Further Learning Project: Modern Retelling Films
Shakespeare, Film and Media focused specifically on true-to-text adaptations of William Shakespeare’s plays Much Ado About Nothing, Othello, Hamlet and Henry V. But several films have been made that were inspired by the same plot or themes that Shakespeare wrote about 400 years ago. Though this course only briefly mentioned these adaptations, the course did provide myself and students alike with a framework to look at Shakespearian based films with a new, creative and individual eye. By using the knowledge I gained through watching films by Shakespearian directors like Kenneth Branagh and Laurence Olivier, I will look at three films and one television show with the same lens I did all throughout the semester. I will be exploring; She’s the Man (based on Twelfth Night), 10 Things I Hate About You (Taming of the Shrew), The Lion King (Hamlet) and Empire (King Lear) with reference to how a specific moment in the course changed the way I now see these popular films.
In this Further Learning section I re-watched films that are known as being modern, Shakespearian retellings for a young audience and familiarized myself with the plays of which they are based. I took note of which similarities existed and what thoughts the film or show provoked in me, as if I were doing a thought paper like we did throughout the year. With this self-assigned work, I hope to demonstrate that Shakespeare’s themes are relevant to today’s society, that I have an understanding of both film and play and that this course has changed my expression of thought in watching Shakespeare based films.
She's The Man (2006)
She's The Man. Dir. Andy Fickman. Perf. Amanda Bynes. Dream Works Pictures, 2006. Image.
She’s the Man, directed by Andy Fickman in 2006, stars Amanda Bynes as Viola, who impersonates her twin-brother Sebastian. The film is a modern retelling of Shakespeare’s original work Twelfth Night aimed at a teen audience. While Bynes’s Viola masquerades as a male to prove girl’s can play soccer just as well as boys. Shakespeare’s Viola does it for her own protection and ambition. She’s the Man references quotes from Twelfth Night such as “Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some have greatness thrust upon them,” said by Malvolio in Act II, Scene V. While in She’s the Man it’s referenced as a motivating quote said by the coach to encourage the men’s soccer team. Even the names of characters and places are still used, the school Illyria is named after the country where the play is set. Cesario is a name of a pizza place location in the film but the character Viola impersonates as in Twelfth Night. Orsino is a Duke in the play, the film has a character named Duke Orsino. Other characters with the same names are Toby, Andrew and Malvolio.
The themes of Twelfth Night are still relevant as being a man in modern society is still the safest position to be in. Whether it be to protect yourself or prove sex makes no difference in sports, the debate of which is the better sex is still occurring, when the attention should be on both sexes being equal.
When watching this film with a new lens, I noticed I found myself picking out references that I had missed before. For example, on Viola’s first day of school she walks by a sign that says “As You Like It?” a reference to a secondary title of Twelfth Night. I had been reminded of characters like Beatrice who were strong-headed and witty through Bynes’s performance of Viola. It reminded me of when I questioned in a thought paper if Shakespeare wrote Ophelia in Hamlet the way he did and had his characters treat her disrespectfully and controlling because he didn’t like women. Seeing a strong character like Viola whose heavily based on the one Shakespeare wrote, gave me a comparison to answer that question and explore Shakespeare’s writing as a set of works rather than individual plays like I’d previously studied them.
The fact that the language, dress and theme are modern does not detract from the fact that this is a movie clearly based on a Shakespearian work. It holds the same values as Branagh’s close-to-script adaptions or Whedon’s same-script, different-setting style.
What’s even more interesting is that this film is advertised as a re-telling of As You Like It, and its target audience is teenagers in high school. This is the first time teens typically encounter Shakespeare in their lives through English classes. I think the value of advertising its origins helps ease teens into reading Shakespeare. I remember being in school when it came out and in studying it I thought a lot about the film and comparing it to what I was reading. Not only that, it helped me understand what was happening because I had a framework customized to my abilities at the time.
All in all, I think having done a rewatch of this film after taking Shakespeare, Film & Media helped me see the film in a new light. I was more aware of it as a Shakespeare retelling and thought a lot about the other works we’ve studied during this course.
10 Things I Hate About You (1999)
10 Things I Hate About You Dir. Gil Junger. Perf. Julia Stiles, Heath Ledger. Touch Stone Pictures, 1999. Image.
10 Things I Hate About You, directed by Gil Junger in 1999, stars Heath Ledger and Julia Stiles as Patrick Verona and Kat Stratford, respectively. The film is a modern retelling of Taming of the Shrew aimed at a teen audience. The relation the film has to the play is heavily set on the character Hortensio being in lust with Bianca (same-name in the film) and paying Petruchio to marry her sister Kate so Bianca is available. With Petruchio confident he can win her affection because he feels he is a “shrew tamer,” they’re met with the unforeseeable event that Katherine will object to Petruchio’s interest. Replace a few names and there’s your plot to 10 Things I Hate About You.
Some references this film makes to Taming of the Shrew is when Cameron says the line “I burn, I pine, I perish” about Bianca, which is in Act I, Scene I of the play. The play also has a strong sense of gender stereotypes and power when it portrays male-bonding and masculinity in hand with the expected roles of women in marriage with a contrasting character like Kate. While these are prevalent in the film, what’s interesting is that the characters themselves fit into a high-school induced “stereotype,” you have the weird art-kid Patrick, the jock ladies love Joey, the nerd-tag-along friend Michael, the strong headed feminist Kat, the dumb, hot girl Bianca, and the list goes on and on.
This makes the film relevant to a modern, young audience who is experiencing Shakespeare for one of the first times in their lives. The film was released 16 years ago and is still one of the most popular Shakespeare retellings for teens. It goes to show that the themes Shakespeare wrote about 400 years ago will always be relevant in society.
