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Not sure if youve heard but Shakespeare isback, babies!
At least at the Academy Awards.
In the early years of the Academy Awards, Best Picture nominations for Shakespeare adaptations were incredibly common.
But until SpielbergsWest Side Story, no adaptation had made the cut in half a century.
It was the first time that a film made outside the Hollywood studio system won Best Picture.
to deliver a two-hourHamlet.
and tossed five nominations to this Shakespeare adaptation from producer John Houseman and director Joseph L. Mankiewicz.
Those concerns proved to be unfounded, if the critical response was any indication.
The film was nominated for Best Picture and Zeffirelli for Best Director both lost toOliver!
and it won Oscars for costumes and cinematography.
Hamlet(1990)
Franco Zeffirelli back again!
But surely hisHamletwould bring home the goods.
It had Mel Gibson in the title role!
Glenn Close as Queen Gertrude!
A score by Ennio Morricone!
Art Direction and Costume Design.
We were yet a few years away from Ian McKellen being welcomed into the Oscars fold.
We do bite our thumb at thee, Oscar voters of 1996!
And so the mantle of Hollywoods great Shakespeare steward remains vacant for the moment.
What might have been.
Maybe this is the dawn of the next great Oscar era for Shakespeare.
Until then, well wait and see what tomorrow and tomorrow and tomorrow bring.
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