8 Famous Plays That Made Really Good Films
A Few Good Men: Aaron Sorkin got his start as a playwright before creating successful TV series like The West Wing and penning films like The American President and The Social Network. First produced on Broadway in 1989, A Few Good Men was a courtroom drama that trafficked in what would become trademark Sorkin elements: fast dialogue, impassioned speeches, and a story revolving around a group of people weighing the cost of doing the right thing. Tom Hulce was nominated for a Tony in the role of Lt. Kaffee, a role that would be played by Tom Cruise in the 1992 film version that saw Cruise battling Jack Nicholson for scene-chewing supremacy. The translation works in large part because of the nature of the court-based story, which has a minimum of locations once the trial gets rolling. Sorkin adapted the play for the screen, too, which lets the final product keep the crackle and pace of the original.
We Follow Orders or People Die
A Few Good Men at MOVIECLIPS.com
Glengarry Glen Ross: David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1984, instantly kicking him up a notch in terms of name recognition and taking his career to even greater heights. Peppered with expletives and elliptical phrases, his dark, brutal tale of real estate salesmen and the cutthroat competition that defines their lives is a modern classic. The 1992 film version is remarkably faithful, too, taking place almost entirely within the confines of the ratty sales office and the nearby Chinese restaurant. It's a series of fantastic monologues, fights, and insults strung together with the narrative of a robbery, and it's packed with killer performances. One major difference from the play is the one-scene wonder that is Alec Baldwin, performing in a role written just for the film.
Doubt: Another Pulitzer and Tony winner, John Patrick Shanley'sDoubt is a harrowing, amazing examination of the nature of truth and lies set against the backdrop of the Catholic church and its attendant sex scandals. It's only got four characters, and the story is a series of shifting conversations and confrontations as they try to figure out what really happened between a priest and a young boy. Although the film understandably expands the settings and rhythms -- a two-hour movie of static conversations would be pretty dull -- it hews pretty close to the source material. Both productions had amazing acting talent, to boot: while Cherry Jones won raves for her performance as Sister Aloysius on stage, Meryl Streep earned similar acclaim for the film. One of the more pure stage-to-screen translations available.
Dial M for Murder: It's Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film that most people remember when they think of Dial M for Murder, but the thriller actually started life as play. Writer Frederick Knott adapted his script for the screen, and had he been working for anyone other than Hitchcock, the play and film might have enjoyed a dual life together. But Hitchcock was, well, the master of suspense for decades, and Dial M for Murder was one of the many classics he churned out during his productive run. The play also premiered shortly before it was turned into a film: the story appeared on the BBC in 1952 and on London's West End that year, and the film came out two years later. As such, the profile of the movie eclipsed the stage treatment.
Biloxi Blues: All three of the plays in Neil Simon's "Eugene Trilogy" have been adapted for the screen (in a neat twist, Jonathan Silverman, who played Eugene in the film version of Brighton Beach Memoirs, would reprise the role on stage in Broadway Bound), butBiloxi Blues probably has the highest popular standing today. The play centers on Eugene Jerome, who gets drafted by the Army during World War II and heads to Biloxi, Mississippi, for basic training. Matthew Broderick played Eugene on stage and in the film, and he's got the ideal mix of boyish charm and jaded sarcasm to make it work. He also got to go up against Christopher Walken as the drill sergeant, and it's easy to forget just how good Walken is because he makes work look effortless. The film isn't a groundbreaking human drama or anything, but it is a very honest and endearing comedy.
Frost/Nixon: What made Frost/Nixon work so well as a film was its cast: Michael Sheen and Frank Langella starred as David Frost and Richard Nixon, and they were reprising the roles they'd originated when the work began as a play in London in 2006. Sheen and Langella were steeped in the roles, and Peter Morgan's play was expertly drawn to let the two men get closer to each other emotionally while also gearing up for a climactic confrontation about Nixon's involvement with Watergate. Ron Howard's film version is a strong adaptation, too, with a script from Morgan that expands on the story and also takes advantage of its medium to use flashbacks and montages to create an inherently cinematic experience.
When the President Does It, It's Not Illegal
Frost/Nixon at MOVIECLIPS.com
The Laramie Project: The Laramie Project debuted in February 2000 as a reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was murdered in the Wyoming town of Laramie by attackers spurred on by homophobia. Written by Moises Kaufman and actors from the Tectonic Theater Company based on interviews with Laramie citizens, the play is a powerful re-creation of the social environment in which Shepard lived and died. The play debuted in Denver before transitioning to New York and eventually making its way back to Laramie. In 2002, Kaufman directed a film version for HBO that dugu even deeper into the story of Shepard's death and dealt with the touching and painful interviews the townspeople gave after his murder. The film received, among other honors, a special mention at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Edward Albee's uncompromising psychodrama feels horribly violent, even though there's no bloodshed. Rather, it's so emotionally raw in its depiction of a crumbling relationship that at times it feels like a punishment to watch. The play, which debuted on Broadway in 1962, won multiple Tony Awards as well the Pulitzer for drama. It was turned into a riveting 1966 film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as the older, hateful couple whose mind games lead them to ruin. It's a bracing film, and it was so controversial at the time of its release that the word "screw" was omitted. In fact, the film's willingness to push the bounds of what was considered cinematic decency was one of the things that led to the institution of the official ratings system in 1968.
