Best movies like King Lear
Last updated March 2024
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Plot Summary:
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 278
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: period drama
Best tv shows and movies like King Lear (1982):
Similar in 76%
Othello (1992)
Plot Summary:
The complete version of Verdi's Otello performed by Placido Domingo and Kiri Te Kanawa, at the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden. Gala Performance in honour of Sir Georg Solti's 80th birthday.. 27 October 1992. BBC 2 Television live relay.
IMDB Rating: 8.5
IMDB Votes: 82
Genere: Drama, Music, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 147 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Acting Hamlet in the Village of Mrdusa Donja (1974)
Plot Summary:
In Shakespeare's Hamlet, the leading character observes "The play's the thing, wherein to catch the conscience of the king." In this Yugoslavian movie, a performance of Hamlet in a small village apparently catches the conscience of the whole town. The village commissar, who knows nothing of the play, insists on mounting a production of Hamlet over the objections of the village teacher, who knows the tale well. Thinking only of the prestige it will bring, the commissar plans to use local villagers in the parts. The son of a man the commissar had framed for theft gets the part of Hamlet, and the commissar plays the usurping king. During a fight scene, the boy Hamlet, manages to wrest a confession to the thefts from the town treasurer, but when he hears of his father's suicide, he promptly stabs the commissar. The commissar, bleeding, orders the post-performance dance to go on.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 315
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: Yugoslavia
Duration: 96 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
Romeo & Juliet (1978)
Plot Summary:
Two households, both alike in dignity, in fair Verona where we lay our scene, from ancient grudge break to new mutiny where civil blood makes civil hands unclean. From forth the fatal loins of these two foes a pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life whose misadventur'd piteous overthrows doth with their death bury their parents' strife.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 458
Genere: Drama, Romance
Country: UK
Duration: 168 min
Plot tags: fairy tale
Similar in 77%
Macbeth (1982)
Plot Summary:
A Hungarian TV version of the play shot in just two takes.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 379
Genere: Drama
Country: Hungary
Duration: 62 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 84%
Antony & Cleopatra (1981)
Plot Summary:
Octavius Caesar (later renamed Augustus Caesar, son of the murdered Julius Caesar), Marc Antony, and Lepidus form the triumvirate, the three rulers of the Roman Empire. Antony, though married to Fulvia, spends his time in Egypt, living a life of decadence and conducting an affair with Queen Cleopatra. In Antony's absence, Caesar and Lepidus worry about Pompey's increasing strength.
IMDB Rating: 6.4
IMDB Votes: 154
Genere: Drama, History, Romance
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 170 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 76%
One Hamlet Less (1973)
Plot Summary:
The "Hamlet" in this well-mounted Italian spoof is the Danish prince, not a small town or village. The movie irreverently draws on both the Shakespeare play and the 1877 story by Jules Laforgue. In the story, Hamlet (Carmelo Bene) is a would-be playwright. He suffers from inept Freudian analysis by Polonius (Pippo Tuminelli), and Ophelia and Gertrude (Isabella Russo & Luciana Cante) are women conjured up in his erotic imagination.
IMDB Rating: 7.1
IMDB Votes: 191
Genere: Drama
Country: Italy
Duration: 70 min
Plot tags: psychedelic, experimental
Similar in 88%
National Theatre Live: King Lear (2011)
Plot Summary:
An ageing monarch. A kingdom divided. A child’s love rejected. As Lear’s world descends into chaos, all that he once believed is brought into question. One of the greatest works in Western literature, King Lear explores the very nature of human existence: love and duty, power and loss, good and evil.
