Movies Based On Plays

I have a few movies, mainly from the 60′s and 70′s, that I have always appreciated for the great and compelling dialogue, well presented by exceptional actors. A few that come to mind are:

• A Man For All Seasons by Robert Bolt (with Paul Scofield, Robert Shaw, John Hurt, and Orson Wells)
• Inherit the Wind by Lawrence and Lee (with Spencer Tracy and Gene Kelly)
• Judgement at Nuremberg by Abby Mann (here the excellent screenplay became a great play)
• The Lion in Winter by James Goldman (Peter O’Toole, Katherine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, and Timothy Dalton)
• A Few Good Men by Aaron Sorkin (Jack Nicholson, Kiefer Sutherland, Kevin Bacon, Demi Moore, and Tom Cruise)
• The Crucible by Arthur Miller (Daniel Day-Lewis, Winona Ryder, and Paul Scofield)

I’ve felt for a long time that good movies are carried by dialogue, a good plot, and good acting. Special effects should be there to support these three elements, and these movies exemplify this extremely well. One could argue that for a play to receive critical and public success these three items are critical, and so a movie that doesn’t weaken these elements will generally be good.

Arghh! I just realised! In all but one of these movies courtroom scenes play a critical role. Maybe I should rethink my taste in movies…

In case you are interested, Wikipedia has a nice partial list of movies based on plays or musicals. I would also recommend movies based on plays by the following authors (movies based on good books are an entirely different and larger issue):

• Robert Bolt (A Man For All Seasons, Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, The Bounty, The Mission)
• Arthur Miller (Death of a Salesman, The Crucible)
• Tennessee Williams (Cat On a Hot Tin Roof, The Glass Menagerie, A Streetcar Named Desire, Night of the Iguana)
• Neil Simon (The Odd Couple, The Goodbye Girls, etc)
• George Bernard Shaw (My Fair Lady)
• Oscar Wilde (The Importance of Being Earnest)

Don’t forget popcorn.