The First Page: The First Page started life on Broadway in 1928 as a straightforward comedy by former reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur about a reporter and editor scheming to get a major scoop. It was adapted into a film of the same in 1931 that stuck with the basic story. However, it became a genuine classic when it was made into His Girl Friday in 1940, a version that turned the reporter into a woman and made her the editor's ex-wife. The screwball energy was perfect, thanks to direction by Howard Hawks and predictably winning performances from Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. The gender-adjustment took the story to a new level, and His Girl Friday essentially overshadowed the play that spawned it.
What's His Name?
His Girl Friday at MOVIECLIPS.com
The Odd Couple: Neil Simon's impact on pop culture and the American theater is a major one. In 1965, The Odd Couple premiered on stage with Art Carnay as the neurotic Felix Ungar and Walter Matthau as the slovenly Oscar Madison. Both roles would eventually see new actors inhabit them (Jack Klugman took over for Matthau and later reprised the role on TV), but it was Matthau and Jack Lemmon's indelible pairing in the 1968 film version that cemented the story's status and the duo's chemistry in the collective consciousness. The two actors are perfect together, and they work so well across from one another that they were called upon to revive the vibe for Grumpy Old Men and the significantly less entertaining The Odd Couple II. Still, we'll always have the original.
Oscar Breaks Down
The Odd Couple at MOVIECLIPS.com
It's tougher than you might think to turn a play into a film. Action that's confined on the stage to one or a few locations has to be translated to multiple sets and rooms; stories that unfold over a day or two are fleshed out to simulate the passage of time. Most importantly, though, film is a medium of minor details, and what plays well on stage looks like exaggerated hamming on the screen. The really good films based on plays are able to take the same plots, characters, and emotional beats meant to play to packed houses and turn them into intimate, tightly focused works of art that work at home or in the megaplex. (For the sake of narrowing it down, this list just deals with straight-ahead plays, not musicals.) Even if you've never seen the stage plays, these films stand on their own:
A Few Good Men: Aaron Sorkin got his start as a playwright before creating successful TV series like The West Wing and penning films like The American President and The Social Network. First produced on Broadway in 1989, A Few Good Men was a courtroom drama that trafficked in what would become trademark Sorkin elements: fast dialogue, impassioned speeches, and a story revolving around a group of people weighing the cost of doing the right thing. Tom Hulce was nominated for a Tony in the role of Lt. Kaffee, a role that would be played by Tom Cruise in the 1992 film version that saw Cruise battling Jack Nicholson for scene-chewing supremacy. The translation works in large part because of the nature of the court-based story, which has a minimum of locations once the trial gets rolling. Sorkin adapted the play for the screen, too, which lets the final product keep the crackle and pace of the original.
We Follow Orders or People Die
A Few Good Men at MOVIECLIPS.com
Glengarry Glen Ross: David Mamet's Glengarry Glen Ross won the Pulitzer Prize for drama in 1984, instantly kicking him up a notch in terms of name recognition and taking his career to even greater heights. Peppered with expletives and elliptical phrases, his dark, brutal tale of real estate salesmen and the cutthroat competition that defines their lives is a modern classic. The 1992 film version is remarkably faithful, too, taking place almost entirely within the confines of the ratty sales office and the nearby Chinese restaurant. It's a series of fantastic monologues, fights, and insults strung together with the narrative of a robbery, and it's packed with killer performances. One major difference from the play is the one-scene wonder that is Alec Baldwin, performing in a role written just for the film.
Doubt: Another Pulitzer and Tony winner, John Patrick Shanley'sDoubt is a harrowing, amazing examination of the nature of truth and lies set against the backdrop of the Catholic church and its attendant sex scandals. It's only got four characters, and the story is a series of shifting conversations and confrontations as they try to figure out what really happened between a priest and a young boy. Although the film understandably expands the settings and rhythms -- a two-hour movie of static conversations would be pretty dull -- it hews pretty close to the source material. Both productions had amazing acting talent, to boot: while Cherry Jones won raves for her performance as Sister Aloysius on stage, Meryl Streep earned similar acclaim for the film. One of the more pure stage-to-screen translations available.