IMDB Rating: 7.3
IMDB Votes: 42
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 82%
The Third Part of King Henry VI (1983)
Plot Summary:
The life of King Henry the Sixth, in three parts.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 112
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 211 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 75%
Henry IV Part II (1979)
Plot Summary:
The death of King Henry the Fourth and the coronation of King Henry the Fifth.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 152
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 150 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 78%
Henry IV Part I (1979)
Plot Summary:
Henry Bolingbroke has now been crowned King of England, but faces a rebellion headed by the embittered Earl of Northumberland and his son (nicknamed 'Hotspur'). Henry's son Hal, the Prince of Wales, has thrown over life at court in favour of heavy drinking and petty theft in the company of a debauched elderly knight, Sir John Falstaff. Hal must extricate himself from some legal problems, regain his father's good opinions and help suppress the uprising.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 220
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 79%
Macbeth (1981)
Plot Summary:
An adaptation of Shakespeare's play.
IMDB Rating: 6.6
IMDB Votes: 109
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 132 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 90%
Timon of Athens (1981)
Plot Summary:
Timon loves to give parties and objects to friends, but when he cannot pay his creditors, his "friends" refuse to help him, and he becomes a misanthropic hermit.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 137
Genere: Comedy, Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 128 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 89%
A Performance of Macbeth (1979)
Plot Summary:
Shakespeare's classic tragedy of ambition, witches and murder.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 896
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 80%
Branagh Theatre Live: The Winter's Tale (2015)
Plot Summary:
A jealous king jeopardizes his family, friendships and succession.
IMDB Rating: 7.8
IMDB Votes: 291
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 85%
King Lear (2008)
Plot Summary:
Sir Ian McKellen gives a tour-de-force performance as Shakespeare's tragic monarch, in this special television adaptation of the Royal Shakespeare Company production of one of the playwright's most enduring and haunting works.
IMDB Rating: 7.5
IMDB Votes: 644
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 156 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 84%
Pericles, Prince of Tyre (1984)
Plot Summary:
When Pericles discovers the dread answer to Antioch's riddle, he flees for his life straight into famine, shipwreck, love, fatherhood, and another shipwreck; he loses his wife and daughter, and doesn't find them again until the story moves us through resurrection, attempted murder, pirates, prostitution, and divine revelation.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 114
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 177 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 83%
Macbeth (1997)
Plot Summary:
In eleventh century Scotland, three witches foretell that Macbeth will become King, while Banquo will beget Kings. Macbeth accordingly has King Duncan slain, and is duly crowned in his place. But that's where his problems really begin.
IMDB Rating: 5.1
IMDB Votes: 252
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 129 min
Plot tags: independent film
Similar in 89%
King Lear (2017)
Plot Summary:
King Lear is an in-depth study of love, power and death. Through this film Shakespeare is saying, "Don't blame the gods or the heaven's for the horrors committed on earth. No. Blame hellish inhumanity on those who inhabit the earth.".
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 27
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 233 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 81%
Macbeth (1983)
Plot Summary:
Macbeth and his wife murder Duncan in order to gain his crown, but the bloodbath doesn't stop there, and things supernatural combine to bring the Macbeths down.
IMDB Rating: 6.9
IMDB Votes: 381
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 148 min
Plot tags: artsy
Similar in 80%
Richard III (1983)
Plot Summary:
Richard Duke of Gloucester, youngest brother of King Edward IV, will stop at nothing to get the crown. He first convinces the ailing King that the Duke of Clarence, his elder brother, is a threat to the lives of Edward's two young sons. Edward has him imprisoned in the Tower of London; killers in Richard's pay then drown Clarence in a barrel of wine. When news of Clarence's death reaches the King, the subsequent grief and remorse bring about his death. Richard is made Lord Protector, with power to rule England while his nephew (now King Edward V) is still a minor. Before the young king's coronation he has his two nephews conveyed to the Tower, ostensibly for their safekeeping. Richard's accomplice, the Duke of Buckingham, then declares the two boys illegitimate and offers Richard the crown, which after a show of reticence he accepts. After Richard's coronation, he and Buckingham have a falling-out over whether or not to assassinate the two children.
