It was 1990 and Mel Gibson was at the height of his acting career when he starred in Hamlet directed by Franco Zeffirelli. In this adaptation, Gibson plays the title role of Prince Hamlet, bringing a gritty and intense performance to Shakespeare’s classic tragedy. Gibson received critical praise for his performance and marked a serious shift in his career.
At the box office, the film performed well, especially for a Shakespeare adaptation, grossing over $20 million worldwide, which was solid for a period drama at the time. Its success was due, in part, to Gibson’s star power and Zeffirelli’s established reputation for adapting Shakespeare—his Romeo and Juliet (1968) was also a major hit.
The film also starred Glenn Close as Gertrude, Alan Bates as Claudius, Helena Bonham Carter as Ophelia, Ian Holm as Polonius, Paul Scofield as the Ghost, and Nathaniel Parker as Laertes.
You can watch the trailer by clicking the play button at the left of the feature image above.
There were many Shakespeare film adaptations made in the 1990s, a decade often seen as a peak period for Shakespeare in film. This was partly due to a renewed interest in adapting classic works with modern sensibilities, leading to a wave of big-budget, star-studded productions aimed at mainstream audiences.
Key films from that period include the above Hamlet then Much Ado About Nothing (1993), directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh; Romeo + Juliet (1996), Baz Luhrmann’s modern take starring Leonardo DiCaprio and Claire Danes; and Hamlet (1996), Branagh’s full-text, four-hour version.
There have been hundreds of film adaptations of Shakespeare’s plays, with some of the most frequently adapted plays that include Hamlet, Macbeth, Romeo and Juliet, and Othello. Each inspired dozens of versions across different languages and styles, from classic to modern, silent to animated.
These adaptations range from faithful renditions to loose reimaginings, including films set in various time periods and locations, showing Shakespeare’s enduring influence in cinema worldwide.
Luhrmann’s Romeo + Juliet is often considered one of the most commercially successful adaptations of Shakespeare’s works, particularly due to its significant box office gross relative to its budget—it grossed over $147 million worldwide while its production budget was around $14.5 million.
One of the more recent Shakespeare adaptations is The Tragedy of Macbeth (2021), directed by Joel Coen and starring Denzel Washington as Macbeth and Frances McDormand as Lady Macbeth. The film was well-received by critics and praised for Washington’s performance, which earned him an Academy Award nomination. See the trailer for it below.