Romeo and Juliet (1968)

Romeo and Juliet is one of Shakespeare's most famous plays but its not necessarily one of his best. It's simplicity makes it one that can easily mess up in its adaptation without the proper interpretation of the source material. Luckily Franco Zeffirelli is a bit of a master of the Shakespeare adaptation. Now visually speaking Zeffirelli adaptation are often quite captivating as he seems to attempt to represent the approximate time of the actual story in terms of costuming and sets, and just do that in a way that is visually appealing. Zeffirelli accomplishes that. Zeffirelli's skill goes beyond an effective visual representation in his interpretation of the play. One pivotal choice her makes is in the casting of the leads who are both properly young, as this version keeps in mind the foolishness of young love. It is not that it mocks them, but rather ensures a better understanding of their actions. Now even though its a tragedy Zeffirelli is mindful of lack of nuance in terms of certain elements of the story, and keeps a lighter touch with the material. It's a intelligent choice as Zeffirelli shows the bad decisions throughout the story mainly come from people just not taking time to think things through properly. This is best realized by his brilliant representation of the duel between Mercutio and Tybalt, which is as comedic as tragic, and in the end more about ego than hatred. It's in many ways a daring adaptation, almost covertly so, and an absolute success.
5/5

Where Eagles's Dare

Where Eagle's Dare is an offering of the off-shoot genre type of war film that was popular in the 60's, that being the men on the mission type of story. This is the very best example of that type of film that I have seen. It makes for one memorable pairing of Richard Burton and Clint Eastwood. This film pretty effectively pares them down to their best individual features as a performer. That being Burton's eloquent voice, which is used so well particularly in one long monologue that makes a whole lot of exposition rather wonderful, and Clint Eastwood's steely glances which are well suited for his soldier who most often pulls the trigger while having very little to say. The action is a whole lot of fun, but so is the dialogue here. It manages quite the engaging plot involving multiple spies, and I especially love the final confrontation between Burton and the top spy which involves no shooting though it has quite the memorable conclusion. It's simply great entertainment from beginning to end.
5/5

Kill!

Kihachi Okamoto proves himself to be quite visually compelling filmmaker with Kill! which is his own adaptation of the same material on which Kurosawa's material was based. It's pretty fascinating to see another take on the material, since its also manages to make a strong film while never really feeling like its following the same beats as Sanjuro. This is helped in part by the change of two protagonists one a hapless farmer desiring to be a samurai, and a samurai not wishing to be one. The samurai being played very charismatic fashion by Tatsuya Nakadai who played the villain in the previous adaptation. It also has a comic tone like Sanjuro, though I'd say a bit darker in tone, than that later film, and wholly makes it work being a very engaging thriller while being quite funny. Kill! is proof that in the right hands there's nothing wrong with a remake. 

5/5