shakespeare on film.

6. Othello (1952), Directed by and starring Orson Welles. A breathtakingly gorgeous film that positions Iago centrally, and therefore appropriately, as the director-within-the-film.

7. To Be or Not to Be (1942), Directed by Ernest Lubitsch and starring Jack Benny and Carole Lombard. A Polish theater company stages Hamlet to resist Nazi occupation during World War 2. About as structurally perfect a “Shakespearean comedy” as you’ll ever see on film or television.

8. Ran (1985), Directed by Akira Kurosawa. An adaptation of King Lear set in 16th-century Japan, Ran features unforgettable mise-en-scene and colors so vivid they’ll blind you.

9. Hamlet (1948), Directed by and starring Laurence Olivier. A heavily, perhaps unforgivably, cut (there’s no Fortinbras plot) but glowing black and white Hamlet that did much to demonstrate how film’s psychological complexity could effectively engage Shakespearean drama.

10. Maqbool (2003), Directed by Vishal Bhardwaj. This Bollywood Macbeth adapts the Scottish play to a religiously divided, ganster-plagued Mumbai setting. This remarkable modern language adaptation (mainly Hindi) remains, much like Kurosawa’s and Kozintzsev’s Shakespeare films, “spiritually faithful” to the playtext but also breaks from it in creative ways. Maqbool also features perhaps the most original reworking of the Macbeth/Lady Macbeth relationship on film.

11. Henry V (1989), Directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh. This controversial (pro- or anti-war?) version of the play often is credited for initiating the so-called 1990s Shakespeare-on-film boom, which gave rise to such successful films as Luhrmann’s R+J, Pacino’s Looking for Richard, Madden’s Shakespeare in Love, and numerous modernizations such as Junger’s 10 Things I Hate About You and Nelson’s “O” . It remains a strong example of classic period-film Shakespeare.

12. King Lear (1970), Directed by Grigori Kozintsev. A rich, heavily Marxist, Russian version of the play, cut to emphasize the hopefulness that makes Lear the most poignant celebration of love and compassion in our language.

13. Romeo + Juliet (1996), Directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Claire Danes. A beautiful and colorful R&J shot in a style of montage heavily evocative of 90s MTV editing—and with a brilliant soundtrack to match.

14. Titus (1999), Directed by Julie Taymor and starring Anthony Hopkins. This visually stunning, otherworldly Titus Andronicus succeeds in transforming a largely un-performable play into an emotionally powerful tragedy.

15. Shakespeare: The Animated Tales (1992-94), Released in the United States by Home Box Office over a two-year period beginning in 1992, The Animated Tales featured thirteen short films based on Leon Garfield's award-winning children's book series, Shakespeare Stories I and II. Jointly produced by S4C (Channel Four Wales) and Moscow's Soyuzmuhfilm and Mosfilm Studios, and financed by seven multinational corporations in America (including Time Warner), Great Britain, Russia, and Japan, the project necessitated more than 600 animators working with glass, pixilation, puppets, as well as cel animation techniques.

16. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1935), Directed by Max Reinhardt and starring James Cagney and Mickey Rooney. A large-scale Hollywood production that nonetheless manages to capture the beauty and ugliness of a comedy too often Disneyfied on film and stage.

17. Silent Shakespeare (1899-c.1910), Compiled by the British Film Institute’s National Film and Television Archive, this DVD presents the earliest attempts to capture Shakespeare on film and includes the very first Shakespeare film: the 1899 King John.

18. West Side Story (1961), Directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins and starring Natalie Wood. This musical version of Romeo and Juliet transforms the aristocratic gang wars of Renaissance Verona into the racial gang wars of 1950s New York City. Dated but still impossible to resist.

19. The Filth and the Fury (2000), Directed by Julien Temple. A documentary of the fascinating rise and fall of Britain’s controversial punk band The Sex Pistols. I include it here as a compelling example of the popular appropriation of Shakespeare, since lead singer Johnny Rotten claims to have based his infamous stage persona upon the character of Richard III.

20. Scotland PA (2002), Directed by Billy Morrissette and starring Maura Tierney. A comedic adaptation of Macbeth set in a 1970s fast-food environment and featuring the rock music of Bad Company? Damn straight.

21. A Midsummer Night’s Dream (1968), Directed by Peter Hall and starring Diana Rigg and Judi Dench. A direct challenge to “gossamer and moonshine” MNDs, this exceedingly ugly little film constitutes one of the most intelligent Shakespeare movies out there.

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