Case Study #11: The Case of the Centuries-Old Heart Beating in the Zeitgeist of my Youth
[Published on the Facebook Group Thunkity Thunk: An Open Ideas Forum on July 14, 2020]
The 1990s section of the Wikipedia page on "the History of film" just has two paragraphs, but their sentences cover a wide variety of topics -- from the parallel rise of special effects-heavy studio hits (such as 1991's Terminator 2: Judgement Day and 1993's Jurassic Park) and independently-produced surprises (such as 1989's Sex, Lies, and Videotape and 1992's Reservoir Dogs); to quirky foreign experiments (such as the Dogma 95 movement); to the boom in animated family films; to the transition to digital film making and projection, as well as the shift from VHS to DVD as the preferred home viewing option. Nowhere in there, though, is there mention of one of the strangest trends of that era -- one which has continued strongly but unnoticed to this day, yet which had most of its highlights in that decade just before the centuries switched. To put it plainly, I mean the prevalence of Shakespeare adaptations on film.
The other night, I began to recollect how many of those I saw in my high school, college, and post-college years, and that led me, this morning, to look closely at whether my generation's experience with this phenomenon has differed from other generations' cinematic exposure to the Bard. Wikipedia also has a page called "List of William Shakespeare screenplay adaptations," broken down by title of play and then year of release and other film information. I made a spreadsheet of my own, tallying how many silver screen Shakespeare adaptations came out each decade, from the 1890s through the 2010s. I included releases from all over the world, not just those in English, and I included silent films. I didn't, however, include made-for-television productions, animated movies, or straight-to-video releases. I wanted to gauge to what degree those old Elizabethan plays were prominent content in adults' film going experience.
Below are my results, with the decades reordered from that with the most number of Shakespeare film adaptations to that with the least:
1. 2000s: 32
2. 1990s: 28
3. 1910s: 23
4. 2010s: 22
5. 1950s & 1960s: 20 & 20
6. 1980s: 19
7. 1970s: 14
8. 1900s: 12
9. 1940s: 11
10. 1930s: 9
11. 1920s: 7
12. 1890s: 1
In the early days of film, there was less original content, since the art form was mostly seen as an extension of stage plays. Thus, the high placement of the 1910s on this list, with early film producers in Hollywood and New York turning to intellectual properties their audiences would be familiar with. (The 1900s could be low because the further back you go in film history, the more you have to factor in lost films; Martin Scorsese's Film Foundation estimates that 90% of films made before 1929 are lost). By the 20s and 30s, though, writers had begun to get the hang of pouring their own creativity into the mold of this new medium, so from there on up through the 20th Century's ladder of decades, the increase of Shakespeare adaptations was slight, especially when compared to the ballooning output of motion picture releases overall.
Speaking of that, the number of films released each year has increased exponentially, in fact beyond the demand that can be tracked by ticket sales over time. In an August 14, 2017, blog post, film data expert Stephen Follows explains that this oversupply of product is due to the increasing ease of making and distributing films. He also notes that in 2016, there were 736 films released in the United States. The graph he provides shows that in 1980 the total was only a little over 100. (Incidentally, he provides another graph tracking studio releases versus non-studio releases in the US from 1995 to 2016, and the former stays almost flat -- in fact, it actually dips down a little -- while the latter stretches upward like a bent paperclip). This makes it all the more remarkable that by the end of the century, when the overall film output had increased so much that consumers couldn't even keep up with all of it, in an entertainment medium made up of dozens of genres -- just a few of which tend to dominate top box office consistently -- Shakespeare adaptations not only doubled from what they'd been in the 1970s (the last time independent cinema led Americans to feel comfortable viewing subjects outside their comfort zone), they also produced an inordinate number of critical and popular hits.
Certainly, I'll admit the top decade in my study here was actually the 2000s, with the 2010s not too far behind. But I say these two recent decades are actually spillover from what began in the 1990s, especially considering neither of them has produced the kind of memorable smashes that that end-of-the-millennium one did. In theory, each decade should have standout examples of the Shakespeare adaptation genre, such as Laurence Olivier's 1948 portrayal of Hamlet or Franco Zeffirelli's 1968 production of Romeo and Juliet. Yet all I can think of from the last two decades is the claymation dud "Gnomeo & Juliet." On the other hand, the 1990s had smash adaptation after adaptation, with big names behind and in front of the camera and the spectrum of approaches ranging from period-perfect recreations to modern day retellings to fractured reinterpretations. (On top of that, one of the biggest hits of the decade was 1998's Shakespeare in Love, directed by John Madden). It was like the message was: with Shakespeare, everybody can access the same basic material to produce their own, unique, quality product.
