Whether you take [Olivier's] central performance on its own terms (as a 'definitive' reading of the part) or as high camp, it's undoubtedly interesting as a phenomenon.
Richard III
✭ ✭ ✭ ✭ Read critic reviews
United Kingdom · 1955
2h 35m
Director Laurence Olivier
Starring Cedric Hardwicke, Nicholas Hannen, Laurence Olivier, Ralph Richardson
Genre Drama, History
Add to Watchlist
Please login to add films to your watchlist.
Though having received less contemporaneous praise than his other Shakespeare films, Laurence Olivier’s Richard III is now understood to be one of the defining adaptations put to film. Employing Technicolor and VistaVision in conjunction with added fourth wall breaks, the film embraced new visual and narrative tools to bring the classic play’s jealousy, deceit, and fratricide to new heights.
What are people saying?
What are critics saying?
Donning a doozy of a puttied schnoz, a slightly exaggerated limp, and a boyish, midnight-black wig, Sir Laurence Olivier feels more at home in the eponymous role of his own adaptation of Richard III than he does in any of his other storied roles, holding and releasing the succulent prose with unerring confidence and clarity.
The New Yorker by Pauline Kael
As director and star, Olivier succeeds with the soliloquies as neither he nor anyone else ever did on film before; they're intimate, yet brazen.
Laurence Olivier gives the textbook course on Shakespearean villainy as crown-stealing schemer Richard. Considered by many to be Olivier's best take on the Bard. [22 Feb 2004]
The New York Times by Vincent Canby
Of all Olivier's Shakespearean films, Richard III is, to my way of thinking, the most satisfying, the most surprising and - it has to be said - the funniest. [24 Apr 1981, p.C6]
Users who liked this film also liked
Fight Club
A man, thoroughly dissatisfied with his life, finds new meaning when he forms a fight club with soap salesman Tyler Durden.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Germany, United States • 1999
- Director David Fincher
- Cast Edward Norton, Brad Pitt, Helena Bonham Carter, Meat Loaf, Jared Leto, Zach Grenier
- Genre Drama
- Available on Hulu, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Full Metal Jacket
Vietnam can kill me, but it can’t make me care.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1987
- Director Stanley Kubrick
- Cast Matthew Modine, Adam Baldwin, Vincent D'Onofrio, R. Lee Ermey, Dorian Harewood, Arliss Howard
- Genre Drama, War
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Tubi TV
My Name Is Joe
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Germany, France • 1998
- Director Ken Loach
- Cast Peter Mullan, Louise Goodall, David McKay, Gary Lewis, David Hayman, Lorraine McIntosh
- Genre Drama, Romance, Crime
- Available on Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube
Fist of Fury
(精武門)
A young man seeks vengeance for the death of his teacher.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Hong Kong • 1972
- Director Lo Wei
- Cast Bruce Lee, Nora Miao, Maria Yi, James Tien Chuen, Tien Feng, Huang Chung-Hsin
- Genre Action, Drama, Thriller
- Available on Fandor, Fandor Amazon Channel, AsianCrush, Cultpix, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, YouTube, Tubi TV, Pluto TV, Cineverse, Xumo Play, Kanopy, Hoopla, Plex, Plex Channel
The Hudsucker Proxy
A naive business graduate is installed as president of a manufacturing company as part of a stock scam.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, Germany, United States • 1994
- Director Joel Coen
- Cast Tim Robbins, Jennifer Jason Leigh, Paul Newman, Charles Durning, John Mahoney, Jim True-Frost
- Genre Comedy, Drama
- Available on Criterion Channel, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand, Tubi TV, The Roku Channel, Plex, Plex Channel
The Lion in Winter
The most significant reserved seat attraction of the year!
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1968
- Director Anthony Harvey
- Cast Peter O'Toole, Katharine Hepburn, Anthony Hopkins, John Castle, Nigel Terry, Timothy Dalton
- Genre Drama, History
- Available on Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube
Richard III
I can smile, and murder while I smile
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom, United States • 1995
- Director Richard Loncraine
- Cast Ian McKellen, Annette Bening, Jim Broadbent, Robert Downey Jr., Kristin Scott Thomas, Adrian Dunbar
- Genre Drama, War
- Available on ScreenPix Apple TV Channel, Fandango At Home, The Roku Channel, Pluto TV, Hoopla
The Two Escobars
Sometimes it really is a matter of life and death.
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- Colombia • 2010
- Director Jeff Zimbalist, Michael Zimbalist
- Cast María Ester Escobar, Francisco Maturana, Alexis García V., Jaime Gaviria Gómez
- Genre Crime, Documentary
- Available on Netflix, Netflix basic with Ads
Ex Machina
After winning a contest to spend a week with the CEO of his company, coder Caleb is given the opportunity of a lifetime
- ✭ ✭ ✭ ✭
- United Kingdom • 2015
- Director Alex Garland
- Cast Domhnall Gleeson, Alicia Vikander, Oscar Isaac, Sonoya Mizuno, Corey Johnson, Claire Selby
- Genre Drama, Science Fiction
- Available on Amazon Prime Video, Amazon Prime Video with Ads, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, FlixFling, Spectrum On Demand, Kanopy
Joker
A failed stand-up comedian is driven insane, turning to a life of crime in chaos in Gotham City.
- ✭ ✭ ✭
- Canada, United States • 2019
- Director Todd Phillips
- Cast Joaquin Phoenix, Robert De Niro, Zazie Beetz, Frances Conroy, Brett Cullen, Shea Whigham
- Genre Crime, Thriller, Drama
- Available on Max Amazon Channel, Max, Apple TV, Google Play Movies, Fandango At Home, Amazon Video, Microsoft Store, YouTube, Spectrum On Demand