This film focuses more of its attention on referencing Shakespeare’s work as a whole. Kat and Patrick take an English class together which focuses on sonnets. Not only does the teacher rap a few lines of the opening to Sonnet 121, he assigns the class to rewrite the sonnet in their own words. The sonnet starts “In faith, I do not love thee with mine eyes, / For they in thee a thousand errors note;” which means my eyes do not love you because they see a thousand flaws in you. Kat’s version is the highly recognized “I hate the way you talk to me, and the way you cut your hair.” It follows the same idea of the sonnet but is completely original, it also is directed at Patrick after falling in love with him and finding out he pursued her in the interest of money only to reveal she hates herself more for not hating him at all.
When watching the film I noticed myself thinking of the issue of stunt-casting which we explored in class. How if you cast someone famous like Benedick Cumerbatch in a role like Hamlet, will the audience be able to separate the celebrity from the character enough that it’s both believable but recognizable enough to pull you in to buy a ticket? The late Heath Ledger and early 2000’s star Julia Stiles are well-known actors who truly convince you they’re the characters they’re playing. I think also that Heath did this movie young enough in his career that the film is anchored by his status, but the film does not anchor him. He went on to pursue other famous projects, which shows the movie did not type cast him. When watching the film, Ledger portrays the likeable, bad boy turned good guy character Patrick so well you get lost from the idea that he’s a celebrity.
By adding this film to my modern re-watch list I feel like I’ve gotten myself into a grove of looking at films with a new perspective. Though I’ve seen 10 Things I Hate About You before, I never connected it to Shakespeare quite like I did with She’s The Man. By re-watching it with Shakespeare, Film and Media in mind it was like watching an entirely new film and references were subtly dropped to Shakespeare in places I’d have never thought to look.
The Lion King (1994)
The Lion King Dir. Roger Allers, Rob Minkoff. Perf. Matthew Broderick. Walt Disney Pictures, 1994. Image.
The Lion King, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minoff, stars Matthew Broderick (Adult Simba) and Jonathan Taylor Thomas (Young Simba) in the animated retelling of Hamlet set in the jungles of Africa aimed at children as it is about talking animals. It follows the plot of Hamlet because both Hamlet and Simba are sons to the King. Both of their fathers (Hamlet Sr. and Mufasa) are killed by the hands of their malicious uncle’s (Claudious and Scar). The uncle marries the prince’s mother, their sister-in-law and assume the position of King. Both princes decide to seek revenge and decide to face their demons head on with help from a premonition of their deceased fathers. There’s also a “shout-out” type moment to Hamlet when Scar is singing the coconut song and is holding a skull in his hand like Hamlet did with “Alas, Poor Yorick.”
What differentiates this film from the others I’ve explored is the fact that it’s a modern retelling for children. The people intended to view this film will likely have never encountered Shakespeare as a playwright. On IMDB I read that the film was pitched as “Bambi in Africa meets Hamlet” or “Bamlet” for short. This struck me because you’re taking two completely different audiences and blending them together. It made me think of the class discussion when we talked about movies being able to reach such an audience that more people saw the film on an opening night than had ever seen the original play performed. With the invention of not only film but animation, you can mesh something like Hamlet and a children’s tale together effortlessly. What’s even more interesting is that The Lion King has been adapted to Broadway stage productions. This would make the Broadway performances a play inspired by a movie inspired by a play.
Watching this film after seeing two made-for-teen remakes gave me a different perspective to look at Shakespeare films. In this sense, the remake isn’t being done to help someone understand what they’re encountering in school or point out that the themes still translate into modern life. It’s to simply entertain, as Shakespeare would have intended when he wrote his plays.
Empire (2015)
Empire. Prod. Lee Daniels. Perf. Terrance Howard, Taraji P. Henson. Fox, 2015. Image.
The final remake I wanted to quickly touch on was Empire, created and produced by Lee Daniels in 2015, stars Terrance Howard (Lucious) and Taraji P. Henson (Cookie), in the modern relling of King Lear. What sets this re-creation apart is that it is not a film but rather a television series.
I came across this remake when I took English 121 this summer and one of the projects I worked on was finding Shakespeare in modern settings. Only one episode had aired at the time so it was the most modern you could get. I kept the notes from that project in hand as I re-watched the first episode. I was now wielding pre-existing analytical knowledge from English 121 and a new toolkit from Shakespeare, Film and Media. The creator had thought “I wonder if you could do King Lear in a hip hop empire?” and that’s essentially what the show is about.
Lucious Lyon has created a rap empire for himself and is the owner of a multi-million dollar rap studio. After discovering he has a serious life-threatening illness, he decides he needs to give his business to one of his three sons; Hakeem, Jamal and Andre, all wielding their own strengths and weaknesses. The show is self-aware of its presentation of King Lear as in the first episode one of the sons asks “We King Lear now?” and makes several references to taking over the “throne” as “King.”
It also drops hints at Shakespeare in general when Andre’s wife, Rhonda, who is seen closely to a Lady MacBeth character, utters the words “out, damned spot” from MacBeth. Rhonda gets Andre to turn against his brothers and the quote is in relation to Lucious who murdered his friend Bunkie and will never live it down.
Re-watching this show made me immediately think of my thought paper on Hollow Crown. This retelling isn’t a film like the rest of the films I watched and it changed the way the story was presented. We built up progressively to action, plot and unexpected twists differently than a play or movie would. Instead, we’re given snippets of these people’s lives and have to wait one week to find out what happens next. The story also isn’t one that’s concrete. While the writers give us what’s happening to our characters now, they may not know what’s going to happen to the character in the final episode. Where in a movie, the entire production is sorted out by the time we see the first five minutes of a character on screen.