Shakespeare films in the classroom

Teachers and students alike enjoy the opportunity to supplement their study of Shakespeare's texts with filmed productions. But there are so many video versions of Shakespeare's plays, and they vary so much! Some of the best are little known but easily available - while many "popular" versions are notorious for their distortions of the text. Professor McMurtry provides this descriptive guide to over 100 films for all teachers, high school and college, who want to bring the excitement of drama into the classroom without misleading students about Shakespeare's plays. Librarians building solid educational video collections will benefit, too, as will reference librarians needing quick access to information. McMurtry answers every important question for each film: Who is in the cast? To what extent is Shakespeare's text cut or rearranged? And - most important - how do today's students respond to a particular film? Detailed commentary covers costumes, settings, and the actors' interpretations of their roles, while the overall strengths and weaknesses of each film are evaluated from a literary perspective. . Nearly all films cited in this annotated reference are available on videotape and/or videodisk, and purchase and rental information is given. A second appendix of analogues and variations describes films related to Shakespeare's plays.

Beyond its central premise, the book can be read through the connected lenses of Fiction. Those themes offer useful points of attention as the characters, ideas, or world develop, especially where the book complicates the expectations of its primary category.