Al Pacino's desire to bring Shakespeare's work to life in film is given a unique treatment in Looking for Richard, but many other filmmakers have sought to translate the iconic dramatist's work to the screen before. From the very advent of film, directors used the Bard's work as their source material. The first film of a Shakespeare play was King John in 1899. Others followed in the silent era: a version of The Tempest in 1908, Richard III in 1911, Hamlet in 1913.
These early adaptations of Shakespeare's work were rarely faithful adoptions and took the form of excerpts of significant moments cobbled together in film. It is somewhat ironic that Shakespeare, a writer known for his verbal acuity and use of language, was so popular in the silent era, but these films brought to visual life canonical dramas, proving that his stories, inventive and compelling, could transcend the words and stand as visual representations. An article about the early films of Shakespeare in The Guardian points to an anthology from BFI called Play On!, a compilation of early Shakespearean films, writing, "It’s remarkable to see how Shakespeare’s words create powerful imagery and moving performances, even when you can’t hear them spoken out loud."
Since the silent era, Shakespeare has continued to be a popular source material for film. Classical actors and interpreters of Shakespeare, like John Gielgud and Laurence Olivier, had their interpretations immortalized on film. Directors like Kenneth Branagh brought new life to old plays, with his adaptations of Much Ado About Nothing, Hamlet, Love's Labour's Lost, Henry V, and As You Like It. Julie Taymor brought Titus Andronicus to the screen with Titus, Mel Gibson starred as Hamlet in a 1990 Franco Zeffirelli adaptation, and perhaps the most iconic recent Shakespearean adaptation is Baz Luhrman's modern, Miami-set adaptation of Romeo & Juliet, starring Claire Danes and Leonardo DiCaprio in their teenaged primes. Additionally, many directors have sought to write their own loosely based adaptations of Shakespeare's classic stories, with films like 10 Things I Hate About You and She's the Man, and musicals like West Side Story.
