One of most purely entertaining of all Shakespeare films, Richard Loncraine’s Richard III is a giddy, thrilling explication of evil. In one of his greatest screen roles, Ian McKellen is reptilian and seductive as the deformed Richard: when he addresses the camera directly, as he does throughout the film, it’s difficult not to sense the clammy allure that being very, very bad has for him. Set in an alternate England that feels very much like 1930s Nazi Germany, the film moves like an express train, and when it’s over the viewer feels exhausted and — having spent so much time in the presence of McKellen’s lizard king — perhaps a little dirty.
See also: Laurence Olivier’s Richard III (1955), a quite good movie that’s especially notable for Olivier’s characterization (and vocalization) of Richard — a persona that John Lydon claimed inspired his own twistedly charming alter ego, Johnny Rotten.
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pjJEXkbeL-o]