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Shakespeare Movies
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I need help with picking a movie about Shakespeare. My kids are all at various levels but each of them are reading 2 plays a year. I would like to let them watch the movie after they have read the book. Can someone give some suggestions on how to know which ones to pick or pass on? I will only have the libarary as an options for getting them if that’s of any help. Thanks
Wish I could help… I would like to know suggestions at various levels too. I remember enjoying Hamlet (Mel Gibson) years ago, but have no idea whether it is appropriate for children. I just can’t remember it all that well.
I do remember someone recommended Merchant of Venice (it was in sections on YouTube) that we watched part of and it was well done. I think it may have been Barb over at Harmony Fine Arts. Have you searched her site?
Just some thoughts to try to help.
Yes, definitely, preview any Shakespeare play before showing it to your family. The Merchant of Venice is my favorite Shakespeare play and the one with Al Pacino as Shylock is excellent but it does realistically portray the prostitutes in Venice walking around without clothing on their upper bodies. It would be an excellent version to show to high school students if it weren’t for that one part. Not what I would show my son anyway. Now if you had a DVD player that edited out n u d i t y then it would be great.
Most of the Mel Gibson Hamlet is appropriate for kids, but there is some weirdness with his mother that you may want to edit. She seems almost seductive to him in trying to placate him at times – rather odd kisses – and he acts inappropriately toward her in confronting her about his father’s death; odd that they chose to play it this way. In any case, I’d fast-forward those parts but you’d have to have watched it to know they’re coming.
This is the set I bought on sale that I think will last us for awhile since it has 5 plays in it:
We have only watched A Midsummer Night’s Dream, though. I actually sat with the play in my hand to see if the dialogue was the same. It is – although they cut short some of the long-winded speeches or edited the middles to make it easier to follow the story. But they didn’t add their own dialogue. The costumes were good, the story was the actual play, and since it is an older BBC version seems to be a little more appropriate/true to the real story then most of the Hollywood versions (in my opinion although I haven’t seen too many).
My 12 and 11 yodd re-watched it the next day on their own time, and have re-enacted a couple of scenes. Oldest dd re-read the play afterwards and made a paper stage with foam figures to move around – she said that it helped her keep the characters straight.
We watched this with a span of children of 3-12. The littles watched some and then played, and that is fine. Even my husband watched – we used it for our movie and pizza night. It will not be his first choice of movies, though. lol
Just re-read your post Misty, and missed the part about the library only options. I think most of the BBC ones are generally available at libraries – maybe inter-library loan. As for the ones to avoid, I have no idea.
Thanks for the suggestion about the BBC movies. Our library actually has several of them as available as streaming video! Shakespeare is one of my DD(6)’s favourite things right now, but it’s hard to find a movie version appropriate for a 6 year old! I’ll have to start previewing some of these.
Joanne
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