I'll rattle off a couple dozen of the highlights from that decade here, beginning with one from the year before and ending with some from the beginning of the next decade to show the build up and cresting of this deluge that has turned Shakespeare adaptations into a cinematic trope as commonplace as cops-n-robbers thrillers or meet-cute romance comedies.
1989: Henry V (directed by and starring Kenneth Branagh)
1990: Hamlet (directed by Franco Zeffirelli and starring Mel Gibson, Glen Close, and Helena Bonham Carter)
1990: Rosencrantz and Guildenstern Are Dead (AKA, "Hamlet" sidebar, written and directed by Tom Stoppard and starring Tim Roth, Gary Oldman, and Richard Dreyfuss)
1991: Prospero's Book's (AKA, "The Tempest," directed by Peter Greenaway and starring John Guilgud)
1991: My Own Private Idaho (AKA, "Henry IV, Part 1," directed by Gus Van Sant and starring River Phoenix and Keanu Reeves)
1992: As You Like It (directed by Christine Edzard and starring James Fox and Cyril Cusack)
1993: Much Ado About Nothing (directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring him, Emma Thompson, Keanu Reeves, Denzel Washington, Robert Sean Leonard, Kate Beckinsale, and Michael Keaton)
1994: The Lion King (AKA, "Hamlet" on the savannah, directed by Roger Allers and Rob Minkoff, and the only instance where I break my No Animation Considered rule, because this was a cultural phenomenon that pulled adults into its sway)
1995: Othello (directed by Oliver Parker and starring Lawrence Fishburn, Irene Jacob, Kenneth Branagh)
1995: Richard III (directed by Richard Loncraine and starring Ian McKellen and Annette Benning)
1996: Hamlet (directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring him and Kate Winslet and Julie Christie)
1996: Twelfth Night or What You Will (directed by Trevor Nunn and starring Helena Bonham Carter and Richard E. Grant)
1996: Romeo + Juliet (directed by Baz Luhrmann and starring Leonard DiCaprio and Clare Danes)
1996: Looking for Richard (directed by and starring Al Pacino, about a production of "Richard III")
1997: A Thousand Acres (AKA, "King Lear," directed by Jocelyn Moorhouse and starring Michelle Pfeiffer, Jessica Lange, Jennifer Jason Lee, and Jason Robards)
1999: A Midsummer Night's Dream (directed by Michael Hoffman and starring Kevin Kline and Michelle Pfeiffer)
1999: 10 Things I Hate About You (AKA, "The Taming of the Shrew," directed by Gil Junger and starring Julia Stiles and Heath Ledger)
1999: Titus (AKA "Titus Andronicus," directed by Julie Taymor and starring Anthony Hopkins and Jessica Lange)
2000: Romeo Must Die (AKA "Romeo and Juliet," directed by Andrej Bartkowiak and starring Jet Li and Aaliyah)
2000: Love's Labor Lost (directed by Kenneth Branagh and starring him, Alessandro Nivola, and Alicia Silverstone)
2000: Hamlet (directed by Michael Almereyda and starring Ethan Hawke, Diane Venora, Kyle McLachlan, and Julia Stiles)
2001: Scotland, PA (AKA, "MacBeth," directed by William Morrissette and starring Starring James LeGros, Maura Tierney, and Christopher Walken)
2001: O (AKA, "Othello," directed by Tim Blake Nelson and starring Mekhi Phifer, Julia Stiles, and Josh Hartnett)
What stands out immediately there for me is the great debt we owe to Sir Kenneth Branagh for spearheading so many big screen Shakespeare adaptations, and thus inspiring many others to do the same (just as he was likely inspired by Franco Zeffirelli). Digging deeper, though, when I superimpose that list over all the other studio and independent hits of the 1990s, I can't help but wonder at this impressively literary throughline during a decade otherwise known for mashing up other decades' styles, to the point that the question of what was done in earnest and what was just an ironic wink came to define that era more than anything else.
Shakespeare's plays are Western culture's Ur text, a dependable anchor of authenticity to return to when everything else seems to be drifting away from each other out to sea, pushed by the tides of ill-thought-out experiment and fickle audience preferences. This classical genre lends that era just before the end of the century a gravitas it otherwise lacks.
Perhaps like a healthy body, the zeitgeist carries in its bosom an element that beats a strong, consistent rhythm, sending underappreciated support to all the far flung, interconnected systems. That's the heart: what we seek in another and what we aim for, just as Shakespeare is our target for inspiration and acclaim.
As A Tribe Called Quest rapped on "Excursions," on their 1991 album The Low End Theory:
Beats that are hard, beats that are funky
It could get you hooked like a crackhead junkie
What you gotta do is know that Tribe's in this sphere
The Abstract Poet, prominent like Shakespeare