Laurence Olivier's best filmed Shakespeare adaptation

I should've specified: filmed Shakespeare directed by Larry.

Branagh/McKellen's Richard III supersedes Larry/Larry's Richard III, not in the least due to Maggie Smith's so-good-it-fucked-me-up performance in it

I haven't seen Olivier's Othello for the obvious reasons but my bf is trying to get me to relent and watch it. "You love 'A Touch Of Evil', how is Charlton Heston in brownface any different?" He tells me it's a landmark.

I'd rather watch anything than Henry V again, god I can't stand the Henrys. Voted Hamlet, Olivier is great in it. Bf (he likes Shakespeare) tells me that Branagh, again, has delivered the definitive version, but that it's so long in its unabridged form that it's a "whole afternoon" of watching it, and I'm looking forward to that afternoon.

I like Richard III!

Branagh plays Hamlet as an ill-lettered boor imo.

I've watched bits of the Othello (which he didn't direct). It's a filmed TV play and the production values tainted my curiosity.

I can't watch that dick Branagh in anything tbh.

Olivier's a bad film actor too, but he has exceptions (That Hamilton Woman, Rebecca, Hamlet, Bunny Lake is Missing) and a great one (Carrie).

Yes, he's an enormous ham.

His talent for bitchy malice also well used in Sleuth, a film that looks more and more 'queer' in every sense as time goes on.

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gotta go with Clash of the Titans

I'd go with Henry V being the best film, but his performance in Richard III is one of his greatest. (Personal favorite on film would be his performance as George Hurstwood in Carrie.)

(Still prefer Welles and Kurosawa when it comes to Shakespeare on film.)

What bird said, both posts.

His performance in Carrie is his best non-Shakespeare, yeah, followed by Rebecca and The Entertainer (old faker plays old faker).

Olivier's Henry V is pure bravura and sentimentally patriotic rah-rah, but that's exactly what's called for. It's how William S. wrote the part and if you can't stomach that, it's on him, Sir Laurence. ofc, he plays it up for all it's worth. After all, it was released in 1944.

on William, not Sir Laurence

i like his Richard III, i feel like tolerance for a thick slice of ham is part of the deal with Olivier generally

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