Dial M for Murder: It's Alfred Hitchcock's 1954 film that most people remember when they think of Dial M for Murder, but the thriller actually started life as play. Writer Frederick Knott adapted his script for the screen, and had he been working for anyone other than Hitchcock, the play and film might have enjoyed a dual life together. But Hitchcock was, well, the master of suspense for decades, and Dial M for Murder was one of the many classics he churned out during his productive run. The play also premiered shortly before it was turned into a film: the story appeared on the BBC in 1952 and on London's West End that year, and the film came out two years later. As such, the profile of the movie eclipsed the stage treatment.
Biloxi Blues: All three of the plays in Neil Simon's "Eugene Trilogy" have been adapted for the screen (in a neat twist, Jonathan Silverman, who played Eugene in the film version of Brighton Beach Memoirs, would reprise the role on stage in Broadway Bound), butBiloxi Blues probably has the highest popular standing today. The play centers on Eugene Jerome, who gets drafted by the Army during World War II and heads to Biloxi, Mississippi, for basic training. Matthew Broderick played Eugene on stage and in the film, and he's got the ideal mix of boyish charm and jaded sarcasm to make it work. He also got to go up against Christopher Walken as the drill sergeant, and it's easy to forget just how good Walken is because he makes work look effortless. The film isn't a groundbreaking human drama or anything, but it is a very honest and endearing comedy.
Frost/Nixon: What made Frost/Nixon work so well as a film was its cast: Michael Sheen and Frank Langella starred as David Frost and Richard Nixon, and they were reprising the roles they'd originated when the work began as a play in London in 2006. Sheen and Langella were steeped in the roles, and Peter Morgan's play was expertly drawn to let the two men get closer to each other emotionally while also gearing up for a climactic confrontation about Nixon's involvement with Watergate. Ron Howard's film version is a strong adaptation, too, with a script from Morgan that expands on the story and also takes advantage of its medium to use flashbacks and montages to create an inherently cinematic experience.
When the President Does It, It's Not Illegal
Frost/Nixon at MOVIECLIPS.com
The Laramie Project: The Laramie Project debuted in February 2000 as a reaction to the 1998 murder of Matthew Shepard, a gay college student who was murdered in the Wyoming town of Laramie by attackers spurred on by homophobia. Written by Moises Kaufman and actors from the Tectonic Theater Company based on interviews with Laramie citizens, the play is a powerful re-creation of the social environment in which Shepard lived and died. The play debuted in Denver before transitioning to New York and eventually making its way back to Laramie. In 2002, Kaufman directed a film version for HBO that dugu even deeper into the story of Shepard's death and dealt with the touching and painful interviews the townspeople gave after his murder. The film received, among other honors, a special mention at the Berlin International Film Festival.
Who's Afraid of Virginia Woolf?: Edward Albee's uncompromising psychodrama feels horribly violent, even though there's no bloodshed. Rather, it's so emotionally raw in its depiction of a crumbling relationship that at times it feels like a punishment to watch. The play, which debuted on Broadway in 1962, won multiple Tony Awards as well the Pulitzer for drama. It was turned into a riveting 1966 film directed by Mike Nichols and starring Elizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton as the older, hateful couple whose mind games lead them to ruin. It's a bracing film, and it was so controversial at the time of its release that the word "screw" was omitted. In fact, the film's willingness to push the bounds of what was considered cinematic decency was one of the things that led to the institution of the official ratings system in 1968.
The First Page: The First Page started life on Broadway in 1928 as a straightforward comedy by former reporters Ben Hecht and Charles MacArthur about a reporter and editor scheming to get a major scoop. It was adapted into a film of the same in 1931 that stuck with the basic story. However, it became a genuine classic when it was made into His Girl Friday in 1940, a version that turned the reporter into a woman and made her the editor's ex-wife. The screwball energy was perfect, thanks to direction by Howard Hawks and predictably winning performances from Rosalind Russell and Cary Grant. The gender-adjustment took the story to a new level, and His Girl Friday essentially overshadowed the play that spawned it.
What's His Name?
His Girl Friday at MOVIECLIPS.com
The Odd Couple: Neil Simon's impact on pop culture and the American theater is a major one. In 1965, The Odd Couple premiered on stage with Art Carnay as the neurotic Felix Ungar and Walter Matthau as the slovenly Oscar Madison. Both roles would eventually see new actors inhabit them (Jack Klugman took over for Matthau and later reprised the role on TV), but it was Matthau and Jack Lemmon's indelible pairing in the 1968 film version that cemented the story's status and the duo's chemistry in the collective consciousness. The two actors are perfect together, and they work so well across from one another that they were called upon to revive the vibe for Grumpy Old Men and the significantly less entertaining The Odd Couple II. Still, we'll always have the original.
Oscar Breaks Down
The Odd Couple at MOVIECLIPS.com
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