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Shakespeare does have some detractors--I suppose someone so highly lauded makes a big target--but he is a genuine favorite of mine. If your introduction to him in school put you off, I'd recommend you try renting one of the many fine films made of his famous plays. The text of a play is after all just a scaffolding--it's really not meant to be read, but seen. Here are a few suggestions, chosen not because they are necessarily Shakespeare's best plays, but among the most watchable film adaptations I've seen:
King Lear - there's a version with Lawrence Olivier that's superb.
Hamlet - I love the Kenneth Branagh version, but it clocks in at 4 hours. Shakespeare novices with less stamina might want to choose the ones with Gibson or Olivier in the title role instead.
Macbeth - Orson Welles and Roman Polanski both did versions I found very watchable.
Romeo and Juliet - I love the Zeffirelli version. He cast actors that were actually the right ages, and this film made me a fan of Shakespeare in my teens.
Henry V - I love both the Branagh and Olivier versions--though they're very different reads. Olivier's, done in the midst of World War II, heroic and patriotic, Branagh more cynical and dark.
Julius Caesar - try the one with a young Marlon Brando as Mark Anthony.
Much Ado About Nothing - Branagh again--but also his (then) wife Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington and Kate Breckinsale all bringing their A-game.
Taming of the Shrew - with wife/husband team of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Taylor chews the scenery--great actress she isn't--but I admit I find the film fun.
There's also a Othello with Lawrence Fishburne and a Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino I've heard great things about, but haven't gotten around to seeing myself.
Although the more you're familiar with Elizabethan language, the better you can comprehend and appreciate the plays, and there's something to be said for reading the plays quietly on your own, one after another. Eventually you get oriented to his world and language, and it comes easier. Precisely because the language and some of the literary and historical allusions are unfamiliar though, reading an annotated edition of the plays is a must. About the only play I don't like is the ridiculous Titus Andronicus. Even if Camille Paglia defends it, I think the best that could be said of it is that it's comforting to know even Shakespeare can flub it. As for Shakespeare's poetry, I do love the sonnets madly. But Shakespeare's longer poems, such as Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis? Not so much.
King Lear - there's a version with Lawrence Olivier that's superb.
Hamlet - I love the Kenneth Branagh version, but it clocks in at 4 hours. Shakespeare novices with less stamina might want to choose the ones with Gibson or Olivier in the title role instead.
Macbeth - Orson Welles and Roman Polanski both did versions I found very watchable.
Romeo and Juliet - I love the Zeffirelli version. He cast actors that were actually the right ages, and this film made me a fan of Shakespeare in my teens.
Henry V - I love both the Branagh and Olivier versions--though they're very different reads. Olivier's, done in the midst of World War II, heroic and patriotic, Branagh more cynical and dark.
Julius Caesar - try the one with a young Marlon Brando as Mark Anthony.
Much Ado About Nothing - Branagh again--but also his (then) wife Emma Thompson, Denzel Washington and Kate Breckinsale all bringing their A-game.
Taming of the Shrew - with wife/husband team of Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton. Taylor chews the scenery--great actress she isn't--but I admit I find the film fun.
There's also a Othello with Lawrence Fishburne and a Merchant of Venice with Al Pacino I've heard great things about, but haven't gotten around to seeing myself.
Although the more you're familiar with Elizabethan language, the better you can comprehend and appreciate the plays, and there's something to be said for reading the plays quietly on your own, one after another. Eventually you get oriented to his world and language, and it comes easier. Precisely because the language and some of the literary and historical allusions are unfamiliar though, reading an annotated edition of the plays is a must. About the only play I don't like is the ridiculous Titus Andronicus. Even if Camille Paglia defends it, I think the best that could be said of it is that it's comforting to know even Shakespeare can flub it. As for Shakespeare's poetry, I do love the sonnets madly. But Shakespeare's longer poems, such as Rape of Lucrece and Venus and Adonis? Not so much.
