7) Richard Loncraine’s Richard III
How do you bring Shakespeare’s Richard III into the modern day? Why, re-write the character as a foppish British fascist and get Ian McKellen to play him, of course.
In Richard Loncraine’s impeccably designed adaptation, one of several starry attempts made in the 90s to update the work of Shakespeare for contemporary audiences, Richard III is set in an alternative universe in which pre-WWII Britain is the playground for battling factions locked in a state of civil war.
McKellen is outstanding as a hunchbacked, Adolf Hitler-alike manipulator, proving he’s one of very few actors who understand exactly how to deliver Shakespeare’s words with clarity. In a film that spookily recalls Nazi Germany in costumes, music, and all, the cast – including Annette Bening, Robert Downey Jr., and Kristin Scott Thomas – deliver the heavy dialogue with ease and easy understanding.
Blackly comic, Richard III is also the rare Shakespeare adaptation that could also be described as something approaching dystopian science fiction.