IMDB Rating: 8.2
IMDB Votes: 226
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 239 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 88%
Hamlet (2015)
Plot Summary:
From its sell-out run at Manchester's Royal Exchange Theatre comes a film version of this unique and critically acclaimed production of Hamlet with BAFTA-nominee Maxine Peake in the title role. This ground-breaking stage production, directed by Sarah Frankcom, was the Royal Exchange's fastest-selling show in a decade.
IMDB Rating: 6.7
IMDB Votes: 129
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 184 min
Plot tags: psychological, atmospheric, serious, captivating, contemplative, gloomy
Similar in 83%
Hamlet (2009)
Plot Summary:
David Tennant stars in a film of the Royal Shakespeare Company's award-winning production of Shakespeare's great play. Director Gregory Doran's modern-dress production was hailed by the critics as thrilling, fast-moving and, in parts, very funny.
IMDB Rating: 8.1
IMDB Votes: 4000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Japan, USA
Duration: 180 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, emotional, stylized, crying, sincere, realistic, contemplative, gloomy, period drama
Similar in 81%
The Tragedy of Coriolanus (1984)
Plot Summary:
BBC rendition of Shakespeare's Coriolanus.
IMDB Rating: 7.4
IMDB Votes: 136
Genere: Drama, History
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 145 min
Plot tags:
Similar in 77%
Othello (1965)
Plot Summary:
The 1965 version of the Shakespeare play.
IMDB Rating: 7.0
IMDB Votes: 2000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 165 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, clever, serious, emotional, realistic, vintage
Similar in 76%
King Lear (1970)
Plot Summary:
King Lear, old and tired, divides his kingdom among his daughters, giving great importance to their protestations of love for him. When Cordelia, youngest and most honest, refuses to idly flatter the old man in return for favor, he banishes her and turns for support to his remaining daughters. But Goneril and Regan have no love for him and instead plot to take all his power from him. In a parallel, Lear's loyal courtier Gloucester favors his illegitimate son Edmund after being told lies about his faithful son Edgar. Madness and tragedy befall both ill-starred fathers.
IMDB Rating: 7.2
IMDB Votes: 925
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, Denmark
Duration: 137 min
Plot tags: sad, independent film, bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, talky
Similar in 87%
King Lear (1983)
Plot Summary:
An aging King invites disaster when he abdicates to his corrupt, toadying daughters and rejects his one loving, but honest one.
IMDB Rating: 7.6
IMDB Votes: 853
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 158 min
Plot tags: bleak, serious, emotional, realistic, contemplative, talky
Similar in 82%
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark (1980)
Plot Summary:
Hamlet comes home from university to find his uncle married to his mother, and his father's ghost haunting the battlements and scaring the watch. Then his father's ghost directs him to seek revenge.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 653
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 210 min
Plot tags: atmospheric, serious, captivating, realistic, gloomy
Similar in 85%
Hamlet (1964)
Plot Summary:
A stage production of Hamlet filmed at the Lunt-Fontanne Theatre in New York.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 510
Genere: Drama
Country: USA
Duration: 191 min
Plot tags: light, atmospheric, sexy, thought provoking, enigmatic, breathtaking, melancholic, dramatic, affectionate, witty
Similar in 78%
Hamlet (1996)
Plot Summary:
Hamlet, Prince of Denmark, returns home to find his father murdered and his mother remarrying the murderer, his uncle. Meanwhile, war is brewing.
IMDB Rating: 7.7
IMDB Votes: 40000
Genere: Drama
Country: UK, USA
Duration: 242 min
Plot tags: stylized, costume drama, atmospheric, captivating, serious, period piece, epic, fairy tale, sad, visually appealing
Similar in 83%
National Theatre Live: Macbeth (2013)
Plot Summary:
Performing from within the walls of a deconsecrated Manchester church, Kenneth Branagh takes the lead role in this ambitious production of William Shakespeare's tragic tale of ambition and treachery.
IMDB Rating: 7.9
IMDB Votes: 415
Genere: Drama
Country: UK
Duration: 140 min
Plot tags: psychological, captivating, suspense, tense, atmospheric, period drama