Keep it Simple

All it takes to adapt Shakespeare well to the screen is to keep production value simple, and emphasize the acting. This film proves that.

Look at Hamlet: Kenneth Branagh's Hamlet is good, but Laurence Olivier's is better. Both give good performances, but Brannagh's movie relies too much on heavy production, sets, colours, etc. taking away from the simple claustrophobic psychological drama that Hamlet is. Olivier's captures the size, feel and atmosphere perfectly.

The same can be said by comparing this good Juilius Caesar to Charleton Heston's bad one.